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A switch or rod used by thatchers to bind their work. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

To be overflowed or drenched. Ps. vi. 6. Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim. Thomson.

Especially, to attach or secure in a slight or hasty manner, as by stitching or nailing; as, to tack together the sheets of a book; to tack one piece of cloth to another; to tack on a board or shingle; to tack one piece of metal to another by drops of solder.

turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out another way; but all was to return in a higher pitch. Sir P. Sidney.

1. (d) To gather together; to bind up; to fasten or to replace; as, to take up raveled stitches; specifically (Surg.), to fasten with a ligature. (e) To engross; to employ; to occupy or fill; as, to take up the time; to take up a great deal of room. (f) To take permanently. "Arnobius asserts that men of the finest par…

n a sewing machine for drawing up the slack thread as the needle rises, in completing a stitch.

A piece of wood or sheet metal fitted into a ditch to dam up the water so as to overflow a field. [U. S.]

A conspicuous disk attached to a switch lever to show its position, or for use as a signal.

A kind of lace made from common sewing thread, with a peculiar stitch. Tatting shuttle, the shuttle on which the thread used in tatting is wound.

ls required for a tea table, -- when of silver, usually comprising only the teapot, milk pitcher, and sugar dish. -- Tea set, a tea service. -- Tea table, a table on which tea furniture is set, or at which tea is drunk. -- Tea taster, one who tests or ascertains the quality of tea by tasting. -- Tea tree (Bot.), th…

receiving instrument similar or analogous to the telephone, but not held to the ear. The pitch corresponds with frequency of alternation of current.

erament. Equal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations from mathematically true pitch are distributed among all the keys alike. -- Unequal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations are thrown into the keys least used.

An outwork in the main ditch, in front of the curtain, between two bastions. See Illust. of Ravelin.

h side of the ravelins, to increase their strength, procure additional ground beyond the ditch, or cover the shoulders of the bastions.

A device for checking the delivery of the thread in a sewing machine, so as to give the stitch the required degree of tightness.

A combination of wax, resin, lard, and pitch, composing an ointment. Brande & C.

One of the two long pieces of wood, extending before a vehicle, between which a horse is hitched; a shaft.

A contracted portion of a vessel, or of a passage way; as, the throat of a pitcher or vase.

e freedom than if it sat in his noose, which, when he pleases to draw together with one twitch of his negative, shall throttle a whole nation, to the wish of Caligula, in one neck. Milton.

otion of certain muscles; especially, such a motion of some of the muscles of the face; twitching; velication; -- called also spasmodic tic. Dunglison. Tic douloureux (. Etym: [F., fr. tic a knack, a twitching + douloureux painful.] (Med.) Neuralgia in the face; face ague. See under Face.