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That part of the bore of a piece of ordnance which holds the charge, esp. when of different diameter from the rest of the bore; -- formerly, in guns, made smaller than the bore, but now larger, esp. in breech-loading guns.

or framelike decoration around the sides and top of a door, window, or fireplace. The top piece is called the traverse and the side pieces the ascendants.

The surface formed by cutting away the arris, or angle, formed by two faces of a piece of timber, stone, etc.

To bite into small pieces; to crunch. Steele.

A piece of champlevé enamel; also, the process or art of making such enamel work; champlevé work.

The piece by which an object is attached to something, as the frog of a scabbard or the metal loop at the back of a buckle by which it is fastened to a strap.

A bent piece of sheet iron, or a pin with thin plates on its ends, for holding a core in place in the mold.

To place within or upon any firearm, piece of apparatus or machinery, the quantity it is intended and fitted to hold or bear; to load; to fill; as, to charge a gun; to charge an electrical machine, etc. Their battering cannon charged to the mouths. Shak.

A kind of pie or pudding made by lining a dish with slices of bread, and filling it with bread soaked in milk, and baked. Charlotte Russe (, or Charlotte à la russe Etym: [F., lit., Russian charlotte] (Cookery), a dish composed of custard or whipped cream, inclosed in sponge cake.

The art of ornamenting metal by means of chasing tools; also, a piece of ornamental work produced in this way.

e priest in saying Mass, consisting, in the Roman Catholic Church, of a broad, flat, back piece, and a narrower front piece, the two connected over the shoulders only. The back has usually a large cross, the front an upright bar or pillar, designed to be emblematical of Christ's sufferings. In the Greek Church the chas…

t resemble language, but are inarticulate and indistinct. The jaw makes answer, as the magpie chatters. Wordsworth.

r; such a menace of a player's king by an adversary's move as would, if it were any other piece, expose it to immediate capture. A king so menaced is said to be in check, and must be made safe at the next move.

A piece in the game of draughts or checkers.

Those pieces of a machine, or of any timber, or stone work, which form corresponding sides, or which are similar and in pair; as, the cheeks (jaws) of a vise; the cheeks of a gun carriage, etc.

A masterpiece; a capital work in art, literature, etc.

The process of forming an artificial tip or part of a lip, by using for the purpose a piece of healthy tissue taken from some neighboring part.

A piece used in the game of chess.

A piece of oak bolted perpendicularly on the side of a vessel, to aid in drawing down and securing the clew of the mainsail.

A piece of timber or an iron barrel traversed with iron-pointed spikes or spears, five or six feet long, used to defend a passage, stop a breach, or impede the advance of cavalry, etc. Obstructions of chain, boom, and cheval-de-frise. W. Irving.