triplet
(ˈtrɪplɪt)
Also 8 triplit.
[f. triple, after doublet; cf. F. triplet (Littré).]
1. A set of three; three persons or things combined or united.
| 1733 Swift Legion Club 183 Such a triplet could you tell Where to find on this side hell? 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 444 A very frequent succession of words and phrases, in couplets, or triplets, is also a great blemish in composition. 1851 Airy Presid. Addr. Brit. Assoc. 43 Observing stations should be selected..in triplets: the three stations of each triplet having relation to the north boundary, the centre, and the south boundary of the shadow. The Russian Government has..actually equipped six triplets. |
2. In various specific uses.
a. Three successive lines of verse,
esp. when riming together and of the same length.
| 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. ii. xiv. (1674) 153 Berni, the Head of those Italian Poets, who have..written facetious things in Triplets. 1697 [see 3]. 1751 Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 188 One of his strictest rules in poetry was to avoid triplets. 1800 Malone Life Dryden 525 He sent a second messenger to the book⁓seller, with a very satirical triplet. 1862 Borrow Wild Wales lix. (1911) 311 He was a poet by nature, having a muse wonderfully glib at making triplets and quartets. |
b. pl. Three children at a birth;
sing. one of three at a birth.
| 1787 Garthshore in Phil Trans. LXXVII. 351 [Of] triplets, or three born at once, we find comparatively..few instances in..any..country. 1860 Tanner Signs Pregnancy (1862) 110 The presence of three distinct [uterine] double sounds, not isochronous, warrants the diagnosis of triplets. 1905 Daily News 25 Jan. 9 His mother said she..had two other boys the same age..The troublesome triplet was remanded. |
c. Mus. A group of three notes to be played in the time of two of the same time-value.
| 1801 in Busby Dict. Mus. 1848 Rimbault Piano 23 When three notes of one sort are joined together, and have the figure 3 placed over or under them, they are called a Triplet,..and are to be performed in the time of two only of the same kind. 1862 Ernst Pauer Programme 8 Mar., With triplets continually increasing in rapidity. |
| transf. 1860 Ruskin Unto this Last iv. §82 Triplets of birds and murmur and chirp of insects. |
d. Arch. A window of three lights.
| 1849 Freeman Archit. ii. i. vii. 180 The genuine triplet with the higher central light seems hardly to be found in Italy. 1868 Daily News 22 July, A window in the Abbey Church, consisting of a triplet of lancets at the west end of the nave. |
e. A combination of three plano-convex lenses in a microscope, etc.; also, a microscope having three lenses.
| 1837 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XV. 36 Sir David Brewster has made triplets in which two of the lenses are fluids and the third a solid. 1867 [see 3]. |
f. A counterfeit jewel: see
quot., and
cf. doublet n. 5.
| 1877 Five Yrs.' Penal Servitude iv. 274 A triplet is made as follows:—Two colourless topazes are prepared for the back and the front. Between these is neatly placed a piece of blue glass, and the three are stuck together with Venice turpentine. |
g. A tandem bicycle for three riders.
| 1894 Daily News 3 Sept. 3/3 On a triplet, [they] started to create a record for their type of machine, and succeeded..in riding the fastest mile ever ridden at Herne-hill. |
h. Geom. A system of three families of surfaces such that one of each family passes through each point of space.
i. Naut. Three links between the cable and the anchor-ring.
j. Poker. (See
quot. 1864.)
| 1864 W. B. Dick Amer. Hoyle 164 Triplets are three cards of the same denomination, and rank higher than two pairs. For example;—three Deuces beat a pair of Aces and Kings. 1887 J. W. Keller Game of Draw Poker 14 Full Hand—(Triplets accompanied by a pair)... A full hand beats a flush. 1950 [see sandbagger 2]. |
k. (
i)
Physics and
Chem. A multiplet (sense a) composed of three lines or energy levels. Freq.
attrib.,
esp. designating an atom with two unpaired electrons and
S = 1.
| 1879 Proc. R. Soc. XXX. 29 The flame spectrum of magnesium was examined, a green triplet was observed. 1922 [see singlet 3 a]. 1934, 1937 [see intercombination]. 1950 G. Herzberg Spectra of Diatomic Molecules (ed. 2) v. 216 Molecules with an even number of electrons have odd multiplicities (singlets, triplets,{ddd}) since S is integral. 1977 Nature 3 Nov. 15/1 The Earth has an atmosphere containing diatomic triplet oxygen..essential for life. |
(
ii)
Particle Physics. A multiplet (sense b) of three sub-atomic particles.
| 1937 [singlet 3 b]. 1961 M. Gell-Mann in Gell-Mann & Ne'eman Eightfold Way (1964) 12 We have a triplet ρ of vector mesons coupled to the isotopic spin current and a singlet vector meson ω0 coupled to the hypercharge current. 1968 [see octet, octette 3 c]. 1975 Sci. Amer. Oct. 40/1 The pion is a triplet with an average mass of ·137 GeV and three charge states: +1, 0 and -1. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
triplet condenser,
triplet head,
triplet rhyme, etc.;
triplet code Genetics, the accepted version of the genetic code in which amino-acids are specified by three successive nucleotides in a nucleic acid molecule;
triplet lily, the American genus
Triteleia, N.O.
Liliaceæ, having the parts of the flower regularly arranged in threes.
| 1697 Dryden æneid Ded. fj, I frequently make use of Triplet Rhymes. 1867 J. Hogg Microsc. i. i. 13 The first triplet achromatic object-glass. 1874 H. H. Cole Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus. App. 287 This bas-relief represents a god with several triplet heads and a great number of hands. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Triteleia, Triplet-Lily. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 548 Microscope and micropolariscope, fitted with Mr. Hughes's patent 5in. triplet condensers. 1900 Daily News 21 Apr. 6/3 New amateur triplet records were established..from two miles up to 28 miles. 1957 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XLIII. 687 Such triplet codes..have an excess of information, since there are sixty-four different triplets for the twenty amino acids. 1976 P. Collard Devel. Microbiol. viii. 107 The correctness of the triplet code was soon verified by the elegant experiments of Nirenberg. |