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To hold firmly; to hold fast by grasping or embracing tightly. "Clinch the pointed spear." Dryden.

clumsy fingers; a clumsy gesture; a clumsy excuse. But thou in clumsy verse, unlicked, unpointed, Hast shamefully defied the Lord's anointed. Dryden.

The rounded or pointed top of a grinding mill spindle, forming a pivot on which the stone is balanced.

An officer appointed and commissioned to collect and receive customs, duties, taxes, or toll. A great part of this is now embezzled . . . by collectors, and other officers. Sir W. Temple.

ecution of some trust; as, the interstate commerce commission. A commission was at once appointed to examine into the matter. Prescott.

davits, depositions, acknowledgment of deeds, etc., for use in the State by which he is appointed. [U. S.] -- County commissioners, certain administrative officers in some of the States, invested by local laws with various powers in reference to the roads, courthouses, financial matters, etc., of the county. [U. S.]…

One or more persons elected or appointed, to whom any matter or bussiness is referred, either by a legislative body, or by a court, or by any collective body of men acting together. Commitee of the whole [house], a committee, embracing all the members present, into which a legislative or deliberative body sometimes res…

ent for describing circles, measuring figures, etc., consisting of two, or (rarely) more, pointed branches, or legs, usually joined at the top by a rivet on which they move.

y, number, or amount; a complete set; completeness. To exceed his complement and number appointed him which was one hundred and twenty persons. Hakluyt.

To act in harmony or conjunction; to form combined plans. The ministers of Denmark were appointed to concert with Talbot. Bp. Burnet

nental Congress, an assembly of deputies from the thirteen British colonies in America, appointed to deliberate in respect to their common interests. They first met in 1774, and from time thereafter until near the close of the Revolution. -- The Federal Congress, the assembly of representatives of the original States…

To cause to stand; to establish; to enact. Laws appointed and constituted by lawful authority. Jer. Taylor.

ance with the constitution or fundamental law; legally; as, he was not constitutionally appointed. Nothing would indue them to acknowledge that [such] an assembly . . . was constitutionally a Parliament. Macaulay.

An officer appointed to keep a counter register of accounts, or to examine, rectify, or verify accounts. [More commonly written controller.]

Rising to a point or head; conical; pointed; crested. Wiseman.

A body of man elected or appointed to constitute an advisory or a legislative assembly; as, a governor's council; a city council. An old lord of the council rated me the other day. Shak.

A member of council; one appointed to advise a sovereign or chief magistrate.

The succession of one to another in office or duty; order; turn. He appointed . . . the courses of the priests 2 Chron. viii. 14.

Court of Equity. See under Equity, and Chancery. -- Court of Inquiry (Mil.) , a court appointed to inquire into and report on some military matter, as the conduct of an officer. -- Court of St. James, the usual designation of the British Court; - - so called from the old palace of St. James, which is used for the ro…

A kind of hammer having a head formed of a group of pointed steel bars, used for dressing ashlar, etc. -- v. t.