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The cutting a fetus into pieces within the womb, so as to effect its removal.

ceived (into); to put in; to insert; to cause to be admitted; as, to enter a knife into a piece of wood, a wedge into a log; to enter a boy at college, a horse for a race, etc.

Consisting of a single piece, as a corolla.

A dance, piece of music, or interlude, performed between two acts of a drama.

A centerpiece for table decoration, usually consisting of several dishes or receptacles of different sizes grouped together in an ornamental design.

In insects: The lateral piece behind the episternum. [Written also epimerum.]

One of the lateral pieces next to the sternum in the thorax of insects.

A massive piece of stone or wood laid immediately on the abacus of the capital of a column or pillar; -- now called architrave.

by a perfect clock going uniformly all the year round. -- Equation clock or watch, a timepiece made to exhibit the differences between mean solar and apparent solar time. Knight. -- Normal equation. See under Normal. -- Personal equation (Astron.), the difference between an observed result and the true qualities or…

One who, or that which, erases; esp., a sharp instrument or a piece of rubber used to erase writings, drawings, etc.

The contrivance in a timepiece which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration.

A piece of furniture used as a writing table, commonly with drawers, pigeonholes, and the like; a secretary or writing desk.

the worth or talents of a person. It is by the weight of silver, and not the name of the piece, that men estimate commodities and exchange them. Locke. It is always very difficult to estimate the age in which you are living. J. C. Shairp.

A piece of furniture having a number of uninclosed shelves or stages, one above another, for receiving articles of elegance or use. Fairholt.

A study; an exercise; a piece for practice of some special point of technical execution.

Examination; inquiry. [R.] "A critical examen of the two pieces." Cowper.

To perform, as a piece of music, either on an instrument or with the voice; as, to execute a difficult part brilliantly.

forming on an instrument, of engraving, etc.; as, the execution of a statue, painting, or piece of music. The first quality of execution is truth. Ruskin.

To separate and come off in scales or laminæ, as pieces of carious bone or of bark.

An afterpiece of a comic description, either a farce or a travesty.