[f. WARE sb.3 + HOUSE sb. Cf. Du. warenhuis, G. warenhaus.]
1. A building or part of a building used for the storage of merchandise; the building in which a wholesale dealer keeps his stock of goods for sale; a building in which furniture or other property is housed, a charge being made for the accommodation; a government building (more fully BONDED warehouse) in which dutiable imported goods are kept in bond until it is convenient to the importer to pay the duty.
1349. Will of W. Erl, in Red Register of Lynn (MS.), fol. 85. j seldam cum … duobus warehouses.
1453. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., I. 256. I kowd not gette no grawnt of hym to have the warehows.
1522. More, De Quat. Noviss., Wks. (1557), 94. Let them here what Christ saith in the ghospell to the ryche couetous gatherer, yt thoughte to make his barnes and his warehouses larger to laye in the more.
1530. Palsgr., 286/2. Warehouse to shewe marchandyse in, une monstre a marchandise.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xl. 10. Therfore gather you wyne, corne and oyle, and kepe them in youre ware houses.
1539. T. Pery, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. II. 140. I so beinge in my ware howsse bessy, ther yentrede in a pryste.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., i. 6. The first suit of apparell that euer mortall man put on, came neither from the Mercers shop, nor the Merchants ware-house.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. iii. Their prayers will … keep your ware-houses From fire, or quench ’em with their tears.
1660. in Verney Mem. (1894), III. x. 375. My Mr. was all the while in the Warehouse with him wch brought ye Silke.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., III. Wks. 1851, III. 95. Some who had bin call’d from shops and warehouses … fell to huckster the Commonwealth.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 416. It is the retailer and petty shop-keeper … that must supply the demands of the public: importation is not their business, but to resort to the warehouse, and retail out the goods as received from thence.
1799. Local Act 39 Geo. III., c. 58 § 4. Every Box, Basket, Packet, Parcel [etc.] … brought to any Inn, Warehouse, or other Place, by any Public Stage Coach.
1840. Act 3 & 4 Vict., c. 17 § 2. Spirits … in Warehouse under Her Majesty’s Locks.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., i. 11. We have around us the wholesale ‘warehouses’ and offices wherein is transacted all the business between the dealers, the manufacturers, the spinners, the bleachers, the calico-printers.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xlvi. A packer’s warehouse, and a bottle-maker’s warehouse.
1918. Act 8 & 9 Geo. V., c. 15 § 7. Tobacco exported from Great Britain … or deposited in a bonded or King’s warehouse.
b. transf. and fig.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, VI. vii. 246. As Budæus calleth the worke in his Mercuries seller, or Minerua’s warehouse [i.e. Παλλάδος Ταμιεῖον].
1612. Rowlands, Knave of Spades, E 2 b. His richest ware-house is a greasie pocket, And two pence in Tabacco still doth stocke it.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Streets—Night. The kidney-pie man has just walked away with his warehouse on his arm.
† c. A mason’s or carpenter’s workshop. Obs.–0
1530. Palsgr., 286/2. Warehouse for masons or carpentars, astillier [= atelier].
† d. A tradesman’s inner or back shop. Obs.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Magazin, or arriére boutique, a warehouse, an inner shop.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., II. i. Tho. Where’s the boy? Piso. Within sir, in the warehouse.
1605. Timme, Quersit., II. vii. 139. Neither did they care for so great confusion of compositions and mixtures which fill a whole ware-house and shoppe.
† e. Used as a more dignified synonym for ‘shop.’ Obs.
With defining word, as in baby-linen warehouse, Italian warehouse, the word is still met with on the signboards of London shops.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scot. (1818), I. 65. Here and there you may now see an ordinary shop dubbed with the important title of a Warehouse.
1796–7. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej. (1813), III. v. 93. She does not know which are the best warehouses. Ibid. (1798), Northang. Abb., ix. Mrs. Hughes saw all the clothes after they came from the warehouse.
c. 1852–7. Katey’s Voy., 13, ‘I know him,’ said one of the men. ‘He lives at Douglas, just off the quay.’ ‘I know him too. I’ve bought goods at his warehouse,’ observed a lady.
f. In a printing office (see quot.).
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Warehouse, the department responsible for printed work and ‘white’ paper…. Warehouse-knife, a large knife used for cutting up by hand small quantities of paper.
2. attrib., as warehouse-door, -keeper, -rent; warehouse-knife (see 1 f); warehouse-room, storage in a warehouse.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxvi. A salesman … who was smoking a pipe at his *warehouse-door.
1683. W. Hedges, Diary (Hakl. Soc.), I. 73. They have been forced to give Mr. Ellis, *warehouse keeper, each of them, a Bribe.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxv. ¶ 1. The Warehouse-keeper takes the Heap out of the Press-room … into the Warehouse.
1709. Act 8 Anne, c. 21 § 5. The Ware-house-Keeper of the said Company of Stationers.
1821. J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs (ed. 2), 392. Delivered the above, 10 November, 1819. A. B. Warehouse-keeper.
1799. Local Act 39 Geo. III., c. 58 § 6, marg. Parcels … to be delivered … on Payment of Carriage and *Warehouse-Rent.
1615. E. S., Britain’s Buss, in Arber, Eng. Garner, III. 640. For *Warehouse-room there, till the herrings be sold, allow, at most £2 0s. 0d.
1799. Local Act 39 Geo. III., 58 § 6. The additional Sum of Two Pence for the Warehouse-Room thereof [sc. of the Parcel].
1830. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 259. Does the value of this probability pay for the expense of warehouse-room?
Hence Warehouseful.
1841. Manchester Times, etc., 21 Aug., 1/7. If a merchant were to take over a warehouseful of calicoes from Manchester, and offer them to the western farmer at 6d., or even 3d., what would he answer?
1859. Mill, Liberty, iii. 121. A man cannot get a coat or a pair of boots to fit him, unless they are either made to his measure or he has a whole warehouseful to choose from.
