Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ROS'TRUM, n. [L.; W. rhetgyr, a snout, or rhethren, a pike.]

1. The beak or bill of a bird.
2. The beak or head of a ship.
3. In ancient Rome, a scaffold or elevated place in the forum, where orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, &c., were delivered.
4. The pipe which conveys the distilling liquor into its receiver, in the common alembic.
5. A crooked pair of scissors, used by surgeons for dilating wounds. – Coxe. Quincy.