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Any instrument used to gather or take by dragging; as: (a) A dragnet for taking up oysters, etc., from their beds. (b) A dredging machine. (c) An iron frame, with a fine net attached, used in collecting animals living at the bottom of the sea.

An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.

That which falls in drops; the excrement or dung of animals. Dropping bottle, an instrument used to supply small quantities of a fluid to a test tube or other vessel. -- Dropping fire, a continued irregular discharge of firearms. -- Dropping tube, a tube for ejecting any liquid in drops.

An instrument for measuring the quantity of dew on the surface of a body in the open air. It consists of a balance, having a plate at one end to receive the dew, and at the other a weight protected from the deposit of dew.

An instrument of 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…

An instrument for accurately determining the ductility of metals.

A composition for two performers, whether vocal or instrumental.

An instrument, having stretched metallic wires which are beaten with two light hammers held in the hands of the performer.

An original instrument repeated; a document which is the same as another in all essential particulars, and differing from a mere copy in having all the validity of an original. Burrill.

An instrument for measuring the degree of hardness; especially, an instrument for testing the relative hardness of steel rails and the like.

An instrument for measuring the intensity of the photogenic (light-producing) rays, and computing the power of object glasses.

An instrument for determining the magnifying power of telescopes, consisting usually of a doubleimage micrometer applied to the eye end of a telescope for measuring accurately the diameter of the image of the object glass there formed; which measurement, compared with the actual diameter of the glass, gives the magnify…

ating to a dynamometer, or to the measurement of force doing work; as, dynamometrical instruments.

and allied genera. -- Ear stones (Anat.), otoliths. See Otolith. -- Ear trumpet, an instrument to aid in hearing. It consists of a tube broad at the outer end, and narrowing to a slender extremity which enters the ear, thus collecting and intensifying sounds so as to assist the hearing of a partially deaf person. --…

An instrument for removing wax from the ear.

See Cerumen.

An instrument for observing the boiling point of liquids, especially for determining the alcoholic strength of a mixture by the temperature at which it boils.

An instrument for intensifying sounds produced by percussion of the thorax. Knight.

An instrument intended to replace the knife in many operations, the parts operated on being severed by the crushing effect produced by the gradual tightening of a steel chain, so that hemorrhage rarely follows.

The thin cutting side of the blade of an instrument; as, the edge of an ax, knife, sword, or scythe. Hence, figuratively, that which cuts as an edge does, or wounds deeply, etc. He which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Rev. ii. 12. Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword. Shak.