hecatomb ( b silent)

[Fr. hecatombe , from Lat. hecatombe, from Gr. hekatombe the sacrifice of a hundred oxen: hekaton =a hundred, and bous =an ox.] 1. The sacrifice of a hundred oxen or other beasts. 2. Any great sacrifice of victims. "His parent's iron hand did doom More than a human hecatomb." Byron: Siege of Corinth , xxv. *hěc-a-tom-pě-dồn, s . [Greek hekatompedon , from hekaton a hundred, and pous (gen it. podos )= a foot.] Arch.: A temple a hundred feet in length (especially applied to the Par the non at Athens). *hěc-a-ton-styl-on, s. [ Gr.hekaton =a hundred, and stulos =a pillar.] Arch.: A building having a hundred pillars or columns. *hěc-a-ton-tar-chỹ, s. [Gr. hekaton =a bundred; and arc he rule, government.] The rule or government of one hundred. ( Hacket : Life of Archbp. Williams , ii. 202.) *hec-a-ton-tome, s. [Gr. hekaton =a hundred, and tomos a volume, a tome (q. v.).] A hundred volumes, a great collection of written or printed matter. ( Milton : Animad . on Remon . Def.; To the Postscript .) *hěch ( ch guttural), interj . [From the sound.] An exclamation of surprise, wonder, . *hecht ( ch guttural), v . t. [HIGHT.] To promise; to foretell something. ( Burns : Halloween .) hěck (1), s . [Dut. heka grating; Ger. heck =a fence of laths.] [HATCH, 8.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. A rack or frame for holding fodder for cattle. 2. A door; especially one partly of lattice-work. 3. The latch of a door. 4. A fish trap. II. Technically: 1. Spin .: The fly of a spinning-wheel. 2. Weav .: A device through which the yarns pa from the warping-mill to the reel on which they are wound for transference to the warp-beam of the loom. The heck-box slides vertically on a bar as the reel rotates, and thus disposes the warp spirally on the reel. The heck consists of a series of steel pins with eyes, through each of which one thread pa es. The heck is in two parts, one a little raised from the other. The eyes of the parts being alternate, by raising one of them a little, the bands of the warp are separated; when the other part of the heck is raised, the position is reversed, the former upper band becoming the lower. This produces the lease, which is tied up, to form a guide for setting it in the loom. heck-box, 8. Weav.: A box suspended between the travers on which the bobbins of warp yarn are mounted, and the warping-frame on which the yarns are wound. It divides the warp threads into two sets, one for each heddle (q. v.).