TIERCE

tierce

Noun

  1. A cask whose content is one third of a pipe; that is, forty-two wine gallons; also, a liquid measure of forty-two wine, or thirty-five imperial, gallons.
  2. A cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment.
  3. The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
  4. A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
  5. The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
  6. An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
  7. The third hour of the day, or nine a. m,; one of the canonical hours; also, the service appointed for that hour.
  8. One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. (Also known as a third.)


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