[f. WRIST + BAND sb.1]
1. The band or part of a sleeve (esp. of a shirt-sleeve) that covers or fastens about the wrist; a cuff or sleeve-band.
1571. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 146. Skarfes, ffawchions, buskins, wrestbandes.
1611. Cotgr., Poignet de la chemise, the wrist-band, or gathering at the sleeue-hand, of a shirt.
a. 1625. Beaum. & Fl., Bloody Brother, IV. ii. You’l … dip your wrist-bands, (For Cuffs y’ have none) as comely in the sauce As any Courtier.
1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, II. i. With that the Hands to pocket went, Full Wrist-band deep.
1752. Berkeley, Th. Tar-water, Wks. 1871, III. 500. Unbuttoning the neck and wristbands of his shirt.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxx. Although his coat was short in the sleeves, it disclosed no vestige of a linen wrist-band.
1886. Tip Cat, XVI. 208. He was keenly conscious of his old boots and crumpled wristbands.
b. A band worn as a protector on the wrist. rare.
1882. Imp. Dict., Muffettee,… a wristband of fur or worsted worn by ladies.
2. A bracelet or wristlet.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 252. Armilla,… a bracelet or wrist band.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 365. A Silver Wrist-band, or Hoop to come about their Arms.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Brachiale (Lat.),… a Bracelet,… a Wrist-band.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 28 June, 5/2. Wrist-bands, which are a revival of the beaded bracelets worn in early Victorian days, have been introduced.
b. A band for shackling the wrist.
1884. Thompson, Tumours of Bladder, 17. The feet and hands [of the patient] are attached by anklets and wristbands.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 870. Strait-jackets are a survival of the dark ages, and leather wrist-bands and bandages abrade the skin.
3. A bandage for fastening round the wrist; also, a wrist-plaster.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., I. v. 94. The ligamentum latum, or wrist-band, that keeps the tendons … from inconveniently starting up. Ibid. (1684), Porousn. Bodies, iv. 32. Those [plasters] that Physicians call Pericarpia, or Wrist-bands.
