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A piece of wood or metal, commonly wedge-shaped, used for fastening together parts of a machine or structure. It is driven into an opening through one or all of the parts.

A piece of timber having a groove in which something glides.

A piece of metal, ivory, wood, or bone, used in reckoning, in keeping account of games, etc. The old gods of our own race whose names . . . serve as counters reckon the days of the week. E. B. Tylor. What comes the wool to . . . I can not do it witthout counters. Shak.

Paly, and then divided fesswise, so that each vertical piece is cut into two, having the colors used alternately or counterchanged. Thus the escutcheon in the illustration may also be blazoned paly of six per fess counterchanged argent and azure.

by passing the false for the true; as, the bank note was a counterfeit. Never call a true piece of gold a counterfeit. Shak. Some of these counterfeits are fabricated with such exquisite taste and skill, that it is the achievement of criticism to distinguish them from originals. Macaulay.

the enemy such advantage that the troops occupying it must either surrender or be cut to pieces. Farrow.

A piece of music in triple time; also, a lively dance; a coranto.

A square piece of linen used formerly by women instead of a cap; a kerchief. [Scot.] [Written also curch.] Jamieson.

y, . . . as the tenant should direct. L'Estrange. And they covenanted with him for thyrty pieces of silver. Matt. xxvi. 15.

The uppermost cover of a bed or of any piece of furniture. Lay her in lilies and in violets . . . And odored sheets and arras coverlets. Spenser.

Cutting a cask into two pieces lengthwise, to enable it to pass a narrow place, the two parts being afterward united and rehooped.

The neck piece or scrag of mutton. Johnson.

A piece of wood having a curve corresponding to that of the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape.

Having a cramp or square piece at the end; -- said of a cross so furnished.

A clutch formed of hooked pieces of iron, like double calipers, for raising stones, lumber, blocks of ice, etc.

crank or cranks, as in some kinds of locomotives. -- Crank pin (Mach.), the cylindrical piece which forms the handle, or to which the connecting rod is attached, at the end of a crank, or between the arms of a double crank. -- Crank shaft, a shaft bent into a crank, or having a crank fastened to it, by which it driv…

To break in pieces; to crack. [Obs.] "The pot was crased." Chaucer.

To break in pieces violently; to dash together with noise and violence. [R.] He shakt his head, and crasht his teeth for ire. Fairfax.

A neckcloth; a piece of silk, fine muslin, or other cloth, worn by men about the neck. While his wig was combed and his cravat tied. Macualay.

To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See Crase. God, looking forth, will trouble all his host, And craze their chariot wheels. Milton.