in clock-work, a general term for the manner of communicating the impulse of the wheels to the pendulum. The ordinary scapements consist of the swing-wheel and pallets only; but modern improvements have added other levers or detents, chiefly for the purpose of diminishing friction, or for detaching the pendulum from the prelude of the wheels during part of the time of its vibration. See WATCH Making, in this Suppl.