TIERCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Tierce

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noun

Tierce n.

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.

(Mus.) The third tone of the scale. See Mediant.

A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king, queen, is called tierce-major.

(Fencing) A position in thrusting or parrying in which the wrist and nails are turned downward.

(R. C. Ch.) The third hour of the day, or nine a. m,; one of the canonical hours; also, the service appointed for that hour.

adjective

Tierce adj. (Her.) Divided into three equal parts of three different tinctures; said of an escutcheon.

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Etymology of 'Tierce'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tierce" Quotes from Famous Books

... fellow Seymour Hicks, who imitates me; but I would not put her right, as dinner might have been announced every moment. But she is a great woman, sir,—wonderful eyes! They are all great women here. I sat next to one of the daughters, or daughters-in-law, or nieces, I suppose. By Jove! it was tierce and quart. If you had been there, you would have been run through in a moment. I had to show my art. Now they are rising. I should not be surprised if Mr. Neuchatel were to present me to some of the grandees. I believe them to be all impostors, but ...

— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli

... to Paris. I fears notings—no mouchard—no gend'armerie—no notings— although, I was suspect and deporte de France! I sends un cartel—you comprends—to ze gros bon ami de ma Marie, ce cochon d'un epicier! We meets in ze Bois: I gives him one leetel tierce en carte dat spoils his lovemakings for awhile; and, I leeves France again for evers—dat is, unless ma patrie and ze sacred cause of ze Republique Francaise calls upon me—but, not till den! So, you sees, my youngish friends, dat oders suffer like yourselfs. I have told to you my story; ...

— She and I, Volume 2 - A Love Story. A Life History. • John Conroy Hutcheson

... splitting skull-structure of dying man or beast. That bill cannot tear in pieces like the eagle's beak, nor are its talons so powerful to smite as to compress—but a better bill for cut-and-thrust—- push, carte, and tierce—the dig dismal and the plunge profound—belongs to no other bird. It inflicts great gashes; nor needs the wound to be repeated on the same spot. Feeder foul and obscene! to thy nostril upturned "into the murky air, sagacious of ...

— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson

... en tierce; Loge's blade met his with strength and delicacy. The strength Cleggett was prepared for. The delicacy surprised him. But he was too much the master, too confident of his own powers, to trifle. He delivered ...

— The Cruise of the Jasper B. • Don Marquis

... when her son Esmond announced to her ladyship that he proposed to make the ensuing campaign, took leave of him with perfect alacrity, and was down to piquet with her gentlewoman before he had well quitted the room on his last visit. "Tierce to a king," were the last words he ever heard her say: the game of life was pretty nearly over for the good lady, and three months afterwards she took to her bed, where she flickered out without any pain, so the Abbe Gauthier wrote over to Mr. Esmond, then with his ...

— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

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