D defs.my
Entry 1 sense Webster, 1913

Napier's bones

· Na·pi·er's bones · IPA
01 A set of rods, made of bone or other material, each divided into nine spaces, and containing the numbers of a column of the multiplication …
  1. 1.
    A set of rods, made of bone or other material, each divided into nine spaces, and containing the numbers of a column of the multiplication table; -- a contrivance of Baron Napier, the inventor of logarithms, for facilitating the operations of multiplication and division.