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One who puts a certain construction upon some writing or instrument, as the Constitutions of the United States; as, a strict constructionist; a broad constructionist.

other; -- used in precise determinations of lengths and in the accurate graduation of instruments.

, n. (Mus.) Double bass; -- applied to any instrument of the same deep range as the stringed double bass; as, the contrabass ophicleide; the cotrabass tuba or bombardon.

The instrument or means of carrying or transporting anything from place to place; the vehicle in which, or means by which, anything is carried from one place to another; as, stagecoaches, omnibuses, etc., are conveyances; a canal or aqueduct is a conveyance for water. There pipes and these conveyances of our blood. Sha…

That which cores; an instrument for coring fruit; as, an apple corer.

An instrument with a screw or a steel spiral for drawing corks from bottles. Corkscrew starts, a spiral staircase around a solid newel.

A wind instrument nearly identical with the bagpipe. Drayton.

An obsolete rude reed instrument (Ger. Zinken), of the oboe family. (b) A brass instrument, with cupped mouthpiece, and furnished with valves or pistons, now used in bands, and, in place of the trumpet, in orchestras. See Cornet-à-piston. (c) A certain organ stop or register.

A brass wind instrument, like the trumpet, furnished with valves moved by small pistons or sliding rods; a cornopean; a cornet.

A reed instrument, related to the oboe, but deeper in pitch; the English horn.

An allowance made for inaccuracy in an instrument; as, chronometer correction; compass correction. Correction line (Surv.), a parallel used as a new base line in laying out township in the government lands of the United States. The adoption at certain intervals of a correction line is necessitated by the convergence of…

An instrument resembling the astrolabe, formerly used for measuring the angles between heavenly bodies; -- called also pantacosm.

An instrument (chisel or shears) to cut the ribs and open the thoracic cavity, in post-mortem examinations and dissections. Knight.

Any instrument by which electricity can be measured in coulombs.

One of two corresponding copies of an instrument; a duplicate.

To sign on the opposite side of (an instrument or writing); hence, to sign in addition to the signature of a principal or superior, in order to attest the authenticity of a writing.

Iron insruments with sharp points, worn on the shoes to assist in gaining or keeping a foothold.

o cause to rise; to raise or lift, as by a crane; -- with up. [R.] What engines, what instruments are used in craning up a soul, sunk below the center, to the highest heavens. Bates. An upstart craned up to the height he has. Massinger.

An instrument for crushing the head of a fetus, to facilitate delivery in difficult eases.

An instrument for measuring the size of skulls.