Search the Dictionary

horescent when calcined. -- Bologna vial, a vial of unannealed glass which will fly into pieces when its surface is scratched by a hard body, as by dropping into it a fragment of flint; whereas a bullet may be dropped into it without injury.

A cushioned or a piece part of a saddle.

pwrights. -- Bolt and nut, a metallic pin with a head formed upon one end, and a movable piece (the nut) screwed upon a thread cut upon the other end. See B, C, and D, in illust. above.

A piece of heavy ordnance formerly used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. It was the earliest kind of cannon. They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses. Knolles.

One of the pieces or parts of an animal skeleton; as, a rib or a thigh bone; a bone of the arm or leg; also, any fragment of bony substance. (pl.) The frame or skeleton of the body.

An additional piece of canvas laced to the foot of a jib or foresail in moderate winds. Hakluyt.

An instrument to stretch and widen the leg of a boot, consisting of two pieces, together shaped like a leg, between which, when put into the boot, a wedge is driven. The pretty boots trimly stretched on boottrees. Thackeray.

Work done in a bungling manner; a clumsy performance; a piece of work, or a place in work, marred in the doing, or not properly finished; a bungle. To leave no rubs nor botches in the work. Shak.

The U-shaped piece which embraces the neck of an ox and fastens it to the yoke.

owling alley, a covered place for playing at bowls or tenpins. -- Bowling green, a level piece of greensward or smooth ground for bowling, as the small park in lower Broadway, New York, where the Dutch of New Amsterdam played this game.

A piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts. It may act as a tie, or as a strut, and serves to prevent distortion of the structure, and transverse strains in its members. A boiler brace…

A piece of defensive armor for the arm. Johnson.

A piece or combination of pieces, usually triangular in general shape, projecting from, or fastened to, a wall, or other surface, to support heavy bodies or to strengthen angles.

A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine.

to a pilot, authorizing him to pilot vessels in certain waters. Branches of a bridle, two pieces of bent iron, which bear the bit, the cross chains, and the curb. -- Branch herring. See Alewife. -- Root and branch , totally, wholly.

A burning piece of wood; or a stick or piece of wood partly burnt, whether burning or after the fire is extinct. Snatching a live brand from a wigwam, Mason threw it on a matted roof. Palfrey.

A sort of bridle with wooden side pieces. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.] Jamieson.

To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments. The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. Prescott.

A thick piece of timber in the form of a knee, placed across the stem of a ship to strengthen the fore part and unite the bows on each side. Totten.

s defensive armor. Before his old rusty breastplate could be scoured, and his cracked headpiece mended. Swift.