Search the Dictionary

Contrariety of nature; diversity in quality. [Obs.] The dissent of the metals. Bacon.

only of witch hazel, with forked branches, used by those who pretend to discover water or metals under ground.

t or practice of applying tests to ascertain the nature, quality, etc., of objects, as of metals or ores, of medicines, or of facts pertaining to physiology.

Proving by experiments or tests. Docimastic art, metallurgy, or the art of assaying metals; the art of separating metals from foreign matters, and determining the nature and quantity of metallic substances contained in any ore or mineral.

A treatise on the art of testing, as in assaying metals, etc.

A pin, or block, of wood or metal, fitting into holes in the abutting portions of two pieces, and being partly in one piece and partly in the other, to keep them in their proper relative position.

To extend in length; to lengthen; to protract; to stretch; to extend, as a mass of metal into wire. How long her face is drawn! Shak. And the huge Offa's dike which he drew from the mouth of Wye to that of Dee. J. R. Green.

A machine in which strips of metal are drawn through a drawplate; especially, one in which wire is thus made; -- also called drawing bench.

The process of stretching or spreading metals as by hammering, or, as in forming wire from rods or tubes and cups from sheet metal, by pulling them through dies.

to dress a horse, by currying and rubbing; to dress grain, by cleansing it; in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores, by sorting and separating them.

A slightly tapered tool of steel for enlarging or shaping a hole in metal, by being forced or driven into or through it; a broach.

ll, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.

A machine for drilling holes in metal, the drill being pressed to the metal by the action of a screw.

The scum or refuse matter which is thrown off, or falls from, metals in smelting the ore, or in the process of melting; recrement.

h end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (kettledrum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten; the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra, or cavalry band. The drums cry bud-a-dub. Gascoigne…

or drawn out, as into wire or threads. Gold . . . is the softest and most ductile of all metals. Dryden. -- Duc"tile*ly, adv. -- Duc"tile*ness, n.

An instrument for accurately determining the ductility of metals.

The property of a metal which allows it to be drawn into wires or filaments.

An instrument, having stretched metallic wires which are beaten with two light hammers held in the hands of the performer.

Power of lasting, enduring, or resisting; durability. The durableness of the metal that supports it. Addison.