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percussion, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each 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 or…

A judicial process commanding a person to appear in court and bring with him some piece of evidence or other thing to be produced to the court.

are passed from one room or story of a house to another; a lift for dishes, etc.; also, a piece of furniture with movable or revolving shelves.

A thick, ill-shapen piece; a clumsy leaden counter used by boys in playing chuck farthing. [Eng.] Smart.

From Dump a short ill-shapen piece.

ing off, screwing, and surfacing, by means of two cutting tools, on opposite sides of the piece operated upon. -- Duplex pumping engine, a steam pump in which two steam cylinders are placed side by side, one operating the valves of the other. -- Duplex querela Etym: [L., double complaint] (Eccl. Law), a complaint in…

A piece of wood set between two studs, posts, etc., to stiffen and support them.

; a handle; as, the ears of a tub, a skillet, or dish. The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow. See Illust. of Bell.

, earthy matter. How pale she looks, And of an earthy cold! Shak. All over earthy, like a piece of earth. Tennyson.

or nearly upright, for the painter's convenience or for exhibition. Easel picture, Easel piece, a painting of moderate size such as is made while resting on an easel, as distinguished from a painting on a wall or ceiling.

A piece of money coined in the east by Richard II. of England. Crabb.

In the direction of the edge. [Obs.] Three hundred thousand pieces have you stuck Edgelong into the ground. B. Jonson.

The operation of shaping or dressing the edge of anything, as of a piece of metal. Edging machine, a machine tool with a revolving cutter, for dressing edges, as of boards, or metal plates, to a pattern or templet.

dd to; to augment; -- now commonly used with out, the notion conveyed being to add to, or piece out by a laborious, inferior, or scanty addition; as, to eke out a scanty supply of one kind with some other. "To eke my pain." Spenser. He eked out by his wits an income of barely fifty pounds. Macaulay.…

A lengthening or filling piece to make good a deficiency in length.

; the air is elastic; India rubber is elastic. Capable of being drawn out by force like a piece of elastic gum, and by its own elasticity returning, when the force is removed, to its former position. Paley.

lessen; to detract from; to disparage. [A Latin meaning] [Obs.] Jer. Taylor. To elevate a piece (Gun.), to raise the muzzle; to lower the breech.

The movement of the axis of a piece in a vertical plane; also, the angle of elevation, that is, the angle between the axis of the piece and the line odirection.

To break or dash in pieces; to demolish; as, to elide the force of an argument. [Obs.] Hooker.

The mouthpiece of a wind instrument.