tierce

IPA: tˈɪrs

(obsolete) A third.
(religion, Roman Catholicism) Synonym of terce: the third canonical hour or its service.
(now historical) 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.
(music) The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
(card games) A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
(fencing) The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
(heraldry) An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
(obsolete) 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.)
A surname from French.

Examples of "tierce" in Sentences

C minor with tierce de picardie .
The tierce later became the petrol barrel.
A tierce de picardie sets the scene for the Adagio.
Any other tierce is named by the highest rank it contains.
My lord parried gracefully in tierce, and chuckled softly to himself.
He took no food, and said the office at tierce and sext in the saddle.
Both use tierce etc. in the singular in the same way as the other terms.
This also led to his attempts to remove tierce from the classic parries.
Sequences of 3-8 cards are called tierce, quart, quint, sixième, septième and huitième respectively.
Once the Duke thrust in tierce and Jack's sword arm wavered an instant, and a splash of crimson appeared on his sleeve.
Cadfael took his problem with him into the church at the hour of tierce, and said the office privately in a quiet corner.
"The Literary Interests of the First Carters." p. 51.) [14.1] A tierce is a measure of liquid "equal to a third of a pipe, or 42 gallons (159 liters)."
And, so saying, I merely went from carte to tierce, and as he recovered wildly and parried widely I returned to carte, took the opening, and drove home heart-high and through and through.
'tierce' with the intervals of music which bears those names: when he made a feint he cried out, "take care of this 'diesis'," because anciently they called the 'diesis' a feint: and when he had made the foil fly from my hand, he would add, with a sneer, that this was a pause: in a word, I never in my life saw a more insupportable pedant.