keyboard 
3280 
nu^x U D . u .,.vi..-n. B ,-i,,uuuii,. .=,-. key-Signature (ke'sig"na-tur), . In musical 
keyhole (ke'hol), n. 1. A hole or aperture in notation, the sharps or flats placed at the head ot 
a door or lock for receiving a key. * v - - i -'""- "--*- . *~,.,i^.,~f *i,o ,,. ,! 
similar instruments. Only the levers corresponding to key-head (ke'hed), M. A head, as of a bolt, so keyship (ke'ship), 
the modern white keys (diatonbt) were used at first ; those shaped as to serve to bind or lock the object to as tonality. 
corresponding to the modern black keys (chromatics) were , ... . ,. , J - 
introduced in the twelfth to the fourteenth century, proba- which it IS attached.-Key-head bolt. See MIL 
bly in this order : Bfr, ft, Gt, %, Gfr The chromatics were 
first placed in a, distinct row from the diatonics ; but in 
the fifteenth century all were combined into a single key- 
board. The pedal keyboard was invented for the organ 
about the same time. Until the close of the eighteenth 
century the keys were colored white and black in exactly 
reverse order from the modern custom. (For a descrip- 
tion of the mechanical details of the keyboard, see organ 
and pianoforte.) The gradual development of the key- 
board kept pace with the gradual unfolding of the theory 
of the musical scale and of tonality. (See temperament.) 
To avoid the inaccuracy of many of the intervals in equal 
temperament, keyboards with more than twelve digitals 
and tones to the octave have been devised, but their use 
key-valve 
[< key 1 + -ship.] 
Same 
, 
has been principally confined to acoustical investigations. 
The mechanical manipulation of the keyboard in musical 
performance involves a thorough muscular discipline 
Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at 
the casement ; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole. 
Shale., As you Like it, iv. 1, 164. 
But through the Key-holes and the Chinks of Doors, 
And thro' the narrow's! Walks of crooked Pores, 
He [Michael] past. 
Cowley, Pindaric Odes, xiv. 15. 
2. In carp., a hole or excavation passing through 
beams intended to be joined together, to receive 
the key which fastens them. 3. A small piece 
of water connected with a lake or other larger 
body; a little lake or bay. [New Brunswick.] 
of the hands. See touch, fingering, technique. Choir, keyhole (ke'hol), V. i.; pret. and pp. keyholed, 
great, pedal, solo, swell keyboards, in organ-build- p p r . keyholing. [< keyhole, .] To strike length- 
ing, the keyboards belonging respectively to the choir, * afk /,,ft; i *v, i.,,.,,,,i !,,,!.. ,<i,;..i> wa&m- 
great, pedal, solo, and swell organs. See organ. 
key-bolt (ke'bolt), n. Any bolt kept in posi- 
key-bone 
clavicle. 
. 
(ke'bon), The collar-bone; the 
bles a keyhole : said of a bullet in target-shoot- 
tion by Vkey or cotter, in "distinction from one kelhole-guard (ke ' hol-gard), n. A sort of 
having a nut. _ , .. , ., shield to cover a keyhole when the key is not 
inserted. Also key-guard. 
keyhole-limpet (ke'h61-lim'"pet), n. A gastro- 
pod of the family Fissurellida;. There are several 
genera, as Fisgurella, Emarginula, and others. These lim- 
pets derive their name from a perforation resembling a 
keyhole at the apex of the shell. See cut under Fiisurel- 
lidte. 
keyhole-saw (ke'hol-sa), n. A narrow, slender 
saw used for cutting out sharp curves, such as 
those of a keyhole : same as compass-saw. 
keynardt, " A variant of caynard. 
key-note (ke 'not), n. 1. In music, the tone on 
which a key (tonality) is founded; a tonic. See 
key 1 , 7 (6). Hence 2. A central principle or 
idea; the pivotal point in a system, a com- 
position, or a course of action; a controlling 
thought. 
We have had, first of all, that remarkable discourse on 
Self-Limited Diseases, which has given the keynote to the 
prevailing medical tendency of this neighborhood. 
key-bugle (ke'bu"gl), n. 
A variety of bugle in- 
vented about 1815, hav- 
ing six keys and a com- 
plete chromatic compass 
of about two octaves. It 
is now superseded by 
valve-instruments. Also called Kent bugle. 
the staff to indicate the tonality of the piece and 
the black digitals to be used in performing it 
upon the keyboard. See key 1 , 7 (b), and signa- 
ture. 
keystone (ke'ston), n. 1. The stone of an arch 
(typically the uppermost stone), which, being 
the last put in, is 
regarded as key- 
ingorlockingthe 
whole structure 
together; the 
stone at the apex 
of an arch. in 
Roman and Renais- 
sance arches the 
keystone is very 
commonly sculp- 
tured as a decorative 
feature. In groined 
medieval vaults the 
keystone at the in- 
tersection of the ribs 
at the summit of the 
vault is usually orna- 
ented with a sculptured 
or pendant. In a true 
xtradosed arch no one 
of the voussoirs is more im- 
Key-bugle. 
Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxxvi. 
key-chain (ke'chan), n. A chain fastened at 
one end to the cheek of a gun-carriage and at 
the other to the key, to prevent its loss. See 
cut under gun-carriage. 
key-chord (ke'kdrd), n. In music, the tonic triad 
of any key (tonality). See triad. 
key-coldt (ke'kold), a. [Formerly also keacpld, 
._ , ._ ... ..- . - 0. W. Holmes, Med. Essays, p. 182. 
kaycold; < key 1 + cold.] Cold as a key; icy; key-pattern (ke'pat'ern), n. See meander and 
lifeless; inanimate. fre$, 2. 
And finally let vs consider by Christes saying vnto them, key-piece (ke'pes), TO. A log which, caught by a 
that if we would not suffer the strength and honour of roek or other obstruction in a stream, causes a 
_ 
our faith to waxe luke-warme, or rather kay-colde, and in 
maner leese his vigour by scattering our mindes abrode 
about so many triflyng thinges, etc. 
Sir T. More, Cumfort against Tribulation, fol. 8. 
Either they marry their children in their infancy, when 
they are not able to know what love is, or else matche 
them with inequality, ioyning burning sommer with kea- 
cold winter, their daughters of twenty years olde or vnder 
to rich cormorants of three score or vpwards. 
J. Lane, Tell-Trothes New Yeares Gift (1593), p. 5 
[(Shak. Soc.). 
jam of logs. [U. S.] 
key-pin (ke'pin), n. In an organ or pianoforte, 
a pin which passes through a key of the key- 
board and on which the key plays as on a pivot 
or center, so that when the front of the key is 
depressed by the finger the part on the other 
side of the pin, called the key-tail, rises. In 
each key one such pin is inserted. 
key-pipe (ke'pip), TO. In a lock, a pipe or tube 
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king ! in which the key turns. 
Pale ashes of the house^^ancaster^ ^ ^ ^ key-plate (ke ' plat), TO. In carp., same as es- 
Her apostolick vertu is departed from her, and hath kev-POinVVke'point), TO. That point of a rnili- 
left her Key-cold. Mtlton, Church-Government, ,1. ^W^ ^trenched or otherwise, in which 
its principal strength lies, and the loss of which 
would force the assailed to retire. 
key-color (ke'kul"or), . In painting, a leading 
color in a picture or composition. 
key-desk (ke'desk), n. In organ-building, the key-ring (ke'ring), TO. 1. A finger-ring from 
which projects a tongue or blade which is either 
fixed or movable on a hinge, and serves as the 
key to a lock. Such key-rings were formerly 
common, and were often of rich design. 2. A 
ring used for keeping a number of keys toge- 
ther by being passed through their bows. 
caries' form of cheiri, the specific name.] The 
wallflower, Cheiranthuscheiri: more specifically 
called apothecaries' keyry. 
desk-like case in which the keyboards and the 
stop-knobs are contained. The position of the key- 
desk with reference to the organ proper may be various, 
especially when the action is extended, or when pneumatic 
or electrical appliances are employed. 
key-drop (ke ' drop), . A keyhole-guard of 
the modern form, usually attached to the es- 
cutcheon by a pivot and falling by its own 
weight to cover the keyhole. 
keyed (ked), a. [< key 1 + -ed 2 .] 1. Having 
keys, as a musical instrument : as, a keyed flute ~~~ /r~\ 
or trombone; a fcei/ed cithara or harmonica. See *3"_<$>! ": %!; - ^ Tom ^ e first ^ ? f the 
key 1 , 4 (a) and (6). 2. Set or pitched in a par- 
ticular key. See Icey^.v. t., 2 Keyed-stop violin. 
See key -stop. Keyed violin, a musical instrument simi- 
lar in shape to a pianoforte, having strings and a key- 
board, but the tone being produced by the action of little 
horsehair bows pressed against the strings by the keys. 
key-fastener (ke'fas"n6r), n. 1. Anything 
used to prevent the turning of a key, as a loop 
Manx kiare-as-feed, four-and-twenty, designat- 
ing the number of representatives, < kiare, four 
(=Grael. ceithir = lT. cethir, etc., =E./or), + as, 
and, + feed, twenty (= Gael, fichead = Ir. fiche, 
Keys, the name of the body of twenty-four rep- 
resentatives which constitutes the lower branch 
K, K, Keystones. Keystone. 
(From Viollet-le-Duc's " Diet, de 1'Architecture.") 
portant to the stability of the structure than any other. 
See arch>, n., 2. 
'Tis the last key-stone 
That makes the arch, the rest that there were put 
Are nothing till that comes to bind and shut. 
B. Jonson, To Sir Edward Sackvile. 
That hour o' night's black arch the key-stane. 
Burns, Tarn o' Shanter. 
Hence 2. A supporting principle; the chief 
element in a system ; that upon which the re- 
mainder rests or depends. 
The tenet of predestination was the keystone of his re- 
ligion. Macaulay, Hist Eng., vii. 
In a very interesting letter of Gauss to W. Weber, he 
refers to the electrodynamic speculations with which he 
had been occupied long before, and which he would have 
published if he could then have established that which 
he considered the real keystone of electrodynamics, name- 
ly the deduction of the force acting between electric par- 
ticles in motion from the consideration of an action be- 
tween them, not instantaneous, but propagated in time, 
in a similar manner to that of light. 
Clerk Maxwell, Elect and Mag., II. 435. 
3. In chromolithography, the first stone on 
which the picture is drawn or photographed, to 
serve as an outline guide in preparing the other 
stones for the colors, a copy of the keystone 
being made on each stone for printing a single 
color. See lithography. 
A drawing of the subject, in outline, on transfer tracing- 
paper, is made in the ordinary way ; when transferred to a 
stone, this drawing is called the key-stone, and it serves as 
a guide to all the others. Ure, Diet, III. 135. 
4. In a Scotch lead-smelting furnace, a block of 
cast-iron used to close up the space at each end 
of the forestone, and to fill up the space be- 
tween the forestone and the back part of the 
furnace Keystone State, the State of Pennsylvania : 
so called because, in the geographical order of the origi- 
nal thirteen States of the American Union, Pennsylvania 
occupies the middle (seventh) place. This order is repre- 
sented by an arch of thirteen stones, with Pennsylvania 
as the keystone. 
key-Stop (ke'stop), n. A digital or key so fitted 
to a violin as to control the stopping of the 
strings. A violin provided with key-stops is 
called a key-stop or keyed-stop violin. 
use to prevent te turning of a key, as a loop thegsatuec cae a ey-stop or eye-sop von. 
of wireliung over the door-knob and passed o f Man. key-tail (ke'tal), . In an organ or pianoforte, 
the neighboring island, in this respect that the mem- 
through the bow of the key. 2. A tapered or 
wedge-shaped piece of metal which holds the 
breech-block or breech-plug of a gun firmly 
closed when it is inserted in the seat: a modi- 
fication of the grip-fastener. 
key-file (ke'fil), n. A flat file of a uniform sec- 
tion throughout, used by locksmiths. 
key-fruit (ke'frot), n. Same as samara. 
key-guard (ke'gard), n. Same as keyhole- 
guard. 
key-harp (ke'harp), n. A musical instrument 
similar m shape and action to a pianoforte, but keysart, n. See kaiser 1 . 
having tuning-forks in place of strings. key-seat (ke'set), n. A key-bed. 
that part of the keys of a manual which is be- 
yi* the key-pin/and which rises when the 
, front of the key is depressed. 
bers dispensed with the people, and solemnly elected each key-tone (ke'ton), n. Same as key-note, 1. 
other. Wilkie Collins, Armadale, ii. 3. key-trumpet (ke'trum'pet), . A trumpet in 
The Keys were at one itime self-elected, but in 1866 they 
w ti cn the length of the vibrating column of 
air an(J thug 6 the Hch of the t Sne, is con- 
Dolled by holes in the side of the tube which 
are opened and closed by means of levers or 
keys. 
J. Bryce, American Commonwealth, I. 216, note. key-Valve (ke'valv), n. In music, the pad or 
valve-plug which closes an aperture on the side 
of the tube of a wind-instrument. E. D. 
consented to popular election. Encyc. Brit., XV. 452. 
assembly 
mt vote sep- 
arately. The Governor presides, as the English king did 
in his Great Council. 
