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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



1,452 words match “STRUM”

BAROGRAPH n.
An instrument for recording automatically the variations of atmospheric pressure.
BAROMACROMETER n.
An instrument for ascertaining the weight and length of a newborn infant.
BAROMETER n.
An instrument for determining the weight or pressure of the atmosphere, and hence for judging of the probable changes of weather, or for ascertaining the height of any ascent.
BAROSCOPE n.
Any instrument showing the changes in the weight of the atmosphere; also, less appropriately, any instrument that indicates - or foreshadows changes of the weather, as a deep vial of liquid holding in suspension some substance which rises and falls with atmospheric changes.
BAROTHERMOGRAPH n.
An instrument for recording both pressure and temperature, as of the atmosphere.
BARREL n.
. -- Barrel of the ear (Anat.), the tympanum, or tympanic cavity. -- Barrel organ, an instrument for producing music by the action of a revolving cylinder. -- Barrel vault. See under Vault.
BASE n.
p, sound. (Mus.) (a) The lowest part; the deepest male voice. (b) One who sings, or the instrument which plays, base. [Now commonly written bass.] The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar. Dryden.
BASS n.
One who sings, or the instrument which plays, bass. [Written also base.] Thorough bass. See Thorough bass.
BASS VIOL n.
A stringed instrument of the viol family, used for playing bass. See 3d Bass, n., and Violoncello.
BASSET HORN a.
An instrument blown with a reed, and resembling a clarinet, but of much greater compass, embracing nearly four octaves.
BASSOON n.
A wind instrument of the double reed kind, furnished with holes, which are stopped by the fingers, and by keys, as in flutes. It forms the natural bass to the oboe, clarinet, etc.
BATHOMETER n.
An instrument for measuring depths, esp. one for taking soundings without a sounding line.
BATTER n.
A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope. Batter rule, an instrument consisting of a rule or frame, and a plumb line, by which the batter or slope of a wall is regulated in building.
BATTLEDOOR n.
An instrument, with a handle and a flat part covered with parchment or crossed with catgut, used to strike a shuttlecock in play; also, the play of battledoor and shuttlecock.
BAYONET n.
A pointed instrument of the dagger kind fitted on the muzzle of a musket or rifle, so as to give the soldier increased means of offense and defense.
BEAM n.
he fulcrum or pin on which the working beam of an engine vibrates. -- Beam compass, an instrument consisting of a rod or beam, having sliding sockets that carry steel or pencil points; -- used for drawing or describing large circles. -- Beam engine, a steam engine having a working beam to transmit power, in distincti…
BEARD n.
A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.
BEAT v.
rnations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; -- said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison. A beating wind (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking in order to make progress. -- To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means or ways. Addison. -- To…
BEDKEY n.
An instrument for tightening the parts of a bedstead.
BELLOWS n.
An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top, draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or filling the pipes of an organ with wind. Bellows camera, in photography, a form of ca…
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