tierce

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Ecclesiastical The third of the seven canonical hours. No longer in liturgical use.
2. n. Ecclesiastical The time of day appointed for this service, usually the third hour after sunrise.
3. n. A measure of liquid capacity, equal to a third of a pipe, or 42 gallons (159 liters).
4. n. Games A sequence of three cards of the same suit.
5. n. Sports The third position from which a parry or thrust can be made in fencing.
6. n. Music An interval of a third.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A third; a third part.
2. n. Same as terce, 4.
3. n. A liquid measure equal to one third of a pipe. See pipe, 8. Also terce.
4. n. A cask intermediate in size between a barrel and a hogshead: as, a tierce of sugar; a tierce of rice or of salted provisions.
5. n. In music, same as third. The fourth harmonic of any given tone—that is, the major third above the second octave.
6. n. In card-playing, a sequence of three cards.
7. n. In fencing, the third of a series of eight points and parries, beginning with prime. A thrust in tierce is a thrust, with the knuckles upward, at the upper breast, which, from the ordinary position of engagement, the left of the foils touching, is given after passing the foil to the other side of the opponent's weapon. A parry in tierce guards this blow. It is produced by turning the hand knuckles upward and carrying it a few inches to the right without lowering hand or point.
8. n. In heraldry, a fesse composed of three triangles, usually of three different tinctures: a bearing rare in English heraldry.
9. In heraldry, divided into three parts of three different tinctures. The field may be so divided either fessewise, palewise, or bendwise, which must be expressed in the blazon: thus, tiercé in bend means divided into three compartments bendwise.

Wiktionary

1. 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.
2. n. 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. n. music The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
4. n. card games A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
5. n. fencing The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
6. n. heraldry An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
7. n. religion, Roman Catholic The third hour of the day, or nine a. m,; one of the canonical hours; also, the service appointed for that hour.
8. n. 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.)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. 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.
2. n. 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. n. (Mus.) The third tone of the scale. See Mediant.
4. n. A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king, queen, is called tierce-major.
5. n. (Fencing) A position in thrusting or parrying in which the wrist and nails are turned downward.
6. n. (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.
7. adj. (Her.) Divided into three equal parts of three different tinctures; -- said of an escutcheon.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the third canonical hour; about 9 a.m.
2. n. one of three equal parts of a divisible whole
3. n. the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one