English dictionary
tierce
nounPronunciation
/ˈtɜːs/
/ˈtɪɚs/
Parts of speech
Definitions
noun
- The third hour of daylight (about 9 am).
- The service appointed for this hour.
- A widow's right, where she has no conventional provision, to a liferent of a third of the husband's heritable property.
noun
- A third.
- A measure of capacity equal to a third of a pipe, or a cask or other vessel holding such a quantity; a cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which wine or 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.
- 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.)