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A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard. This plate must be a gauge to file your worm and groove to equal breadth by. Moxon. There is not in our hands any fixed gauge of minds. I. Taylor.

An instrument like a guitar. "Harps, lutes, and giternes." Chaucer.

A musical instrument, of unknown character, supposed by some to have been used by the people of Gath, and thence obtained by David. It is mentioned in the title of Psalms viii., lxxxi., and lxxxiv. Dr. W. Smith.

-- Glance copper, c -- Glance wood, a hard wood grown in Cuba, and used for gauging instruments, carpenters' rules, etc. McElrath.

An instrument for measuring the specific gravity and ascertaining the quantity of sugar contained in must.

An instrument for measuring the number of red blood corpuscles in the blood.

An instrument, originally a series of bells on an iron rod, now a set of flat metal bars, diatonically tuned, giving a bell-like tone when played with a mallet; a carillon.

A pointed instrument used to urge on a beast; hence, any necessity that urges or stimulates. The daily goad urging him to the daily toil. Macaulay.

A carangoid oceanic fish (Trachurops crumenophthalmus), having very large and prominent eyes; -- called also goggle-eye, big-eyed scad, and cicharra.

An instrument, first used in the East, made of an alloy of copper and tin, shaped like a disk with upturned rim, and producing, when struck, a harsh and resounding noise. O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong. Longfellow.

An instrument for measuring angles, especially the angles of crystals, or the inclination of planes. Contact, or Hand, goniometer, a goniometer having two movable arms (ab, cd), between which (at ab) the faces of the crystals are placed. These arms turn about a fixed point, which is the center of the graduated circle o…

An instrument of gaming; a sort of dice. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

To pierce or wound, as with a horn; to penetrate with a pointed instrument, as a spear; to stab. The low stumps shall gore His daintly feet. Coleridge.

A cutting instrument used in lithotomy.

for scooping or cutting holes, channels, or grooves, in wood, stone, etc.; a similar instrument, with curved edge, for turning wood.

An instrument for clutching objects for the purpose of raising them; -- specially applied to devices for withdrawing drills, etc., from artesian and other wells that are drilled, bored, or driven. Grab hag, at fairs, a bag or box holding small articles which are to be drawn, without being seen, on payment of a small su…

The marks on an instrument or vessel to indicate degrees or quantity; a scale.

One who determines or indicates graduation; as, a graduator of instruments.

An instrument by which grafting is facilitated.

An instrument for recording, preserving, and reproducing sounds, the record being a tracing of a phonautograph etched in some solid material. Reproduction is accomplished by means of a system attached to an elastic diaphragm.