Chaucer, Miller's Tale, 1

136. I pray yow bryng hom poynts and lasys of silk for you and me. Paston Letters, II. 358. He made his pen of the aglet of a point that he plucked from his hose. Latimer, 4th Sermon bef. Edw. VI., 1549. In matters not worth a blewe poinct we will spare for no cost. Udall, tr. of Apophthegms of Erasmus, p. 8. Full large of limbe and every joint He was, and cared not for God or man a point. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 12. 20. A fastening resembling a tagged lacing. (a) A short narrow strip of leather sewed to any part of harne to form a buckling-strap. (b) Naut . , a short piece of rope or sennit used in reefing sails. See reefing - point . 21. In fencing , a stab or puncture with the point of a sword; a blow with the button of the foil when properly directed: as, he can give me three points in ten (i. e., he can make ten hits or points on me while I make seven on him).22. In her .: (a) One of the nine recognized positions on the shield which denote the local IMG:content-0532.png:[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small] A, dexter chief point; B, chief point; C, sinister chief point; D, honor point; E, fe e-point; F, F, nombril; G, base or flank point; н, dexter base point; I, sinister base point. ity of figures or charges. (b) The middle part of either the chief or the base as distinguished from the dexter and sinister cantons. (c) A bearing which occupies the base of the escutcheon. It is usually considered as a pile reversed that is, rising from the base and reaching to the upper edge of the escutcheon; but it is very often of le height, reaching only to the fe e-point or to the nombril, and sometimes is merely the base itself bounded by a horizontal line separating it from the rest of the field. Plain point is especially treated in the way last mentioned. The bearing is very rare in English armory, and hence some writers treat it as synonymous with base , and others as synonymous with pile reversed . It is also customary to represent the sides of the sharply angled point as concavely curved, while those of the pile are straight. (d) A division of the field barwise: thus, three points gules, argent, and azure, means that the field is divided into three horizontal stripes, of which the uppermost is red, the middle one silver, etc.-23t. Ordinance; law; act. The comyns of this present yeld affermen and enacte alle the poyntes of this yeld, for the grete ease, pease, profitz, and tranquilite of the Cyte. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 404. 241. A slur; an indignity. But the triet men of Troy traitur hym cald, And mony pointtes on hym put for his pure shame, That di eruet full duly the dethe for to haue.