Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LA'BEL, n. [W. llab, a strip; labed, a label.]

1. A narrow slip of silk, paper or parchment, containing name or title, and affixed to any thing, denoting its contents. Such are the labels affixed to the vessels of an apothecary. Labels also are affixed to deeds or writings to hold the appended seal. – Harris.
2. Any paper annexed to a will by way of addition; as a codicil. – Encyc.
3. In heraldry, [a fillet with pendants or points. The number of pendants is indifferent, but is usually three. The label with three pendants is added to the family arms by an eldest or only son, while his father is still living. – E. H. B.]
4. A long thin brass rule, with a small sight at one end, and a center-hole at the other, commonly used with a tangent line on the edge of a circumferentor, to take altitudes, &c. – Encyc.