TIERCE
tierce
Noun
- 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.
- A cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment.
- The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
- A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
- The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
- An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
- The third hour of the day, or nine a. m,; one of the canonical hours; also, the service appointed for that hour.
- 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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