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In ancient times.

A table or tray strewn with sand, anciently used for drawing, calculating, etc. [Obs.]

Anciently, a snake, called dart snake; now, one of a genus of reptiles closely allied to the lizards.

gal act subjecting them to penalties. Abbott. -- Act in pais, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the country), and not a matter of record.

A kind of figured stone, rugged and beset with eminences, anciently used in divination. [Obs.] Encyc. Brit.

The first year's profits of a spiritual preferment, anciently paid by the clergy to the pope; first fruits. In England, they now form a fund for the augmentation of poor livings.

judge, who sits as deputy to the archbishop, is called the Dean of the Arches, because he anciently held his court in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (de arcubus). It is now held in Westminster. Mozley & W.

Of or pertaining to Artois (anciently called Artesium), in France. Artesian wells, wells made by boring into the earth till the instrument reaches water, which, from internal pressure, flows spontaneously like a fountain. They are usually of small diameter and often of great depth.

Pertaining to certain parts, anciently supposed to have a specially important function in the animal economy, as the middle vein of the right arm.

n the plural, an honorary garland or crown bestowed as a prize for victory or excellence, anciently made or consisting of branches of the laurel. The patriot's honors and the poet's bays. Trumbull.

Anciently, a post or pin on each side of the bed to keep the clothes from falling off. See Bedstaff. Brewer.

"A wooden pin stuck anciently on the sides of the bedstead, to hold the clothes from slipping on either side." Johnson. Hostess, accommodate us with a bedstaff. B. Jonson. Say there is no virtue in cudgels and bedstaves. Brome.

Of or pertaining to the Belgæ, a German tribe who anciently possessed the country between the Rhine, the Seine, and the ocean. How unlike their Belgic sires of old. Goldsmith.

A kind of divination anciently practiced by means of marked arrows drawn at random from a bag or quiver, the marks on the arrows drawn being supposed to foreshow the future. Encyc. Brit.

The first day of May (Old Style). The quarter-days anciently in Scotland were Hallowmas, Candlemas, Beltane, and Lammas. New English Dict.

A certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage. Sir W. Scott.

Anciently, a chamber; a lodging room; esp., a lady's private apartment. Give me my lute in bed now as I lie, And lock the doors of mine unlucky bower. Gascoigne.

The highest vocal part; the air or melody in choral music; anciently the tenor, now the soprano. Canto fermo ( Etym: [It.] (Mus.), the plain ecclesiastical chant in cathedral service; the plain song.

A small stone taken from the gizzard of a young swallow. -- anciently worn as a medicinal charm.

an island in the Ægean Sea. Chian earth, a dense, compact kind of earth, from Chios, used anciently as an astringent and a cosmetic. -- Chian turpentine, a fragrant, almost transparent turpentine, obtained from the Pistacia Terebinthus.