Forms: 3 windoȝe, -ohe, -ewe (?), wyndouwe, 3–4 windou, 4 wyndew, wondowe, wyntdouwe, pl. windos, Sc. vyndow, 4–6 wyndow(e, -ou, wyndo, 5–6 wyndoe, 6 -oo, wendo, windoe, pl. wyndose, wyendos, vynndovs, wendoyes, Sc. vindo, wondow, 6–7 windo, -owe, 4– window. [ME. windoȝe, a. ON. vindauga, f. vindr WIND sb.1 + auga EYE sb.1 (See also WIND-DOOR, WINDORE, WINDOWN, WINNOCK.) The Scand. word replaced and finally superseded OE. éaʓþyrel EYETHURL, éaʓduru, but the French-derived FENESTER was in concurrent use down to the beginning of the modern period.]
1. An opening in a wall or side of a building, ship, or carriage, to admit light or air, or both, and to afford a view of what is outside or inside.
In ancient buildings it was either left entirely open, furnished with shutters or curtains, or (sometimes) glazed; in modern buildings or vehicles for human occupation, it is usually fitted with sheets of glass, horn, mica, etc., a frame containing a pane or panes of glass, or glazed sashes, the whole framework being known as the window.
It has been suggested that widewen in Lay. 30822 is a miswriting for widewen = windewen ‘windows.’
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 50. Þe leste þæt ȝe euer muwen luuieð our þurles, al beon heo lutle, þe parluris lest & nerewest [Titus MS. windohes, al beon ho lutle, þe parlure windohe beo least & narewest].
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 602. Fowerti dais after ðis, Arches windoȝe undon it is.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 241/35. To a derne wyndouwe softeliche seint Nicholas gan gon.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15035. O walles and windos als Þair hefdes ouer þai hang.
13[?]. K. Alis., 6164 (Laud MS.). Wyndewes closed by on gynne.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. III. 52. Þer nis nouþur Wyndou ne Auter, Þat I ne schulde maken oþur mende and my nome write.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxii. (Laurentius), 725. His vyndow opnyt he in hy.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1362. Atte wondowe sche lynede out.
c. 1450. Merlin, x. 140. Merlin … opened the two wyndowes towarde the gardyn, for he wolde that thei hadde lyght ther-ynne.
1530. Palsgr., 289/1. Wyndowes that be in a house toppe, lucarne.
1542. Boorde, Regyment, viii. E j b. In the nyght let the wyndowes of your howse, specyallye of your chambre bee closed.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvii. 148. In ȝour glasyn vindois.
1566. in Peacock, Engl. Ch. Furniture (1866), 98. The roode lofte—taken downe and sold … to harrie walwyn … wch he doth mynd to make windoes of.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 177. The earle Bothwell … come out at ane wondow [v.r. windok] be ane tow.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 2. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
1632. Milton, Penseroso, 159. Storied Windows richly dight. Ibid. (1667), P. L., IV. 191. As a Thief … In at the window climbes.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 498. Trees are to be seen From ev’ry window.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., li. The windows were looked out of often enough to justify the imposition of an additional duty upon them. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., xx. Mr. Guppy has been lolling out of window all the morning.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 507. A window … of perforated zinc.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxiii. 162. Against some of the windows … the snow was also piled, obscuring more than half their light.
1864. Lewins, H. M. Mails, 201. [At the last stroke of] six, when all the windows fall like so many swords of Damocles.
b. With qualification denoting (a) the building, room, vehicle, etc., to which the window belongs, as carriage, church, door-, lobby, office, parlour, steeple, stove window, SHOP-WINDOW, or (b) the form or material, as double-, drop-, French, wheel-window, BAY-, BOW-, GLASS-, ROSE-WINDOW.
a. 1225. [see above].
1428. [see BAY-WINDOW].
1447–8. [see GABLE sb.1 4].
1450. Rolls of Parlt., V. 182/2. A Gavill Wyndowe over a Cloyster.
1485. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 29. All the glass wyndowes in the saide place. Ibid. (c. 1495[?]), 102. Church wyndowis, the vestry wyndowis.
1560, 1680. [see STOVE sb.1 6].
1581. Burne, in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.), 110. At the tolbuith vindo.
1583. Exchequer Rolls Scot., XXI. 556. At the chekker hous windo.
1616. [see DOOR sb. 8].
1854. Directory Bath, Wells, etc. p. ix. When the Letter-box is closed for the despatch of any Mail,… an extra box is opened in the Lobby Window.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Double-window, one having two sets of sash, inclosing a body of air as a non-conductor of heat and to deaden noise.
2. transf. A window space or opening; esp. in phr. in the window, now chiefly with reference to the exhibition of notices, advertisements, etc., or the display of goods (as in a shop-window).
To dress a window: cf. window-dresser, dressing in 5 d.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., xxxi. 91. In a wyndou ther we stod, we custe us fyfty sythe.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xlv. (Cristine), 19. Incense laid in a wyndo by.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xx. 9. Sum ȝong man, Euticus bi name, sittinge on the wyndow [Vulg. super fenestram; ἑπὶ τῆς θυρίδος; 1526 Tindale, in a wyndowe].
1543. Galway Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 410. No man … shall have no kynd of merchandiz in ther houssis shopis or wyndous to be sold to strangers.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 36. Searching the Window for a Flint, I found This Paper.
1648. Bp. Hall, Breathings Devout Soul, xix. 29. Whiles I have but a spider in my window, or a bee in my garden, or a worm under my feet.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. vi. § 46. At Fotheringhay-Castle I have read written by Her in a window, with a pointed Diamond [etc.].
1757. Hist. Two Mod. Adventurers, II. 195. The Sashes were thrown up, and they were all sitting in the Windows.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xix. An old romaunt … which lay beside him in the window.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Pawnbroker’s Shop. The articles of stock which are displayed in some profusion in the window.
1861. Brit. Postal Guide, 1 Jan., 26. A list of the addresses is fixed in the window of the Post Office to which they may have been sent.
1905. H. G. Wells, Kipps, I. ii. § 2. Carshot, the window-dresser … nagged persistently … until the window was done.
b. Goldsmith’s window (Gold-mining colloq.): a rich working in which the gold shows abundantly.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right, xiv. This … was after we had worked out our ‘goldsmith’s window,’ as the adjacent diggers christened it.
3. Applied to openings resembling or likened to a window in shape or function.
e.g., † An opening in the side of a vessel, as a salt-cellar, a censer, and the like; † an opening or gap; † a blank space left in a writing; a shutter, valve, door, or similar opening; pl. a pattern of squares made with sugar on bread and butter; soap-bubbles blown between the finger and thumb.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), x. 38. Þat tabernacle has na wyndowes.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 911. The vesare, the aventaile, enarmede so faire, Voyde with-owttyne vice, with wyndowes of syluer.
1459. Paston Lett., I. 470. j saltsaler … with many wyndowes.
1517. in Archaeologia, LXI. 84. A tabernacle of golde with vij wyndowes of birell for the sacrament.
c. 1530. in Gutch, Coll. Cur. (1781), II. 311. Oone Sensour parcell gilte withe Windowes gilte and thoppar Boolls.
1533. Cranmer, Lett., in Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.), 249. That your said collation have a window expedient to set what name I will therein.
1549. Chaloner, Erasm. on Folly, N j. How many wyndowes [orig. nodos] they muste make to theyr shooes.
1576. Baker, Gesner’s Jewell of Health, 162. An ape hole … which may one whyles shutte, and another whyles open,… through the helpe of a certayne plate or wyndowe of yron.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VII. 317. Euery House openeth their Cisterne window, and receiueth as much water, as is able to suffice them till the next Inundation.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 30 Sept. 1644. In the piers of the arches are windowes as it were, to receive the water when it is high and full.
1708. W. King, Cookery (1709), 81. The Fav’rite Child … makes great clutter, Till he has Windows on his Bread and Butter.
1832. L. Hunt, Lines written in May, 15. The merry sap has run up in the bowers, And burst the windows of the buds in flowers.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xxxii. Putting the fore-finger and thumb of each hand together, as if he was making ‘windows’ with soap-suds.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 476. A large, well-made lamp, having side windows.
1894. Bottone, Electr. Instr. Making (ed. 6), 52. The … finished fixed sheet, with its ‘windows,’ central aperture, and side strips.
b. Windows of heaven: openings in the firmament through which rain was thought to pour.
A literalism from Heb., which is rendered in the LXX by καταρράκται τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, in the Vulgate by cataractæ cæli = ‘the floodgates of heaven’ (Douay version); in the early Wycliffite version ‘the goteris of heuene’: cf. CATARACT 1.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. vii. 11. The wyndowis of heuene weren opened, and reyn was maad on erthe.
c. 1420. Prymer, 67 [Ps. xlii. 7]. Depþe clepiþ depþe, in þe vois of þi wyndowis.
1611. Cotgr., Ventailles du ciel, the windowes, or floudgates, of heauen.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 849. The deep, who now had stopt His Sluces, as the Heav’n his windows shut.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxx. The rain was worse than ever,… the wind was not cold, but the windows of heaven were opened.
1869. Goulburn, Purs. Holiness, i. 1. [Elijah] shut up the windows of the sky by his prayers, and by his prayers re-opened them.
c. Anat. = FENESTRA 1.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 603. Betwixt these two windows aboue the lower hole is there a little knub or protuberation.
1683. Snape, Anat. Horse, III. xiv. (1686), 139. The third is called the Stirrop,… and is fixed … round that passage that is called the oval window.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos., I. xiii. § 7. 249. There are yet two Openings in … the Drum [of the ear]: the first of ’em are called the Oval Window…. The other is called the Round Window.
1879. Calderwood, Mind & Br., 71.
4. fig. Applied to the senses or organs of sense, esp. the eyes, regarded as inlets or outlets to or from the mind or soul (also transf. in Shaks., applied to the eyelids).
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, cxviii. 37. We syn wiþ oure eghen when we couayte the þynge þat we see, and swa ded cummys in at þe wyndous of oure wittes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Melib., ¶ 456. Thou hast suffred her entre in to thyn herte wilfully by the wyndowes of thy body.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, xl. (Arb.), 109. Whan ye here after slepe ye nede not to shette but one wyndowe where another muste shette two.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1553), B viij. The eyes … are the windowes of the minde, for bothe ioye and anger … are seen … through them.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 848. Behold the window of my heart, mine eie. Ibid. (1592), Ven. & Ad., 482. Her two blew windowes faintly she vpheaueth. Ibid. (1594), Rich. III., V. iii. 116. Ere I let fall the windowes of mine eyes.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., III. xxx. Those Lights, the radiant Windows of her Minde.
1860. Slang Dict. (ed. 2), Windows, the eyes, or ‘peepers.’
1889. Rider Haggard, Cleopatra (II iii.), in Illustr. Lond. News, 23 Feb., 236/3. She … opened the windows of her eyes.
b. fig. and in allusive or proverbial expressions.
To open a window to: to give an opportunity or occasion for (after Terence, Heaut., III. i. 72 [481] quantam fenestram ad nequitiem patefeceris). To throw the house out at (the) window [= F. jeter la maison par la fenêtre]: to make a great commotion, turn everything topsy-turvy. To come in by the window [= F. entrer par la fenêtre], to come in stealthily.
c. 1420. Prymer, 12. Þou art maad wyndowe of heuene, þat soreuful men entre as sterris.
14[?]. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 187. Loke owt at the wyndows of kyndnesse.
1523. [Coverdale], Old God & New (1534), G. Whan Pipine … sawe so great a wyndowe opened, and so great an occasyon gyuen to hym self, for to inuade the realme.
1551. Crowley, Pleas. & Payne, 350. And you were gladde to take them in, Bycause you knewe that they dyd knowe That youe came in by the wyndowe.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CXXXIX. i. Yea closest closett of my thought Hath open windowes to thine eyes.
1589. Nashe, Countercuffe, Wks. (Grosart), I. 128. To open such a windowe to the deuill, as they were presently giuen ouer as a pray to the iawes of hell.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 129. For such a fault as this, which of us here would not have cried out that the walles should have burst withall, and beene readie to have throwen the house out of window?
1611, 1844. [see HOUSE sb.1 18].
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 73. Sometimes shee is all for belly cheare and banquettings, and as we say, throwes the house out at the windowes.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœm., 28. Love creeps in at window, but goes out at doore.
1687. Boyle, Martyrd. Theodora, vi. 110. The wounds that we quietly suffer to pierce our Breasts, would open you Windows into our hearts.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. xi. ¶ 6. The enraged marquis … pounding Laura’s fair face to a jelly with his fist, and turning her whole house out at window.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 90. His Second Epistle to the Corinthians opens a window into the very emotions of his heart.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib., as window-arch, † -band (BAND sb.1 3), -blind (BLIND sb. 2), † carpet (CARPET sb. 1), -casement, -clasp, -curtain, -cushion, -flower, -frame (FRAME sb. 11), -glass (GLASS sb.1 1, 7), -grate, -hanging(s, -head, -hole, jamb, -leaves (pl.; LEAF sb. 12 b), † -nail, -opening, -recess, -sash (SASH sb.2 1), -shade, -shelf, † slab, strap, † stuff, -ticket, -tracery, -void (VOID sb.1 3 a). b. Objective, as window-breaking (in quots. attrib.), -smashing, -veiling; window-mender, -smasher, -surveyor. c. Adverbial, as window-broken adj.; † window-gazer.
1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vi. 57. The … *window-arch side.
1419. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 145. In iiij par. de dorbandes, j *wyndoband.
1551. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., X. 34. xl pair of wyndo bandis.
1730. Fielding, Tom Thumb, II. ii. Ha! the *Window-Blinds are gone, A Country Dance of Joys is in your Face.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. ii. The yellow window-blind of Pubsey and Co. was drawn down upon the day’s work.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 228. His wild excursions, *window-breaking feats.
1861. Agnes Strickland, Old Friends, Ser. II. 71. The notorious young outlaw … of window-breaking fame.
1859. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. I. 11. *Window-broken, rat-deserted … houses.
1575. in Archaeologia, XXX. 10. v *windowe carpetts of Bramage.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, x. ¶ 10. The Fore-end of the Tympan is made of Iron…. This Iron is somewhat thinner and narrower than an ordinary *Window-Casement.
a. 1865. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xxxiv. (1867), 339. The *window-clasp was unused and stiff.
1600. in W. F. Shaw, Mem. Eastry (1870), 225. Three *window curtaines.
1713. Berkeley, Guardian, No. 49, ¶ 8. My Couches, Beds, and Window-Curtains are of Irish Stuff.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, i. Through the ragged window-curtain, the light of early day steals in from a miserable court.
1617. in W. F. Shaw, Mem. Eastry (1870), 227. Fowre *window cushens.
1818. Keats, Endymion, II. 28. Juliet leaning Amid her *window-flowers.
1703. *Window-frame [see WINDOW-SILL.].
1804. W. L. Bowles, Spir. Discov., V. 51. When winds of winter shake the window-frame.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xi. A tear trembled on his sentimental eyelid like a rain-drop on a window-frame.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 304. Her sonnes gluttonous, her daughters *windowgazers.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 89. The glass-works, where is made *window-glass.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4538/4. 60 Cases of White Normandy Window-Glass.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xii. [He] let down the window-glass.
1847. Mary Howitt, Ballads, 6. The ivy creeps o’er the window-glass.
1892. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Slave of Lamp, xvi. That super-innocent old man with the white hair who wears window-glass spectacles…. They struck me as window-glass—quite flat.
1813. Scott, Trierm., III. xix. A wicket *window-grate.
1840. Dickens, Ola Cur. Shop, lii. The tattered *window-hangings.
1730. T. Boston, Mem., viii. (1899), 169. I espied above the *window-head two little old books.
1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vi. 65. A row of small sunk pannels upon the space between the dripstone and the window head.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 558. There are a mass of black heads sticking through the *window hole.
1727. E. Laurence, Duty of Steward, 158. Door-Jaumes and *Window-Jaumes.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, IV. li. 302. The slit-deal lining of the window-jambs.
1466. Churchw. Acc., Yatton (Som. Rec. Soc.), 104. For angyng, of *wyndow-levys in the treser-howse vjd.
1547. Inv. of Guarderobes (MS. Harl. 1419, lf. 58). Twoo wyndowe leves.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 57. In the Smith’s shop the window-leaves shook, and the slating of the house cracked.
1350. in Riley, Mem. Lond. (1868), 262. 2,600 de *wyndounail,… 23,000 de rofnail.
1502–3. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., II. 355. For xijc windo nales quhilk ȝeid to the wrichtis in Cambusnethane.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), I. 136. The walls … are replaced by *window-openings decorated with stained glass.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxxvi. Oliver walked into the *window-recess.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, X. § 61. The machinery of the *window-sash abruptly striking work.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxvi. Throwing up the window-sash.
1810. Hull Improv. Act, 55. Any … *window-shades, blinds, or other projections.
1884. Black, Jud. Shakespeare, iii. Did I leave it on the *window-shelf?
1769–91. P. Whalley, Northamptonshire, II. 185/1. Chimney pieces and *window slabs of this stone.
1909. Daily Chron., 15 Dec., 7/7. The police state that the *window smashers were not local men.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 12 Dec., 9/4. Much *window-smashing took place.
1888. Barrie, When a Man’s Single, v. As he drew near his destination his hands fidgetted with the *window strap [of a carriage].
1591. in Archaeologia, LXIV. 369. Hewinge and woorckinge of ix foots of playne *windoe stuffe for the stayres.
1750. in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918), 23. The *Window Surveyor came.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 20. *Window Ticket-Maker.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), I. 276. The development and progressive changes in *window-tracery.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. My Godmothers. She seemed to consider this *window-veiling as a point of propriety.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 213. The sink … should be of polished free-stone, made to fit the *window-void.
d. Special combs.: window-bar, (a) any of a set of bars fitted in a window to prevent ingress and egress or accidental fall (in quot. 1607 fig. in reference to open work in a dress); (b) a bar to secure window-shutters when closed; (c) a mullion; window-board, (a) a shutter; (b) a wooden window-ledge; window-box, a box placed outside a window, in which ornamental plants are cultivated; window-case [CASE sb.2 5], a window-frame; window-cleaner (see quot. 1858); window clerk = window-man (a); † window-clothes, window-curtains; window-dresser, one whose business it is to arrange and display goods to the best advantage in a shop-window; also fig. (see next, c); window-dressing, † (a) the fittings and ornaments of a window; (b) the dressing (DRESS v. 8) of a window with goods attractively displayed; (c) fig. a display made in such a manner as to give a falsely favorable impression of the facts; esp. the arrangement of a balance sheet so as to suggest that the business concerned is more prosperous than it is; † window-dropper, one who drops (stealthily) from a window; window-envelope, an envelope with an opening or transparent ‘panel’ in the front through which the address is visible; † window fine, ? a fine exacted from non-burgesses for exposing goods for sale in their windows; window gardening, the cultivation of plants in window spaces or on window-sills; window-jack, ‘a scaffold for carpenters, painters, or cleaners, enabling them to reach the outside of the window’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); window-ledge = WINDOW-SILL; † window-lid [LID sb. 1 b], a window-shutter; window-lights pl. [LIGHT sb. 10], window-panes, esp. as the subject of tax; the tax itself; † window-look, a look or glance through a window; window-man, (a) a man formerly employed at a post-office to attend at the window to receive packets and answer inquiries; (b) a salesman who sells from the window (not from the counter); window-martin, = window swallow; window-mirror, a mirror fixed outside a window and adjustable so as to reflect the image of objects in the street (Knight, 1875); † window money = window-tax; window-mount v., to fix in a mount in the manner of panes of glass in a window; window-oyster, an oyster of the family Placunidæ, so called from its translucent shell; window-pane, (a) see PANE sb.1 6; (b) U.S., see quot. 1873; window-peeper, a surveyor whose duty it was to inspect the assessment of window-tax; † window-post, any of the vertical parts of a window architrave; window-screen, an ornamental device of any kind for filling a window-opening, e.g., lattice-work or stained glass; window-seat, a seat fixed under a window or windows, in a room usually in a recess or bay, often upholstered; † window-set pa. pple., set or furnished with windows; window-shell = window-oyster; † window-shut = window-shutter, a shutter used to darken or secure a window-opening; † window-song, a serenade; window-stone, a stone window-sill; window-stool [STOOL sb. 9] = WINDOW-SILL; window swallow, the house martin; window-tax, a duty levied upon windows, imposed in 1695 and abolished in 1851; † window work, lattice-work used to screen window-openings (in quot. fig. of open lace-work); the structure of a window (in quot. fig. of that of the eye); † window yeld [YIELD sb.1], see quot.
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 116. Those Milke pappes That through the *window Barne [sic] bore at mens eyes.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., i. 14. Only fit for sleight uses, as Window-Bars, Brewers-Bars, Fire-Bars, &c.
1833. Tennyson, May Queen, III. x.
| And once again it came, and close beside the window-bars, | |
| Then seem’d to go right up to Heaven and die among the stars. |
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., lii. The massive iron window-bars and iron-bound door.
1628. Maitl. Club Misc., III. 372. The *window brodis hie and low to be layit over.
1683. G. M[eriton], Yorks. Dial., 8. Nan steeke’th winder-board, and mack it darke.
17[?]. Dainty Davie, ii. in Herd’s Scott. Songs (1776), II. 215. It was in and through the window-broads, And a’ the tirlie wirlies o’d.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 91. Eight window-boards, and shelves and work to pantries.
1823. Joanna Baillie’s Coll. Poems, 295. The seam’d window-board betrays Interior light.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 30 Aug., 1/3. You are worthy of a sort or *window-box cultivation.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 44. Well proportioned *window-cases.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 185. With window-cases, handsomely ornamented.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag., No. 5 (1811), I. 107. And can it be this book so base Is laid on every window-case?
1884. [see FACING vbl. sb. 6 b].
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Window-cleaner, a frame for placing outside of a window, to sit or stand on when cleaning the window-panes; a person who contracts for cleaning windows.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 52. Painter. Glazier…. Window Cleaner.
1864. Lewins, H. M. Mails, 239. In larger towns where one clerk is specially retained for these duties, he is known as the *‘window clerk,’ as it devolves upon him to answer all applications and inquiries.
1584–5. Sir R. Sadler, St. Papers (1809), III. 247. Some dornix to make … *window clothes for her chambre.
1865. General Advertiser (Dublin), 9 Dec. Wanted for the Drapery, a first-class, pushing Sales-woman; must be a good *window dresser.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 22 July, 8/1. The London and Westminster Bank is not one of the window-dressers.
1790. Act 30 Geo. III., c. 53 § 58. Copings, Cornices, Facies, Door, and *Window Dressings.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. x. 13. These shutters may be fixed at small cost, and without interfering with the existent window dressings.
1895. Daily News, 17 Oct., 5/4. Prizes are to be given to tradesmen for the best display of what is called window dressing.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 24 Sept., 6/1. [The finances of Chili] are … in a chaotic state despite all the elegant window-dressing. Ibid. (1909), 9 March, 2/1. The promise of high duties against other countries deceives nobody: it is only political window-dressing.
1753–4. Richardson, Grandison, VI. 65. The hedge and ditch-leapers, the river-forders, the *window-droppers.
1923. Glasgow Herald, 7 April, 14. The use of *‘window’ envelopes for the transmission of medical records.
1529. Nottingham Rec., III. 180. xiiij d. pro le *wyndow fyne.
1824. Loudon, Green-house Comp., I. 256. Those who wish further details as to plants in rooms, or what the French and Germans call *window gardening.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Hospital Patient. The miserable shadow of a man … which crouches beneath a *window-ledge, to sleep where there is some shelter from the rain.
a. 1697. Aubrey, in Thoms, Anecd. (1839), 96. Whereas his former physitian shutt up his windows,… he did open his *window lids, and let in the light.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4876/3. *Window Lights stopped up after Michaelmas last … are subject to the Duty on Window Lights.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, I. (1778), 10. The collector of the window-lights in Falkland’s Island.
1801. T. Peck, Norwich Directory, 4. Surveyor of the Window-Lights, &c. for Yarmouth District.
a. 1586. Sidney, Eclogues, I. Wks. 1922, II. 217. These shepheards two … Whose mettall stiff he [sc. Cupid] knew he could not bende With hear-say, pictures or a *window looke.
1708. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. III. (ed. 22), 714. Officers of the Inland Office … *Window-Man, 60l. Ibid. (1718), (ed. 25), 165. A List of the Officers of the General-Post-Office in Lombard-Street…. Window-Man for the By-Days.
1850. Sir Francis B. Head, in Q. Rev., June, 113–4. The Postmaster-General, by printed ‘Notices,’ over and over again remonstrated with the public; his recommendations, however, were not only unheeded, but the window-men, who obediently repeated them, were occasionally insulted.
1887. Daily News, 6 July, 8/7. Cheesemongers.—Wanted, by Advertiser, Situation as Manager, Windowman, or Scalesman.
1860. Tristram, Gt. Sahara, vi. 100. The swallow and the *window-martin thread the lanes.
1700. O. Heywood, Diaries (1885), IV. 228. Naylor Hopkin came for *window-mony, 5 sh.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, I. xxiii. If the fixture of Momus’s glass in the human breast … had taken place,… This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,—That the very wisest … of us all … must have paid window-money every day of our lives.
1900. Mrs. Ayscough Fawkes, in 19th Century, April, 619. Many years later we had them [sc. drawings] *window-mounted with great care.
1854. A. Adams, etc., Man. Nat. Hist., 159. *Window-Oysters (Placunidæ).
1819. Keats, Eve of St. Mark, 49. With forehead ’gainst the *window-pane.
1873. T. Gill, Catal. Fishes E. Coast N. Amer., 17. Lophopsetta maculata.… Spotted turbot; window-pane (New Jersey); sand flounder (New York).
1876. Bridges, Growth of Love, xlv.
| And hope behind the dusty window-pane | |
| Watches the days go by. |
c. 1735. in J. D. Leader, Rec. Sheffield (1897), 362. Paid Mr. John Smith for the presents of knives, &c., made to the *window peeper, 10s. 6d.
1828. Craven Gloss.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 450/1. *Window Posts, Prick Posts, the sides of the Window.
1745. Wesley, Wks. (1872), VIII. 211. They … broke the window-posts, and threw them into the house.
1850. Inkersley, Inq. Styles Archit. France, 338. Below the *window-screen extends a suite of projecting canopies.
1890. C. H. Moore, Gothic Archit., ix. 304. Chartres [cathedral] … singularly fortunate in retaining its magnificent jewel-like window-screens.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina (1791), II. xxxi. 194. Looking on the *window-seat, she presently found the books.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., iii. We were sitting in the window-seat.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 443. This palatiat cloyster is quadrangled foure stories high, the vppermost whereof, is *window-set in the blew tecture.
1861. P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1860, 271. Family Placunidæ. (*Window-Shells.)
1649. J. Ellistone, trans. Behmen’s Epist., xxxv. 213. My Wife need not cause any *Window-shuts to be made.
1694. Merton Reg., II. 610. Quod Ly window-Shuts de opere tabulato in istis sociorum cameris, ubi deerunt, fabricentur.
1729. Swift, Direct. Serv., viii. (1745), 78. When you bar the Window-shuts of your Lady’s Bed-chamber.
1796. Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 237. Placing a piece of paper round the hole in the window-shut.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 171. A masterly piece of the sufferings of Christ … on two *window-shutters, done by Holbein.
1871. trans. Schellen’s Spectrum Anal., § 18. 60. If a ray of sun-shine be allowed to pass through a small hole in a window-shutter of a darkened room.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Dulnesse, v. Where are my lines then? my approaches? views? Where are my *window-songs?
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, I. Stud. Salamanca, 259. Flowers standing on the *window-stone.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 27 Oct. 1664. Laying it on the *window-stool, he with his own hands design’d to me the plot for the future building of White-hall.
1867. Le Fanu, Tenants of Malory, III. xv. 178. Cleve went on knocking and ringing, and the head of the Rev. Isaac Dixie appeared high in the air over the window-stool.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds, I. 255. The Martin. Martlet, Martinet, or *Window-swallow.
a. 1735. Arbuthnot, Misc. Wks. (1751), II. 160. Considering … that they are excused the Charges of House-Rent, House-keeping, and the *Window-Tax.
1850. Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace, IV. xi. II. 147. The window-tax is a duty upon fresh air, sunshine, and health.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1594), 487. When [women] make great *window-works before their dugs.
1619. Purchas, Microcosmus, viii. 89. Nor will I speake of … the Chrystalline, Glassie, and Waterie Humors; the Optike and Mouing Nerues;… with other these curious Window-workes.
1348. Cal. Inquis. Post Mortem Edw. III., IX. 44. [A custom called] ‘Buchellyeld’ [and] *‘Wyndoweyeld.’
