| Definitions | noun
- 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.
- Quotations
- 1882, Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons. — James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, p. 205.
- A cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment.
- (music) The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
- A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king, 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.
- (heraldiccharge) An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
- (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.
Etymology: From French, tierce.
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