TIERCE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... bound; at Prime reviled; Condemned to death at Tierce; Nailed to the Cross at Sext; at None His blessed Side they pierce. They take him down at Vesper-tide; In grave at Compline lay, Who thenceforth bids His Church observe The sevenfold ...

— The Divine Office • Rev. E. J. Quigley

... in a cart, in a cart first drew breath, Carte and tierce was his life, and a carte ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, - Issue 493, June 11, 1831 • Various

... tankard dangling in his hand, and the contents spilling into his shoes. His wide terrified eyes were fix'd on the far end of the room, where Anthony and the brute Settle stood, with a shattered chair between them. Their swords were cross'd in tierce, and grating together as each sought occasion for a lunge: which might have been fair enough but for a dog-fac'd trooper in a frowsy black periwig, who, as I enter'd, was gathering a handful of coins from under the fallen table, and now ran across, sword in ...

— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch

... Richard of the night was a brother-amateur, equally enthusiastic, one Litchfield by name. "I cared for nothing," wrote Mathews, "except the last scene of Richmond, but in that I was determined, to have my full swing of carte and tierce. I had no notion of paying my seven guineas and a half without indulging my passion. In vain did the tyrant try to die after a decent time; in vain did he give indications of exhaustion; I would not allow him ...

— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook

... chance for which he looked. I kept my head, and parried by sheer luck his brilliant lunges. I broke ground and won free—if but barely—from his incessant attack. More than once he pricked me. A high thrust which I diverted too late with the parade of tierce drew blood freely. He fleshed me again on the riposte by a one-two feint in tierce and ...

— A Daughter of Raasay - A Tale of the '45 • William MacLeod Raine

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