AIGULETS [Fr. aiguillettes]. Tagged points or cords worn across the breast in some uniforms of generals, staff-officers, and special mounted corps.
AILETTES. Small plates of steel placed on the shoulders in mediæval armour.
AIM. The direction of a musket, cannon, or any other fire-arm or missile weapon towards its object.—To take aim, directing the piece to the object.
AIR. The elastic, compressible, and dilatable fluid encompassing the terraqueous globe. It penetrates and pervades other bodies, and thus animates and excites all nature.—Air means also a gentle breath of wind gliding over the surface of the water.—To air, to dry or ventilate.
AIR-BLADDER. A vesicle containing gas, situated immediately beneath the spinal column in most fish, and often communicating by a tube with the gullet. It is the homologue of the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates.
AIR-BRAVING. Defying the winds.
AIR-CONE, in the marine engine, is to receive the gases which enter the hot-well from the air-pump, where, after ascending, they escape through a pipe at the top.
AIRE. A name in our northern islands for a bank of sand.
AIR-FUNNEL. A cavity formed by omission of a timber in the upper works of a vessel, to admit fresh air into the hold of a ship and convey the foul out of it.
AIR-GUN. A silent weapon, which propels bullets by the expansive force of air only.