Tierce /(?)/

Tierce

n.
  1. 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. 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. The third tone of the scale. See Mediant. (Mus.)
  4. A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king, queen, is called tierce-major.
  5. A position in thrusting or parrying in which the wrist and nails are turned downward. (Fencing)
  6. The third hour of the day, or nine a. m,; one of the canonical hours; also, the service appointed for that hour. (R. C. Ch.)