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An instrument devised by Hermann, for regulating and measuring the thickness of a layer of blood for spectroscopic examination.

A handle; that part of an instrument or vessel taken into the hand, and by which it is held and used; -- said chiefly of a knife, sword, or dagger; the hilt. This brandish'dagger I'll bury to the haft in her fair breast. Dryden.

hand, between the open position and the first shift, in playing on the violin and kindred instruments. See Shift. -- Half step (Mus.), a semitone; the smallest difference of pitch or interval, used in music. -- Half tide, the time or state of the tide equally distant from ebb and flood. -- Half time, half the ordina…

An instrument for measuring the forms and angles of salts and crystals; a goniometer.

An instrument for exhibition or illustration of the phenomena of halos, parhelia, and the like.

An instrument for driving nails, beating metals, and the like, consisting of a head, usually of steel or iron, fixed crosswise to a handle. With busy hammers closing rivets up. Shak.

That part of vessels, instruments, etc., which is held in the hand when used or moved, as the haft of a sword, the knob of a door, the bail of a kettle, etc.

A musical instrument, consisting of a series of hemispherical glasses which, by touching the edges with the dampened finger, give forth the tones.

A small, flat, wind instrument of music, in which the notes are produced by the vibration of free metallic reeds.

An obsolete wind instrument with a keyboard, in which the sound, which resembled the oboe, was produced by the vibration of thin metallic plates, acted upon by blowing through a tube.

A musical instrument, resembling a small organ and especially designed for church music, in which the tones are produced by forcing air by means of a bellows so as to cause the vibration of free metallic reeds. It is now made with one or two keyboards, and has pedals and stops.

An instrument for measuring the harmonic relations of sounds. It is often a monochord furnished with movable bridges.

A musical instrument consisting of a triangular frame furnished with strings and sometimes with pedals, held upright, and played with the fingers.

A harp-shaped instrument of music set horizontally on legs, like the grand piano, with strings of wire, played by the fingers, by means of keys provided with quills, instead of hammers, for striking the strings. It is now superseded by the piano.

ow. See under 6th Drill. -- Under the harrow, subjected to actual torture with a toothed instrument, or to great affliction or oppression.

An instrument for cutting the surface of grass land; a scarifier.

An instrument with long iron teeth set in a board, for cleansing flax or hemp from the tow, hards, or coarse part; a kind of large comb; -- called also hackle and heckle.

A wind instrument, sounded through a reed, and similar in shape to the clarinet, but with a thinner tone. Now more commonly called oboe. See Illust. of Oboe.

in plants. It is also called hay asthma, hay cold, and rose fever. -- Hay knife, a sharp instrument used in cutting hay out of a stack or mow. -- Hay press, a press for baling loose hay. -- Hay tea, the juice of hay extracted by boiling, used as food for cattle, etc. -- Hay tedder, a machine for spreading and turni…

An instrument for drawing spiral lines on a plane.