Find the word definition

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Second-cut file

Second \Sec"ond\, a. [F., fr. L. secundus second, properly, following, fr. sequi to follow. See Sue to follow, and cf. Secund.]

  1. Immediately following the first; next to the first in order of place or time; hence, occurring again; another; other.

    And he slept and dreamed the second time.
    --Gen. xli. 5.

  2. Next to the first in value, power, excellence, dignity, or rank; secondary; subordinate; inferior.

    May the day when we become the second people upon earth . . . be the day of our utter extirpation.
    --Landor.

  3. Being of the same kind as another that has preceded; another, like a prototype; as, a second Cato; a second Troy; a second deluge.

    A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
    --Shak.

    Second Adventist. See Adventist.

    Second cousin, the child of a cousin.

    Second-cut file. See under File.

    Second distance (Art), that part of a picture between the foreground and the background; -- called also middle ground, or middle distance. [R.]

    Second estate (Eng.), the House of Peers.

    Second girl, a female house-servant who does the lighter work, as chamber work or waiting on table.

    Second intention. See under Intention.

    Second story, Second floor, in America, the second range of rooms from the street level. This, in England, is called the first floor, the one beneath being the ground floor.

    Second thought or Second thoughts, consideration of a matter following a first impulse or impression; reconsideration.

    On second thoughts, gentlemen, I don't wish you had known him.
    --Dickens.

Second-cut file

File \File\ (f[imac]l), n. [AS. fe['o]l; akin to D. viji, OHG. f[=i]la, f[=i]hala, G. feile, Sw. fil, Dan. fiil, cf. Icel. [thorn][=e]l, Russ. pila, and Skr. pi[,c] to cut out, adorn; perh. akin to E. paint.]

  1. A steel instrument, having cutting ridges or teeth, made by indentation with a chisel, used for abrading or smoothing other substances, as metals, wood, etc.

    Note: A file differs from a rasp in having the furrows made by straight cuts of a chisel, either single or crossed, while the rasp has coarse, single teeth, raised by the pyramidal end of a triangular punch.

  2. Anything employed to smooth, polish, or rasp, literally or figuratively.

    Mock the nice touches of the critic's file.
    --Akenside.

  3. A shrewd or artful person. [Slang]
    --Fielding.

    Will is an old file in spite of his smooth face.
    --Thackeray.

    Bastard file, Cross file, etc. See under Bastard, Cross, etc.

    Cross-cut file, a file having two sets of teeth crossing obliquely.

    File blank, a steel blank shaped and ground ready for cutting to form a file.

    File cutter, a maker of files.

    Second-cut file, a file having teeth of a grade next finer than bastard.

    Single-cut file, a file having only one set of parallel teeth; a float.

    Smooth file, a file having teeth so fine as to make an almost smooth surface.