tablature

[Fr., from Lat. tabula =a board, a table.] 1. Anat .: A division or parting of the skull into two tables. 2. Art : A painting on a wall or ceiling. "In painting we may give to any particular work the name of tablature , when the work is in reality a single piece, comprehended in one view, and formed according to one single intelligence, meaning, or design."- Lord Shaftesbury. IMG:content-0735.png:[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small] A "painted table" was the common mode of designating a picture painted on wood, after the usual manner of med iæval artists, in inventories of the period. "His order was when he had finished a peece of worke or painted table , and laid it out of his hand, to set it forth in some open gallerie or thorow fare to be seene of folke that pa ed by, and himselfe would lie close behind it to hearken what faults were found therewith."-P. Holland: Pliny , bk. xxxv., ch. ix. *4. A thin piece of something for writing on; a tablet. "Written not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart."-2 Corinth . iii. 3. *5. Hence, in plural, a memorandum book, a notebook. "His master's old tables , his note-book, his counsel keeper."- Shakesp .: Henry IV ., Pt . II ., ii. 4. 6. An article of furniture, consisting of a flat surface or top of boards or other materials, supported on legs, and used for a great variety of purposes, as for supporting dishes, work, articles of ornament, ., writing upon, or the like. Tables are distinguished according to size, shape, construction, material, purpose, .; asa dining - table , a billiard table , a folding- table , a toilet - table , . "Yea, many a man, perdie, I could unmask, Whose desk and table make a solemn show." Thomson: Castle of Indolence , i. 56. 7. The persons seated at table or partaking of netertainment. "To set the table on a roar." -Shakesp .: Hamlet , v. 1. 8. Fare or entertainment provided for guests. "Nothing could be in better taste than his equipages and his table ." -Macaulay : Hist . Eng ., ch. xiv. *9. ( Pl.): The game of backgammon or draughts. "Monsieur the nice, When he plays at tables , chides the dice." Shakesp.: Love's Labor's Lost , v. 2. 10. A presentation of many items or particulars in one connected group; especially when the items are in lists or columns; a collection of heads or principal matters in a book, with references to the pages where they may be found; an index. "It might seem impertinent to have added a table to a book of so small a volume, and which seems to be itself but a table : but it may prove advantageous at once to learn the whole culture of any plant."- Evelyn : Kalendar . 11. ( Pl .): A list in columns of the results of the multiplication of numbers in regular order by others, given to children to teach them arithmetical multiplication; as, A child learns his tables . (Colloq.) IMG:content-0736.png:[blocks in formation] (2) A horizontal molding on the exterior or interior face of a wall, placed at different levels, pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, põět, IMG:content-0737.png:[blocks in formation] (1) Table-cutting; a form of diamond-cutting. The top of the stone is ground flat with a corresponding flat bottom of le area, with its four upper and lower facets cut parallel to each other. (2) The upper flat surface of a brilliant cut diamond. 6. Mach .: The part on which work is placed to be operated upon. 7. Math ., Nat . Philos ., & c .: An arranged collec tion of many particulars, data, or values; a system of numbers calculated for expediting operations or for exhibiting the measures or values of some property common to a number of different bodies in reference to some common standard; a series of numbers which proceed according to some given law expre ed by a formula. Thus there are tables of logarithms, of rhumbs, of specific gravity, of square or cube-roots, of aberration, . *8. Palmistry : The collection of lines on the palm of the hand.. "Mistre of a fairer table Hath not history nor fable." Ben Jonson: Masque of Gipsies. 9. Perspective: The same as PERSPECTIVE-PLANE (q. v.). 10. Weaving : The board or bar in a draw-loom to which the tails of the harne are attached. B. As adj.: Appertaining to, provided or nece ary for, or used at table; as, table linen. (1) Lord's table : The sacrament of the Lord's Supper or holy communion. (2) Round table : [ROUND, a.] (3) Table of Pythagoras : The common multiplication-table carried up to teu. (4) Tables of the Law , Tables of the Testimony : Jewish Antiq .: Two tables of stone, written or inscribed on both sides; "and the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables" (Exod. xxxii. 16); "written with the finger of God" (xxx i. 18). After having received them from Jehovah, high on the ridge or peak of Sinai, Moses was carrying them down the mountain-side to the camp, when he was so overcome by pa ion on hearing the shouts raised by the people in connection with idol-worship that he flung from him the tables of stone, which broke on the ground (17-19). They were divinely replaced by others (xxxiv 1-29), which were put in the ark (Deut. x. 5). The writing on the tables consisted of the Ten Commandments, probably the first four teaching duty to God, on the first table, and the other six, telling of duty to man, on the second table (Matt. xxii. 36-39). *(5) Tables To let anes : The Alphonsine astronomical tables, so called from their being adapted to the city of Toledo. ( Chaucer : C. T., 11,585.) (6) The Four Tables : Scottish Church Hist .: An executive committee, consisting of four noblemen, four gentlemen, four ministers, and four burge es, appointed in 1638 by the Presbyterians to manage their affairs during the struggle against the forcible introduction of the liturgy into the Scottish church. The name was given because the committee met in four separate rooms in Parliament House in Edinburgh, each room of course furnished with a separate table. (7) To lay on the table : In parliamentary practice, and in the usage of corporate and other bodies, receive any document, as a report, the like, but to agree to postpone its consideration indefinitely. (8) To order (a bill or document) to lie on the table: To defer for future consideration; to postpone. IMG:content-0738.png:[blocks in formation] (11) Twelve Tables : 3983 Roman Antiq .: The tables containing the body of Roman law drawn up by the decemvirs, B. C. 451: originally there were only ten of these tables, but two more were added in the following year. table-anvil, subst . A small anvil adapted to be screwed to a table for bending plates of metal or wires, making small repairs, . *table-bed, s. A bed in the form of a table.