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A commissioned or noncommissioned officer posted in the rear of a line, or on the flank of a column, of soldiers, to rectify mistakes and insure steadiness and promptness in the ranks.

walls of masonry, the pores of open-grained wood, the space between the outer and inner planks of a vessel, etc.

beam, mast, etc.), or unite end to end (two timbers, railroad rails, etc.) by bolting a plank, timber, or plate to the beam, mast, or timbers, lengthwise on one or both sides. See Fish joint, under Fish, n. To fish the anchor. (Naut.) See under Anchor.

One of several planks, smaller timbers, or iron plates, which are secured together, side by side, to make a large girder or built beam.

place. -- Floating bridge. (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau. (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops over n…

Double planking of a ship's side.

A traverse made with gabions between guns or on their flanks, protecting them from enfilading fire.

The mineral substance which incloses a vein; a matrix; a gangue. Gang board, or Gang plank. (Naut.) (a) A board or plank, with cleats for steps, forming a bridge by which to enter or leave a vessel. (b) A plank within or without the bulwarks of a vessel's waist, for the sentinel to walk on. -- Gang cask, a small cask…

sage or way into or out of any inclosed place; esp., a temporary way of access formed of planks.

One of the planks next the keel on the outside, which form a garboard strake. Garboard strake or streak, the first range or strake of planks laid on a ship's bottom next the keel. Totten.

An incising tool which cuts forms or blanks for gloves, envelopes, etc.. from leather, paper, etc. Knight.

A noncommissioned officer or soldier placed on the directiug flank of each subdivision of a column of troops, or at the end of a line, to mark the pivots, formations, marches, and alignments in tactics. Farrow. Guide bar (Mach.), the part of a steam engine on which the crosshead slides, and by which the motion of the p…

To have an irregular rhythm; to be defective. The blank verse shall halt for it. Shak.

a) To regard with passionate affection. (b) (Mil.) To hover around; as, to hang upon the flanks of a retreating enemy.

A disease of horses, characterized by difficult breathing, with heaving of the flank, wheezing, flatulency, and a peculiar cough; broken wind.

ures, or figures; as, hieroglyphic writing; a hieroglyphic obelisk. Pages no better than blanks to common minds, to his, hieroglyphical of wisest secrets. Prof. Wilson.

The correspondence of common descent; -- a term used to supersede homology by Lankester, who also used homoplasy to denote any superinduced correspondence of position and structure in parts embryonically distinct (other writers using the term homoplasmy). Thus, there is homogeny between the fore limb of a mammal and th…

The endmost plank of a strake which reaches the stem or stern.

s horizontally. -- Horizontal fire (Mil.), the fire of ordnance and small arms at point-blank range or at low angles of elevation. -- Horizontal force (Physics), the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic force. -- Horizontal line (Descriptive Geometry & Drawing), a constructive line, either drawn or imagined,…

Struck with horror; horrified. Blank and horror-stricken faces. C. Kingsley.