Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tierce

Tierce (tērs; 277), n. [F. tierce a third, from tiers, tierce, third, fr. L. tertius the third; akin to tres three. See Third, Three, and cf. Terce, Tercet, Tertiary.] 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. (Mus.) The third tone of the scale. See Mediant.

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

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

6. (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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.