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

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.

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.

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.

Keeping time or measure. Spenser.

A simpleton. L'Estrange. A pattern and companion fit For all the keeping tonies of the pit. Dryden.

set across a road to stop carriages, animals, and sometimes people, till toll is paid for keeping the road in repair; a tollgate.

The act of keeping up, or maintaining; maintenance. "Horse artillery . . . expensive in the upkeep." Scribner's Mag.

Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. "Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months." Macaulay. Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table an…

A place artificially arranged for keeping or raising living animals, as a park, a pond, an aquarium, a warren, etc.

A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of the ancients. [Obs.] The papyrus, and afterward the parchment, was joined together [by the ancients] to form one sheet, and then rolled upon a staff into a volume (volumen). Encyc. Brit.

raw, tow, paper, or old rope yarn, used for retaining a charge of powder in a gun, or for keeping the powder and shot close; also, to diminish or avoid the effects of windage. Also, by extension, a dusk of felt, pasteboard, etc., serving a similar purpose.

A pocketbook for keeping money about the person.

The duty of keeping watch and ward (see the Note under Watch, n., 1) with a horn to be blown upon any occasion of surprise. Burrill.

Designating, or pertaining to, a kind of glass inclosure for keeping ferns, mosses, etc., or for transporting growing plants from a distance; as, a Wardian case of plants; -- so named from the inventor, Nathaniel B. Ward, an Englishman.

A place privileged, by prescription or grant the king, for keeping certain animals (as hares, conies, partridges, pheasants, etc.) called beasts and fowls of warren. Burrill.

reservative or preventive vigilance; formerly, a watching or guarding by night. Shepherds keeping watch by night. Milton. All the long night their mournful watch they keep. Addison.

A deep furrow for conducting water from the ground, and keeping the surface soil dry.