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thing, as the hand of a watch, a movable finger on a gauge, scale, or other graduated instrument. In printing, a sign [*] used to direct particular attention to a note or paragraph; -- called also fist.

A pressure gauge; a water gauge, as for a steam boiler; an apparatus or instrument for showing the working of a machine or moving part; as:

An instrument for ascertaining the strength of an indigo solution, as in volumetric analysis. Ure.

The act of writing on the back of a note, bill, or other written instrument.

An instrument for measuring or ascertaining the degree or rate of electrical induction.

f the inhabitants of hell; hellish; diabolical; as, infernal spirits, or conduct. The instruments or abettors in such infernal dealings. Addison. Infernal machine, a machine or apparatus maliciously designed to explode, and destroy life or property. -- Infernal stone (lapis infernalis), lunar caustic; formerly so call…

Conducive; instrumental. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

d health The tender crops. Chaucer. Descend, ye Nine, descend and sing, The breathing instruments inspire. Pope.

That which integrates; esp., an instrument by means of which the area of a figure can be measured directly, or its moment of inertia, or statical moment, etc., be determined.

The true meaning, understanding, or intention of a law, or of any legal instrument.

An instrument for measuring small movements, distances, or displacements by means of the interference of two beams of light; -- called also refractometer.

A short piece of instrumental music played between the parts of a song or cantata, or the acts of a drama; especially, in church music, a short passage played by the organist between the stanzas of a hymn, or in German chorals after each line.

An intervening agent or instrument. Cowper.

ce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine. Thus first Necessity invented stools. Cowper.

An instrument or utensil made of iron; -- chiefly in composition; as, a flatiron, a smoothing iron, etc. My young soldier, put up your iron. Shak.

aws being thrown confusedly together on a table, to be gathered up singly by a hooked instrument, without touching or disturbing the rest of the pile. See Spilikin.

To strike or stab with a pointed instrument. L'Estrange.

An instrument invented by Professor Wheatstone, consisting of a reflecting knob at the end of a vibrating rod or thin plate, for making visible, in the motion of a point of light reflected from the knob, the paths or curves corresponding with the musical notes produced by the vibrations.

An instrument invented by Sir David Brewster, which contains loose fragments of colored glass, etc., and reflecting surfaces so arranged that changes of position exhibit its contents in an endless variety of beautiful colors and symmetrical forms. It has been much employed in arts of design. Shifting like the fragments…

A kind of toy or rude musical instrument, as a tube inside of which is a stretched string made to vibrate by singing or humming into the tube.