Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A hook-and-loop arrangement used for a clasp on armor and clothing.
- n. A cramp iron for holding stones together in building.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A clasp or hook, used in armor or in ordinary costume, fastening in the same manner as the modern hook and eye, often made into a large and rich ornament by concealing the hook itself beneath a jeweled, engraved, embossed, or enameled plate: as, “an agraffe set with brilliants,” Scott, Ivanhoe. Also agrappe, fermail.
- n. A device for preventing the vibration of that part of a piano-string which is between the pin and the bridge.
- n. A small crampiron used by builders.
- n. An appliance used in operations for harelip to keep the two surfaces of the wound in apposition.
- n. An iron fastening used to hold in place the cork of a bottle containing champagne or other effervescing wine during the final fermentation.
Wiktionary
- n. A clasp consisting of a hook which fastens on to a ring.
- n. A hook, eyelet, or other device by which a piano wire is so held as to limit the vibration.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A hook or clasp.
- n. A hook, eyelet, or other device by which a piano wire is so held as to limit the vibration.
Etymologies
- From French agrafe, from agrafer ("to hook"). (Wiktionary)
- French agrafe, from agrafer, to hook onto : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad-) + grafer, to hook (from grafe, hook, from Old High German krāpfo). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A young girl is about to join together on her left shoulder the chiton, which is fastened over the right shoulder by means of an agraffe.”
“The opals in the silver agraffe were all she wanted.”
“Besides, the opals are forgiven now: for they have permitted me to show you that you were not unknown to me, Prince; and, as you see, I wear this dear agraffe always.”
“I have kept the lake pebbles she gave me, and death has passed me by; but the opals of the agraffe did not bring happiness to your mother.”
“Smiling, but her beautiful lips mute, Marsa seemed to say to him: "Yes, it is the agraffe which you detached from your soldier's pelisse and gave to an unknown Tzigana near your father's grave.”
“In a sort of voluntary hallucination, he imagined that he was going, as in former days, to Marsa's house; and that she was awaiting him in one of those white frocks which became her so well, with her silver belt clasped with the agraffe of opals.”
“Pale as her white robe, with Tizsa's opal agraffe at her side, ready to clasp the bouquet of flowers held by one of her maids, she had never been so exquisitely beautiful; and Vogotzine, who was rather a poor hand at turning a compliment, compared her to a marble statue.”
“Andras slowly detached from his shoulder the silver agraffe, set with opals, which clasped his fur pelisse, and handed it to the gypsy, who regarded it with admiring eyes as it flashed in the red light.”
“The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another distinction of the beautiful Jewess, scoffed and sneered at by the proud dames who sat above her, but secretly envied by those who affected to deride them.”
“Sometimes he wore a biretta with a diamond agraffe and a high plume of heron feathers.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘agraffe’.
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Additional 250 Spelling Words
Words for the diehard intermediate and advanced spellers
facetiae, sagittary, anthophilous, hydromancy, pandect, carillonneur, tabbouleh, litterateur, windgall, pinguid, tressure, moderne and 238 more...
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Rare Words - A
Not just rare words, but thousands of RARE WORDS WITH DEFINITIONS.
If you want to see the definitions, too, go to
http://phrontistery.i...aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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Hooks
hook, Captain Hook, shook, grappling hook, meat hook, pruning hook, hooks, hook 'em horns, Hook 'em Horns, sky-hook, hook, line, and s..., hook, line and si... and 66 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
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Words to use at the Joynt
obstreperous, calibogus, ouzo, pitcher-man, arfarfanarf, drunkensides, pyrogenesis, amphiboly, gobemouche, cacoethes, slubberdegullion, diplopic and 107 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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New Words
Words I learned.
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Objects and Things
anteroom, flagon, cocotte, ambry, cloche, pate, vespiary, fricassee, carousal, psoas, tome, aperture and 38 more...
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Words I learned whilst slogging throu...
Ivanhoe is a book by Sir Walter Scott. It was written in 1819, is set in 12th-century England, and is an example of historical fiction.
murrain, voluptuary, conventual, jennet, palfrey, mitre, obdurate, banderole, baldric, fetlock, panoply, obeisance and 48 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for agraffe.

jmjarmstrong JM is looking for an agraffe recycling depot. Sep 29, 2009
sionnach Those karakul are known for their velcro-like fleece. Apr 15, 2008
bilby I'd really love to find out that Velcro dates back to ancient times, you know, sheep being lifted aboard ships by Vikings burying their beards in the wool and lifting them up.
I really would be Very happy. Apr 15, 2008
reesetee Indeed. Muselet is now on my list--but I'll keep agraffe for old time's sake. Thanks, sionnach. Apr 15, 2008
asativum Sounds like ancient Velcro to me. Apr 15, 2008
sionnach So I just learned that the more specific term for the wire holding in the cork in a champagne bottle is muselet. Raising the question of what agraffe might mean:
The Grandiloquent Dictionary:
agraffe -( )
The wire that holds the cork in a bottle of champagne
dictionary.com:
1. a small cramp iron.
2. a clasp, often richly ornamented, for clothing or armor.
3. a device, as a hook, for preventing vibration in the section of a piano string between the pin and the bridge.
4. (in classical architecture) a sculptural relief on the face of a keystone.
American Heritage Dictionary
1. A hook-and-loop arrangement used for a clasp on armor and clothing.
2. A cramp iron for holding stones together in building.
Webster's Revised Unabridged
1. A hook or clasp.
The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants. --Sir W. Scott.
2. A hook, eyelet, or other device by which a piano wire is so held as to limit the vibration.
The Phrontistery
agraffe: hooked clasp used by masons to hold blocks together
Luciferous Logolepsy
agraffe
n. - hook, especially on piano-string to prevent rattle.
Merriam Webster
a hook-and-loop fastening; especially : an ornamental clasp used on armor or costumes
I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice. Apr 15, 2008
reesetee Thanks for the suggestions! I'm on it. :-) Feb 23, 2007
sionnach reesetee: go for it! A few suggestions to get started - chaston,izles,sgriob, curglaff Feb 23, 2007
reesetee I love this type of word--the kind that names an object you never thought would have a name.
Say...good idea for a list! I think I'll try it (unless you're planning to, sionnach). :-) Feb 23, 2007
sionnach the wire holding in the cork in a bottle of champagne Feb 23, 2007