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-- Flat chisel, a sculptor's chisel for smoothing. -- Flat file, a file wider than its thickness, and of rectangular section. See File. -- Flat nail, a small, sharp-pointed, wrought nail, with a flat, thin head, larger than a tack. Knight. -- Flat paper, paper which has not been folded. -- Flat rail, a railroad r…

ing screed (Plastering), a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat. -- Floating threads (Weaving), threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.

howing a ship as divided at the water line. (b) (Arch.) A horizontal section, showing the thickness of the walls and partitions, arrangement of passages, apartments, and openings at the level of any floor of a house.

To soften and make of even thickness by rubbing, as with pumice stone or a blunt instrument. Frizzing machine. (a) (Fabrics) A machine for frizzing the surface of cloth. (b) (Wood Working) A bench with a revolving cutter head slightly protruding above its surface, for dressing boards.

rface; an anemometer. -- Wire gauge, a gauge for determining the diameter of wire or the thickness of sheet metal; also, a standard of size. See under Wire.

The state or quality of being gross; thickness; corpulence; coarseness; shamefulness. Abhor the swinish grossness that delights to wound the' ear of delicacy. Dr. T. Dwight.

An instrument devised by Hermann, for regulating and measuring the thickness of a layer of blood for spectroscopic examination.

To join, as two pieces of timber, by cutting away each for half its thickness at the joining place, and fitting together.

quality of being heavy in its various senses; weight; sadness; sluggishness; oppression; thickness.

s, and other rocks, whose crystallization is believed of have taken place beneath a great thickness of overlying rocks. Opposed to epigene.

The thickness of the layer or body of pigment applied by the painter to his canvas with especial reference to the juxtaposition of different colors and tints in forming a harmonious whole. Fairholt.

Measurement an inch in any dimension, whether length, breadth, or thickness; -- used in composition; as, a two-inch cable; a four- inch plank. Inch stuff, boards, etc., sawed one inch thick.

That which is laid; a stratum; a bed; one thickness, course, or fold laid over another; as, a layer of clay or of sand in the earth; a layer of bricks, or of plaster; the layers of an onion.

linen thread or string; a slender, strong cord; also, a cord of any thickness; a rope; a hawser; as, a fishing line; a line for snaring birds; a clothesline; a towline. Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls. Piers Plowman.

Length; measure or distance along the longest line; -- distinguished from breadth or thickness; as, the longitude of a room; rare now, except in a humorous sense. Sir H. Wotton. The longitude of their cloaks. Sir. W. Scott. Mine [shadow] spindling into longitude immense. Cowper.

Extent of dimensions; size; -- applied to things that have length, breath, and thickness. Conceive those particles of bodies to be so disposed amongst themselves, that the intervals of empty spaces between them may be equal in magnitude to them all. Sir I. Newton.

To be of a certain size or quantity, or to have a certain length, breadth, or thickness, or a certain capacity according to a standard measure; as, cloth measures three fourths of a yard; a tree measures three feet in diameter.

tributed, and at Niagara Falls consist of about eighty feet of shale supporting a greater thickness of limestone, which is gradually undermined by the removal of the shale. See Chart of Geology.

A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament. hence, any similar position, literal or figurative. Images defended from the injuries of the weather by niches of stone wherein they are placed. Evelun.

A horizontal ledge on the face of a wall, formed by a diminution of its thickness, or by the weathering or upper surface of a part built out from it; -- called also set-off.