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A wind instrument whose sounding parts are reeds, consisting of a thin tongue of brass playing freely through a slot in a plate. It has a case, like a piano, and is played by means of a similar keybord, the bellows being worked by the foot. The melodeon is a portable variety of this instrument.

pose of a shoe; to tip. The sharp and small end of the billiard stick, which is shod with brass or silver. Evelyn.

An alloy of copper and zinc, resembling brass, but of a golden color. Ure.

A glucoside found in the seeds of white mustard (Brassica alba, formerly Sinapis alba), and extracted as a white crystalline substance.

A disused generic name for mustard; -- now called Brassica.

A glucoside found in the seeds of black mustard (Brassica nigra, formerly Sinapis nigra) It resembles sinalbin, and consists of a potassium salt of myronic acid.

A counterfeit piece of money, being brass covered with silver. [Obs.] Shak

Firm; strong; safe. The brasswork here, how rich it is in beams, And how, besides, it makes the whole house sound. Chapman.

A nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.

A keyed instrument of music resembling a harpsichord, but smaller, with one string of brass or steel wire to each note, sounded by means of leather or quill plectrums or jacks. It was formerly much used. Dumb spinet. (Mus.) See Manichordon.

er his warm blood, that steams into the air. Dryden. Let the crude humors dance In heated brass, steaming with fire intence. J. Philips.

upport; a post. All our fathers worshiped stocks and stones. Milton. Item, for a stock of brass for the holy water, seven shillings; which, by the canon, must be of marble or metal, and in no case of brick. Fuller.

A narrow strip of anything, as of iron or brass. Specifically: --

A mineral, a telluride of gold and silver, of a steel-gray, silver-white, or brass-yellow color. It often occurs in implanted crystals resembling written characters, and hence is called graphic tellurium. [Written also silvanite.]

Mixture; compound. [Obs.] Made a temperature of brass and iron together. Holland. Absolute temperature. (Physics) See under Absolute. -- Animal temperature (Physiol.), the nearly constant temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded (homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source of the heat is to be…

e other side. Cf. Tooth, Tusk. Tenon saw, a saw with a thin blade, usually stiffened by a brass or steel back, for cutting tenons. [Corruptly written tenant saw.] Gwilt.

A mender of brass kettles, pans, and other metal ware. "Tailors and tinkers." Piers Plowman.

, small, quick, sharp sounds, as a piece of metal does when struck; to clink. As sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Cor. xiii. 1. The sprightly horse Moves to the music of his tinkling bells. Dodsley.

lver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like. Who can discern the tinsel from the gold Dryden.

An alloy of copper and zinc, resembling brass, and containing about 84 per cent of copper; -- called also German, or Dutch, brass. It is very malleable and ductile, and when beaten into thin leaves is sometimes called Dutch metal. The addition of arsenic makes white tombac. [Written also tombak, and tambac.]…