noun the third tone of the scale. ·see mediant.
2. tierce ·noun a position in thrusting or parrying in which the wrist and nails are turned downward.
3. tierce ·noun a sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. tierce of ace, king, queen, is called tierce-major.
4. tierce ·adj divided into three equal parts of three different tinctures;
said of an escutcheon.
5. tierce ·noun the third hour of the day, or nine ·adj m,; one of the canonical hours; also, the service appointed for that hour.
6. tierce ·noun a cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which salt provisions, rice, ·etc., are packed for shipment.
7. tierce ·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.