Word Meanings - HOURGLASS - Book Publishers vocabulary database

An instrument for measuring time, especially the interval of an hour. It consists of a glass vessel having two compartments, from the uppermost of which a quantity of sand, water, or mercury occupies an hour in running through a small aperture unto

Additional info about word: HOURGLASS

An instrument for measuring time, especially the interval of an hour. It consists of a glass vessel having two compartments, from the uppermost of which a quantity of sand, water, or mercury occupies an hour in running through a small aperture unto the lower. Note: A similar instrument measuring any other interval of time takes its name from the interval measured; as, a half-hour glass, a half- minute glass. A three-minute glass is sometimes called an egg-glass, from being used to time the boiling of eggs.

Related words: (words related to HOURGLASS)

• INTERVALLUM
  An interval. And a' shall laugh without intervallums. Shak. In one of these intervalla. Chillingworth.
• WATER-BEARER
  The constellation Aquarius.
• HAVENED
  Sheltered in a haven. Blissful havened both from joy and pain. Keats.
• WATERWORT
  Any plant of the natural order Elatineæ, consisting of two genera , mostly small annual herbs growing in the edges of ponds. Some have a peppery or acrid taste.
• WATER SHREW
  Any one of several species of shrews having fringed feet and capable of swimming actively. The two common European species are the best known. The most common American water shrew, or marsh shrew , is rarely seen, owing to its nocturnal habits.
• WATER-TIGHT
  So tight as to retain, or not to admit, water; not leaky.
• WATER RAT
  The water vole. See under Vole. The muskrat. The beaver rat. See under Beaver. 2. A thief on the water; a pirate.
• HAVENER
  A harbor master.
• WATER CRAKE
  The dipper. The spotted crake . See Illust. of Crake. The swamp hen, or crake, of Australia.
• WATER DOG
  A dog accustomed to the water, or trained to retrieve waterfowl. Retrievers, waters spaniels, and Newfoundland dogs are so trained.
• WATER CLOCK
  An instrument or machine serving to measure time by the fall, or flow, of a certain quantity of water; a clepsydra.
• WATER SAIL
  A small sail sometimes set under a studding sail or under a driver boom, and reaching nearly to the water.
• INSTRUMENTAL
  Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, esp. a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music. "He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship." Macaulay. Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental
• WATERIE
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  Water confined in specially constructed compartments in a vessel's hold, to serve as ballast.
• WATER RAM
  An hydraulic ram.
• WATER LINE
  Any one of certain lines of a vessel, model, or plan, parallel with the surface of the water at various heights from the keel. Note: In a half-breadth plan, the water lines are outward curves showing the horizontal form of the ship at their several
• GLASSEN
  Glassy; glazed. And pursues the dice with glassen eyes. B. Jonson.
• WATER LOCUST
  A thorny leguminous tree which grows in the swamps of the Mississippi valley.
• WATERING
  a. & n. from Water, v. Watering call , a sound of trumpet or bugle summoning cavalry soldiers to assemble for the purpose of watering their horses. -- Watering cart, a sprinkling cart. See Water. -- Watering place. A place where water may be
• RIGHT-RUNNING
  Straight; direct.
• IMMEASURABLY
  In an immeasurable manner or degree. "Immeasurably distant." Wordsworth.
• BLACKWATER STATE
  Nebraska; -- a nickname alluding to the dark color of the water of its rivers, due to the presence of a black vegetable mold in the soil.