Tom"pon (?), n. [F. tampon. See Tampion.] An inking pad used in
lithographic printing.
Tom"rig` (?), n. [Tom (see Tomboy) + rig.)] A rude, wild, wanton girl;
a hoiden; a tomboy. Dennis.
Tom"tit` (?), n. [Tom (see Tomboy) + tit the bird.] (Zoöl.) (a) A
titmouse, esp. the blue titmouse. [Prov.eng.] (b) The wren. [Prov.eng.]
Tom"-tom` (tm"tm`), n. See Tam-tam.
Ton (tn), obs. pl. of Toe. Chaucer.
Ton (tn), n. [Cf. Tunny.] (Zoöl.) The common tunny, or horse mackerel.
||Ton (tôn), n. [F. See Tone.] The prevailing fashion or mode; vogue;
||as, things of ton. Byron.
||
If our people of ton are selfish, at any rate they show they are
selfish.
Thackeray.
Bon ton. See in the Vocabulary.
Ton (tn), n. [OE. tonne, tunne, a tun, AS. tunne a tun, tub, a large
vessel; akin to G. & F. tonne a ton, tun, LL. tunna a tun; all perhaps
of Celtic origin; cf. Ir. & Gael. tunna a tun. Cf. Tun,Tunnel.] (Com.)
A measure of weight or quantity. Specifically: —
(a) The weight of twenty hundredweight.
In England, the ton is 2,240 pounds. In the United States the ton is
commonly estimated at 2,000 pounds, this being sometimes called the
short ton, while that of 2,240 pounds is called the long ton.
(b) (Naut. & Com.) Forty cubic feet of space, being the unit of
measurement of the burden, or carrying capacity, of a vessel; as a
vessel of 300 tons burden. See the Note under Tonnage.
(c) (Naut. & Com.) A certain weight or quantity of merchandise, with
reference to transportation as freight; as, six hundred weight of ship
bread in casks, seven hundred weight in bags, eight hundred weight in
bulk; ten bushels of potatoes; eight sacks, or ten barrels, of flour;
forty cubic feet of rough, or fifty cubic feet of hewn, timber, etc.
Ton and tun have the same etymology, and were formerly used
interchangeably; but now ton generally designates the weight, and tun
the cask. See Tun.
To*nal"i*ty (?), n. [Cf. F. tonalité.] (Mus.) The principle of key in
music; the character which a composition has by virtue of the key in
which it is written, or through the family relationship of all its
tones and chords to the keynote, or tonic, of the whole.
The predominance of the tonic as the link which connects all the tones
of a piece, we may, with Fétis, term the principle of tonality.
Helmholtz.
To"-name` (t"nm`), n. [prep. to + name.] A name added, for the sake of
distinction, to one's surname, or used instead of it. [Scot.] Jamieson.
Ton"ca bean` (?). (Bot.) See Tonka bean.
Tone (tn), n. [F. ton, L. tonus a sound, tone, fr. Gr. to`nos a
stretching, straining, raising of the voice, pitch, accent, measure or
meter, in pl., modes or keys differing in pitch; akin to tei`nein to
stretch or strain. See Thin, and cf. Monotonous, Thunder, Ton fashion,
Tune.] 1. Sound, or the character of a sound, or a sound considered as
of this or that character; as, a low, high, loud, grave, acute, sweet,
or harsh tone.
[Harmony divine] smooths her charming tones.
Milton.
Tones that with seraph hymns might blend.
Keble.
2. (Rhet.) Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted
to express emotion or passion.
Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes.
Dryden.
3. A whining style of speaking; a kind of mournful or artificial strain
of voice; an affected speaking with a measured rhythm ahd a regular
rise and fall of the voice; as, children often read with a tone.
4. (Mus.) (a) A sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of
the octave; she has good high tones. (b) The larger kind of interval
between contiguous sounds in the diatonic scale, the smaller being
called a semitone as, a whole tone too flat; raise it a tone. (c) The
peculiar quality of sound in any voice or instrument; as, a rich tone,
a reedy tone. (d) A mode or tune or plain chant; as, the Gregorian
tones.
The use of the word tone, both for a sound and for the interval between
two sounds or tones, is confusing, but is common — almost universal.
Nearly every musical sound is composite, consisting of several
simultaneous tones having different rates of vibration according to
fixed laws, which depend upon the nature of the vibrating body and the
mode of excitation. The components (of a composite sound) are called
partial tones; that one having the lowest rate of vibration is the
fundamental tone, and the other partial tones are called harmonics, or
overtones. The vibration ratios of the partial tones composing any
sound are expressed by all, or by a part, of the numbers in the series
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.; and the quality of any sound (the tone color) is
due in part to the presence or absence of overtones as represented in
this series, and in part to the greater or less intensity of those
present as compared with the fundamental tone and with one another.
Resultant tones, combination tones, summation tones, difference tones,
Tartini's tones (terms only in part synonymous) are produced by the
simultaneous sounding of two or more primary (simple or composite)
tones.
5. (Med.) That state of a body, or of any of its organs or parts, in
which the animal functions are healthy and performed with due vigor.
In this sense, the word is metaphorically applied to character or
faculties, intellectual and moral; as, his mind has lost its tone.