tribrach

noun

1. A metrical foot consisting of three short syllables.

   “For your foote tribracchus of all three short, ye haue very few trissillables.”

   “We may vse a Spondee or Iambick and sometime a Tribrack or Dactile.”

   “Tribrachus or Tribrachys, (Gr[eek]) a Foot in Greek and Latin Verſe, conſiſting of three ſhort Syllables; as Pŏpŭlŭs.”

   “Of all the resolved feet, the Tribrach in Trochaic verse with its ictus on the first syllable ⏑́⏑⏑ is most readily recognised by the ear as equivalent to the Trochee.”

   “If the range of pure tribrachic measure, or of tribrachs intermingled with trochees, appears much wider in our song-books than in volumes of poetry written to be read.”

2. A figure or object having three arms or branches.

   “An optical plummet, built into either the tribrach or alidade of total station instruments, permits accurate centering over a point.”

3. A figure or object having three arms or branches.

   “In a recent examination of the registers of the Ryde Philosophical Society, Mr. Martin has found, as I have been informed through Mr. Westropp’s kindness, the entry, that the flint tribrach was presented to the collection by the late Dr. Martin in 1853, with other objects from Ventnor, and as having been obtained on the shore at that place.”

   “A singular instrument chipped out of flint, like three celts conjoined…, so as to form a sort of tribrach.”