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A person of a keen, irritable temper. To catch a tartar, to lay hold of, or encounter, a person who proves too strong for the assailant. [Colloq.]

One who keeps a tavern. Chaucer. Camden.

The keeper of a tavern; also, a tippler. [Obs.]

A royalty or privilege granted by royal charter to a lord of a manor, of having, keeping, and judging in his court, his bondmen, neifes, and villains, and their offspring, or suit, that is, goods and chattels, and appurtenances thereto. Burrill.

A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees, as factory hands, watchmen, drivers, check takers, and the like, by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted.

Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure; as, to keep one's temper. To fall with dignity, with temper rise. Pope. Restore yourselves to your tempers, fathers. B. Jonson.

A contrivence used in a loom for keeping the web stretched transversely.

That quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; -- as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.

To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent; as, to tent a wound. Used also figuratively. I'll tent him to the quick. Shak.

by the bedposts. No testers to the bed, and the saddles and portmanteaus heaped on me to keep off the cold. Walpole.

ated as a heavy, soft, bluish white metal, easily oxidized in moist air, but preserved by keeping under water. Symbol Tl. Atomic weight 203.7.

The act or art of covering buildings with thatch; so as to keep out rain, snow, etc.

To have a thirst for. [R.] He seeks his keeper's flesh, and thirsts his blood. Prior.

purpose, or intention. Thus Bethel spoke, who always speaks his thought. Pope. Why do you keep alone, . . . Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on Shak. Thoughts come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only difficulty is to choose or to reject. Dryden. All their thoughts are agains…

od order; orderly; appropriate; neat; kept in proper and becoming neatness, or habitually keeping things so; as, a tidy lass; their dress is tidy; the apartments are well furnished and tidy. A tidy man, that tened [injured] me never. Piers Plowman.

wo parts together; in railways, one of the transverse timbers which support the track and keep it in place.

whole; neat; tidy. Clad very plain, but clean and tight. Evelyn. I'll spin and card, and keep our children tight. Gay.

The operation, practice, or art of tilling or preparing land for seed, and keeping the ground in a proper state for the growth of crops.

A rib, or a curving piece of wood, branching outward from the keel and bending upward in a vertical direction. One timber is composed of several pieces united. Timber and room. (Shipbuilding) Same as Room and space. See under Room. -- Timber beetle (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of beetles the larvæ of which bor…

re; tempo; rate of movement; rhythmical division; as, common or triple time; the musician keeps good time. Some few lines set unto a solemn time. Beau. & Fl.