A word meaning literally “a stork,” but also applied to a mimic gesture
expressive of ridicule or contempt, produced by bending the forefinger into the form of a
stork's neck, and pointing it towards the person ridiculed with a rapid motion of the two top
joints up and down (Pers. i. 58
, with the commentators; Hieron.
A contrivance employed by farmers to test a labourer's work in spade husbandry, and prove
if all his trenches were dug to a uniform and proper width and depth. It
consisted of an upright, with a cross-bar affixed to it, at right angles, like the letter T
invèrted, so that the long branch measured the depth, and the two shorter arms the
width and evenness of the trench (Colum. iii. 13, 11).