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The contrivance in a timepiece which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration.

A piece of furniture used as a writing table, commonly with drawers, pigeonholes, and the like; a secretary or writing desk.

One who espies; a spy; a scout. [Obs.] "Their espials . . . brought word." Holland.

The practice or employment of spies; the practice of watching the words and conduct of others, to make discoveries, as spies or secret emissaries; secret watching.

a crowd. As one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, . . . he espied his money. Gen. xlii. 27. A goodly vessel did I then espy Come like a giant from a haven broad. Wordsworth.

the worth or talents of a person. It is by the weight of silver, and not the name of the piece, that men estimate commodities and exchange them. Locke. It is always very difficult to estimate the age in which you are living. J. C. Shairp.

A piece of furniture having a number of uninclosed shelves or stages, one above another, for receiving articles of elegance or use. Fairholt.

A study; an exercise; a piece for practice of some special point of technical execution.

Examination; inquiry. [R.] "A critical examen of the two pieces." Cowper.

An extract; a passage selected or copied from a book or record.

To perform, as a piece of music, either on an instrument or with the voice; as, to execute a difficult part brilliantly.

forming on an instrument, of engraving, etc.; as, the execution of a statue, painting, or piece of music. The first quality of execution is truth. Ruskin.

A model, original, or pattern, to be copied or imitated; a specimen; sometimes; an ideal model or type, as that which an artist conceives. Such grand exemplar as make their own abilities the sole measure of what is fit or unfit. South.

To separate and come off in scales or laminæ, as pieces of carious bone or of bark.

An afterpiece of a comic description, either a farce or a travesty.

That property of a body by which it occupies a portion of space.

Eyepiece of a telescope, microscope, etc.

A small, sharp-pointed instrument used in piercing eyelet holes; a stiletto.

now that in the soul Are many lesser faculties that serve Reason as chief. Milton. What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! Shak.

A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a pile.