pendant (pendant)

and n. [Also pendent; Butt this me thynkith an Abusion, To sene one walke in a robe of scarlet xij zerdis wide, with pendaunt slevis down On the ground. Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra ser.), і. 106. Neere it is another pendant towre like that at Pisa, al ways threatning ruine. Evelyn, Diary, Oct. 22, 1644. II. n. 1. A loose hanging part; something attached to and hanging loosely from an object of which it is an ornamental or useful part, as a bead, ball, knob, or ring of any material, hanging from a necklace, ear-ring, lamp, the edge of a garment, or a locket hanging from a brooch, or the like. See cut under badge . Lordes or ladyes or any lyf elles, As per sones in pellure with pendauntes of syluer. Piers Plowman (B), xv. 7. The body of this worke is supported by twelue siluer columnes; at the four angles of it, four pendants play with the wind. Dekker , London's Tempe. Specifically-(a) An ear-ring. Let not the Nymph with Pendants load her Ear. Congreve, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love, iii. (b) A name given to that part of the knightly belt of the fourteenth century which was allowed to hang after pa ing through the buckle and sometimes through an additional loop: it ended with the chape, which acted as a weight to keep it hang. ing perpendicularly. (c) The part of a watch by which it is suspended, consisting generally of a guard-ring and a pusher-pin. Pendant, 1 (8). E. H. Knight. 2. An apparatus hanging from a roof or ceiling for giving light, generally branched and ornamented; a chandelier or gaselier.-3. In arch., a hang Pendant in the Choir of the Church of Eu, Seine Inférieure, France. (From Viollet-le-Duc's "Dict. de l'Architec ture.") IMG:content-2612.jpg:[blocks in formation] With curious Corbes and pendants graven faire. Spenser, F. Q., IV. x. 6. only The Indian pendant adds its own weight to that of the dome, and has no other prejudicial tendency. Its forms, too, generally have a lightne and elegance never even imagined in Gothic art; it hangs from the centre of a dome more like a lustre of crystal drops than a solid ma of marble or of stone. J. Fergu on, Hist. Indian [Arch., p. 216. 41. A pendulum. Sir K. Dig by.-5. Naut.: (a) A short piece of rope with a thimble or block at one end. (b) A long, narrow, tapering flag. See pennant, 1. The galley in which he embarked was sumptuously adorned with pendants and streamers of gorgeous dyes, which fluttered gayly in the wind. Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 341. 6. Something attached to or connected with another as an addition; an appendix. This, however, is no proper part of my subject, and only appears as a pendant to the above remarks on the results of civilization in man. Bibliotheca Sacra, XLV. 31. 7. Something of the same kind, as a companion picture, statue, group of statuary, poem, anecdote, etc.; a parallel. The reader may find a pendant to this anecdote in a similar one recorded of Ximenes's predece or. Pre scott , Ferd. and Isa., ii. 25, note. Ear-pendant, an ear-ring, especially one of large size and of a material other than fine jewelry, as in the dre of many barbarous nations. - Irish pendant, a stray piece of rope-yarn or other small cord hanging from the rigging of a ship; a loose end in the rigging. Also Irish pennant. There was no rust, no dirt, no rigging hanging slack, no fag-ends of ropes and " Irish pendants" R. H. Dana, Jr. , Before the Mast, p. 205. Masthead-pendant, pendant attached to each side of the lower masthead, with a thimble in the hanging end to which a heavy tackle, called a pendant - tackle, may be hooked. - Meal pendant. See meal2. -Pendant-tackle. See masthead-pendant. - Rudder-pendant, one of the strong ropes made fast to the upper part of a rudder, by means of chains, to prevent its lo should it chance to be unshipped. (There are many other pendants, such as yard-tackle pendant, fish - pendant, brace - pendant, and reef pendant, their general effect and use being to transmit the effort of their respective tackles to some distant object.)