KEY

pose of being called to the bar. Mozley & Whitley. Avoiding a

A wharf for the lading and unlad- ing of merchandise from vessels. More com- monly spelled "quay.” L An instrument for fastening and opening a lock. This appears as an English word as early as the time of Bracton, in the phrase "cone et keye," be- ing applied to women at a certain age, to denote the capacity of having charge of household affairs. Bract. fol. 86b. See CONE AND KEY.

A wharf for the lading and unlading of merchandise from vessels. More commonly spelled “quay.” An instrument for fastening and opening a lock. . This appears as an English word as early as the time of Bracton, in the phrase “cone et keye,” being applied to women at a certain age, to denote the capacity of having charge of household affairs. Bract. fol. 860. See CONE AND IKEy.

An instrument by means of which the bolt of a lock is shot or drawn; usually, a removable metal instrument fitted to the mechanism of a particular lock and operated by turning in its place. An instrument which is turned like a key in fastening or adjusting any mechanism; as, a watch key; a bed key, etc. That part of an instrument or machine which serves as the means of operating it; as, a telegraph key; the keys of a pianoforte, or of a typewriter. A position or condition which affords entrance, control, pr possession, etc.; as, the key of a line of defense; the key of a country; the key of a political situation. Hence, that which serves to unlock, open, discover, or solve something unknown or difficult; as, the key to a riddle; the key to a problem. Those who are accustomed to reason have got the true key of books. Locke. Who keeps the keys of all the creeds. Tennyson. That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position. A piece of wood used as a wedge. The last board of a floor when laid down. A keystone. That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place. A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock. See Illusts. of Cotter, and Gib. A bar, pin or wedge, to secure a crank, pulley, coupling, etc., upon a shaft, and prevent relative turning; sometimes holding by friction alone, but more frequently by its resistance to shearing, being usually embedded partly in the shaft and partly in the crank, pulley, etc. An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; -- called also key fruit. A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "flat seven," etc. Scales and tunes of every variety are made from the tones of a key. The fundamental tone of a movement to which its modulations are referred, and with which it generally begins and ends; keynote. Both warbling of one song, both in one key. Shak. Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance. You fall at once into a lower key. Cowper. Key bed. Same as Key seat. -- Key bolt, a bolt which has a mortise near the end, and is secured by a cotter or wedge instead of a nut. Key bugle. See Kent bugle. -- Key of a position or country. (Mil.) See Key, 4. -- Key seat (Mach.), a bed or groove to receive a key which prevents one part from turning on the other. -- Key way, a channel for a key, in the hole of a piece which is keyed to a shaft; an internal key seat; -- called also key seat. -- Key wrench (Mach.), an adjustable wrench in which the movable jaw is made fast by a key. -- Power of the keys (Eccl.), the authority claimed by the ministry in some Christian churches to administer the discipline of the church, and to grant or withhold its privileges; -- so called from the declaration of Christ, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Matt. xvi. 19.

To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges. Francis. To key up. (a) (Arch.) To raise (the whole ring of an arch) off its centering, by driving in the keystone forcibly. (b) (Mus.) To raise the pitch of. (c) Hence, fig., to produce nervous tension in.

Indispensable, supremely important. | Important, salient.

One of a string of small islands.

An object designed to open and close a lock. | An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation. | A crucial step or requirement. | A small guide explaining symbols or terminology, especially the legend on a map or chart. | A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test. | One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters. | In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind. | In instruments with a keyboard such as an organ or piano, one of the levers, or especially the exposed front end of it, which are depressed to cause a particular sound or note to be produced. | A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition. | A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition. | The lowest note of a scale; keynote. | A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition. | In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality. | A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition. | In musical theory and notation, the tonality centering in a given tone, or the several tones taken collectively, of a given scale, major or minor. | A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition. | In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key. | The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance. | A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic. | An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara. | A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code. | A piece of information (e.g., a password or passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages. | A password restricting access to an IRC channel. | In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique). | A value that uniquely identifies an entry in a container. | Any of various tools comparable to a wrench (spanner) or driver, or, in some cases, also called a wrench or driver. | A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon. | A piece of wood used as a wedge. | The last board of a floor when laid down. | A keystone. | That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place. | A wooden wedge, driven sideways between a bullhead rail and a cast-iron chair, to keep the rail securely in position. | The degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue. | The thirty-third card of the Lenormand deck. | The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK. | A color to be masked or made transparent. | The free-throw lane together with the circle surrounding the free-throw line, the free-throw lane having formerly been narrower, giving the area the shape of a skeleton key hole. | A key position player (a tall forward or defender).