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instrument; a stab; -- a word much used as a term of fencing. [Polites] Pyrrhus with his lance pursues, And often reaches, and his thrusts renews. Dryden.

rge and conspicuously spotted cowrie (Cypræa tigris); -- so called from its fancied resemblance to a tiger in color and markings. Called also tiger cowrie. -- Tiger wolf (Zoöl.), the spotted hyena (Hyæna crocuta). -- Tiger wood, the variegated heartwood of a tree (Machærium Schomburgkii) found in Guiana.…

To point or thrust, as a lance. Sons against fathers tilt the fatal lance. J. Philips.

k or a horn. The lark, that tirra lyra chants. Shak. "Tirralira, " by the river, Sang Sir Lancelot. Tennyson.

A massive crane with an overhanging counterbalanced arm carrying a traveler and lifting crab, the whole supported by a carriage mounted on track rails. It is used esp. for setting heavy masonry blocks for piers, breakwaters, etc.

the genus Batrachus, having a large, thick head and a wide mouth, and bearing some resemblance to a toad. The American species (Batrachus tau) is very common in shallow water. Called also oyster fish, and sapo.

A projection, or slender appendage or fixture; as, the tongue of a buckle, or of a balance.

nd pigeon (Didunculus strigiostris) native of the Samoan Islands, and noted for its resemblance, in several characteristics, to the extinct dodo. Its beak is stout and strongly hooked, and the mandible has two or three strong teeth toward the end. or ts color is chocolate red. Called also toothbilled pigeon, and manu-m…

in a vessel of the same fluid, allowing the inclosed fluid to descend till it is counterbalanced by the pressure of the atmosphere, as in the barometer. Hutton.

moment of a pair of equal and opposite couples which tend to twist a body. -- Torsion balance (Physics.), an instrument for estimating very minute forces, as electric or magnetic attractions and repulsions, by the torsion of a very slender wire or fiber having at its lower extremity a horizontal bar or needle, upon w…

A torsion balance used for measuring electric attraction or repulsion.

That part of a torsion balance from which the wire or filament is suspended.

A kind of balance for weighing. [Obs.]

A pendulous branching lichen (Usnea barbata); -- so called from its resemblance to hair.

A species of time; -- so called from its resemblance in form to a trefoil.

To balance; to fluctuate between parties, so as to appear to favor each.

To take a quick step, as when in danger of losing one's balance; hence, to make a false; to catch the foot; to lose footing; to stumble.

and diazo hydrocarbons of the aromatic series; -- so called because of the general resemblance to the shades of nasturtium (Tropæolum).

and in form the archetype of all others. It probably owes its name to "its external resemblance to the large speaking trumpet used on board Italian vessels, which is of the same length and tapering shape." Grove. -- Trumpet shell (Zoöl.), any species of large marine univalve shells belonging to Triton and allied gener…

A sea urchin when deprived of its spines; -- popularly so called from a fancied resemblance to a turban.