Forms: 4–7 bordure, 5 bordur, (bordeure), 5– border. Also 5 bourder, -ur, bordore, bowerdur, bordeure, 6 bordre; Sc. bordour, -ar. [ME. bordure, a. OF. bordure, earlier bordeüre, corresp. to Pr., Sp., Pg. bordadura, It. and late L. bordatura ‘edging,’ f. *bordāre (It., Sp. bordar, F. border) to edge or border, f. bordus (It., Sp. bordo, Fr. bord) ‘side, edge, border,’ a. Teut. bord ‘side’: see BOARD sb. As in some other words the ME. termination -ure has been weakened through -ur to -er, thus disguising the etymology: the earlier BORDURE (in Caxton bordeure) is retained in Heraldry.]
1. A side, edge, brink or margin; a limit, or boundary; the part of anything lying along its boundary or outline.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., I. 4. A lyne, that cometh … down to the nethereste bordure.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1598. Bigget in bourders of the stretes.
c. 1430. Syr Gener., 4076. With riche stoones in the bourdure.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 14. The borders or edges of beddes.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, I. vi. 2. The endes, limites, or borders of a lyne, are pointes.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 943. The borders and endes of ones heare of his head.
1611. Bible, Ex. xix. 12. That ye goe not vp into the mount, or touch the border of it.
a. 1819. Hogg, Hawick Common-riding Song, ix. Down by Teviot’s flowery border.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 8. 263. The glacier is … loaded along its borders with the ruins of the mountains.
2. The district lying along the edge of a country or territory, a frontier; pl. the marches, the border districts.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 12861. There come … ffro the bowerdurs aboute … Pilours and plodders.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. xii. 31. See … that the frontyers and borders be wel garnysshed.
1494. Fabyan, VI. clxxiii. 169. An host of the men of Mercya, and the border there aboute.
1580. Jrnls. Ho. Commons, I. 125. A Bill touching the Fortifying of the Borders towards Scotland.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 361. Though Heav’n be shut … this place may lye expos’d The utmost border of his kingdom.
1805. Southey, Madoc in W., X. Wolves of war, They kept their border well.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 80. The Gorkhas ravaged the borders almost in sight of them.
b. The boundary line that separates one country from another, the frontier line. On the border: on or close to this line, on either side; hence, in the border district. On the borders of (Wales): close to the frontier of (Wales). Over the border: across the frontier line.
1535. Coverdale, Josh. xv. 6. The border northwarde, is from the see coast … and goeth vp vnto Beth Hagla.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, IV. 5904. Thay sall dwell on the bordour Off Hell.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. vii. (1675), 211. Upon the Borders of two Hostile Nations.
1703. Kirkton, Life J. Welsh (1776), 2. He … went and joined himself to the thieves on the English border, who lived by robbing the two nations.
1732. De Foe, etc., Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), III. iii. 254. I am now on the Borders of Scotland.
1815. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), III. 588. Berwick-upon-Tweed, is a town on the border of England and Scotland, and a county of itself.
1867. Baker, Nile Tribut., viii. 181. He takes refuge over the border.
1876. Green, Short Hist., v. (1884), 79. Their inhabitants slain or driven over the Scotch border.
c. With various prepositions, e.g., within, in, out of, and in other connections, borders is equivalent to ‘territories, dominions, limits.’ (L. fines.)
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. x. 131. Wyth-in þe Bordwrys of Ingland.
1535. Coverdale, Ex. xxxiv. 24. Whan I shal … enlarge thy borders.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech., 35. I sall gif peace to all your bordouris [in finibus vestris].
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M., I. 251. He refused to meet us in the borders of the King.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 140. A beggerly Beast brought out of barbarous borders.
1611. Bible, Deut. xii. 20. When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border [Coverd. bordes].
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, iii. 60. No man in our borders is rich enough.
1837. Wreford, Hymm, ‘Lord, while for all.’ O guard our shores from every foe, With peace our borders bless.
3. spec. a. (Eng. and Sc. Hist.) The Border, the Borders: the boundary between England and Scotland; the district adjoining this boundary on both sides; the English and Scottish border-land. (The term appears to have been first established in Scotland, where the English border, being the only one it has, was emphatically the border.)
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 471. Gif thift or reif wes maid vpon the bordour.
c. 1536. Lyndesay, Compl., 384. Baith throw the heland and the bordour.
1601. Act 43 Eliz., xiii. Pream., To pay … black-mail unto divers and sundry inhabiting upon or near the Borders.
1663. Lamont, Diary (1810), 207. A student of philosophie in St. Andrews, went away with one Agnes Allane … to the border, to be married at the halfe marke church.
1732. De Foe, etc., Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), IV. ii. 61. Laws relating to the Borders.
1773. Mrs. Grant, Lett. fr. Mountains (1809), I. 89. Mr. Gray is a native of the border.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. xii. Through all the wide Border his steed was the best.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. i. 14. All the way from the border to the Highland line.
1881. J. Russell, Haigs, v. 104. Like his neighbour chiefs on the Borders.
b. attrib. Of or pertaining to the Border.
1599. James I., Βασιλικον Δωρον, in Chambers, Life Jas. I. (1830), I. viii. 232. Any Hieland or Border thieves.
1799. Wordsw., Fountain, iii. Some old border-song or catch.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, Introd. 8. The last of all the Bards was he Who sung of Border chivalry. Ibid., III. iv. note. An emphatic Border motto, Thou shalt want ere I want.
1869. Buckle, Civiliz., III. iii. 117. He summoned … the border barons.
1881. J. Russell, Haigs, v. 105. With the true old Border instinct, bringing off whatever was transportable on its own four feet.
c. In U.S.: The line or frontier between the occupied and unoccupied parts of the country, the frontier of civilization. Also attrib.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. ii. 33. The indirect manner so much in use by the border inhabitants.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, xvii. 372. He put a guard at every Border-ruffian’s door.
1863. Times, 10 April, 9/3. The days when the ‘Border ruffianism’ of Kansas was the staple subject of the denunciation of the Republican party.
1870. R. Pumpelly, Across Amer. & Asia, i. 1. The man was a border bully, armed with revolver, knife, and rifle.
4. A strip of ground in a garden, forming a fringe to the general area, often reserved for flowers; distinguished from beds, or flower-plots formed in the area. Also attrib., as in a hardy border plant, useful border annuals.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 329. [The bourderis about abasshet with leuys].
1590. Spenser, Muiopot., 170. He … doth flie, From bed to bed, from one to other border.
1632. G. Herbert, Temple, Sunday, iv. The fruitfull beds & borders In Gods rich garden.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 161, ¶ 2. A wonderful Profusion of Flowers … without being disposed into regular Borders and Parterres.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xx. (1813), 409. Annuals, tender sorts, pot & plant out into the borders.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v. Campanula, All the species … are well adapted for decorating flower-borders.
5. A defined edging, of distinct material, color, shape, pattern, or ornamentation, made or fixed along the margin of anything. (With many specific applications in arts and manufactures.)
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1652. The windowes … worthely wroght … The bases & bourdurs all of bright perle.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxx. With a bordur aboute alle of brent gold.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, IV. i. The bordeure about is hygher than the squarenes of the poyntes.
1611. Bible, Ex. xxv. 25. Thou shalt make vnto it a border of an hand bredth round about.
1659. Leak, Water-works, 22. There must be also the border P Q Soldered upon the Vessel.
1854. Owen, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), II. 66/2. The thickened external border … perforated for the lodgment of the teeth, is the ‘alveolar border.’
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Border, a piece of wood put round the upper edges of anything, either for use or ornament. Such are the three pieces of wood … which are mitred together round the slab of a chimney.
Mod. This carpet would look better with a border. The newspapers appeared with black borders in sign of mourning.
b. spec. A piece of ornamental work round the edge of a garment, cap, etc.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. i. 6. In þe neþerest[e] hem or bordure of þese cloþes.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, IV. iv. You wore … A velvet hood, rich borders, & sometimes A dainty miniver cap.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xii. Up to the very border of her cap.
1854. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., i. Indian shawls. Delhi? with the lovely little borders?
† 6. A plait or braid of hair (natural or otherwise) worn round the forehead or temples. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 559. Corne … beareth the graines arranged spikewise, and as if they were plaited and braided like a border of haire.
1656. Artif. Handsomeness, 59. [They] admit not onely borders of forain haire, but full and fair peruques.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 9 May. I did try two or three borders & perriwigs, meaning to wear one.
1865. Art Jrnl., No. 321. 91/2. The old lady’s ‘borders’ and ribbons.
7. Bot. The expanded portion at the top of a tubular flower.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 6. The Primrose, the flat portion of which is called the border.
8. pl. Small portions of the scenery in a theater forming the side wings.
1881. L. Wagner, Pantomimes, 57. The flymen, whose … business it is to draw up, and lower the scenes and borders.
9. Hydraulic Engineering. (See quot.)
1847. J. Dwyer, Hydraulic Engineer., 29. The Border of a River, Canal, &c., is the sum of the sides and bottom, or it is the perimeter in contact with the water.
10. fig. A limit, boundary, ‘verge.’ (Transferred from place to time and abstract things.)
1728. Young, Love Fame, V. (1757), 137. On the borders of threescore.
1747. Hervey, Medit. & Contempl. (1818), 211. A person who walks on the borders of eternity.
a. 1783. H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. III. (1845), I. iv. 52. He affected an impartiality that by turns led him to the borders of insincerity and contradiction.
1866. J. Martineau, Ess., I. 72. Beyond the rigid border of the science.
11. Attrib. and Comb., as border-flower, -ground, -mark, -plant, -stone, -world. (See also sense 3 b.)
1851. Glenny, Handbk. Fl.-Gard., 12. It is only the mass of flowers … that makes it tolerable as a *border-flower.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 191. A *border-ground between philosophy and politics.
1613. M. Ridley, Magn. Bodies, 28. That divideth the North-part … from the South part, as by a *border-marke.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 18. The grey *border-stone that is wist To dilate and assume a wild shape in the mist.
1878. Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf. P., 833. That *border-world Of dozing ere the sense is fully locked.
12. Special comb.: border-house, a Border tower, a peel; border-man, one who dwells on the border of a country, = BORDERER; border marriage, see MARRIAGE; border-pile (Hydr. Engineering), an exterior pile of a coffer-dam; Border-pricker, -rider, a mounted freebooter or ‘thief’ living on the Border of England and Scotland; border-service, military service in defending a frontier; Border-side, the district about the Border (cf. country-side); border-stone, (a.) a stone marking a boundary; (b.) a curbstone; Border-warden, Warden of the Marches (of England and Scotland); Border-warrant, a writ issued on one side of the Scottish Border for the apprehension of a person on the other side.
1792. Pennant, Tours Scotl. (1790), 90. The castle is no more than a square tower or *border-house.
1620. W. Scot, Apol. Narr. (1846), 82. The wyld *bordermen stood in … awe of the Presbyteries excommunication.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. ii. 29. A border man … is seldom deficient in the virtue of hospitality.
1865. Grote, Plato, I. xix. 557. The border-men between philosophy and politics.
1820. Scott, Monast., xvi. With two *Border-prickers, as they are called, for my guides. Ibid., Abbot, ii. I have no home … it was burnt by your *Border-riders.
1707. Addr. fr. Cumberland, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4334/2. There is now … no Black Mail to be paid … no *Border-Service.
a. 1700. Ballad ‘Johnie Armstrang,’ xiv. Lang mayst thou dwell on the *Border-Syde.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, IV. xxiv. And burn and spoil the Border-side. Ibid. (1820), Monast., xxxiv. A *Border-warden, he will be eager to ride in Scotland. Ibid. (1816), Antiq., xxxix. There’s *Border-warrants too in the south country, unco rash uncanny things.
