[A city of England famous from ancient times as the see of the Archbishop and Primate of all England. The shrine of Thomas à Becket (St. Thomas of Canterbury) who was murdered in the cathedral 29 Dec. 1170, was in pre-Reformation times a favorite object of pilgrimage; and it was a company of pilgrims to this shrine that Chaucer made the narrators of his ‘Canterbury Tales,’ to which some of the attributive uses refer.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 16. Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. And specially from euery shires ende Of Engelond to Caunturbury they wende The hooly blisful martir for to seke That hem hath holpen whan þat they were seeke.]
A. attrib.
1. In phrases referring either (a) to the pilgrims, as Canterbury bells; (b) to the tales told on the way (or Chaucer’s work so called), as Canterbury tale or story, in later times often taken as a long tedious story, a ‘friar’s tale,’ a fable, a cock-and-bull story; (c) or applied by the Puritans to the hierarchical position of Canterbury, as Canterbury trick.
[c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol. (title), Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury.]
a. 1550[?]. in C. Wordsworth, Eccl. Biog. (1818), I. 168. Pilgrimes … with the noise of their piping, and with the sound of their singing, and the jangling of their Canturburie bels.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Falconrie, 260. A verie olde womans fable or Cantorburie tale.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 422. A lewd lying counterfeter of more then Caunterburie tales.
1589. Greene, Menaph., Wks. 1881–3, VI. 86. Whosoeuer Samela descanted of that loue, tolde you a Canterbury tale.
1589. Hay any Work, 1. There is a canterbury trick once to patch up an acusation with a lye or two.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1811), I. 527 (D.). Since that time Canterbury Tales are parallel to Fabulæ Milesiæ, which are characterized, nec veræ, nec verisimiles.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 132, ¶ 10. One [Story] of a Quarter of an Hour long … gathers Circumstances every Time he tells it, till it grows into a long Canterbury Tale of two Hours.
1737. in N. & Q., Ser. III. IX. 414/2. [He] would begin a long Canterbury Story of a duel he had fought.
1763. Colman, Deuce is in him, II. i. (D.). What, to come here with a Canterbury tale of a leg and an eye, and Heaven knows what!
2. Canterbury pace, rack, rate, trot, gallop, etc., supposed originally to designate the pace of the mounted pilgrims.
a. 1636. W. Sampson, Vow-Breaker, V. i. Have I practic’d … my smooth Ambles, and Canterbury Paces?
1675. Charac. Fanatic, in Harl. Misc., VII. 637 (D.). A Canterbury rack, half pace, half gallop.
1717. E. Ward, Wks., II. 6. With whip and spur he might beat-up Into a Canterbury tit-up.
1773. Johnson, Canterbury gallop, the hand gallop of an ambling horse, commonly called a canter; said to be derived from the monks riding to Canterbury on easy ambling horses.
1826. J. F. Cooper, Mohicans, ii. The most confirmed gait that he could establish, was a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., VI. vii. (1849), 280. He was on horseback, and off at a Canterbury-trot.
B. sb.
† 1. [From phrases in A 2.] An easy galloping pace; a hand-gallop; a CANTER. Obs.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Post-master, 119. Hee rides altogether upon spurre...; who is as familiarly acquainted with a Canterbury, as hee who makes Chaucer his Author, is with his Tale.
1710. Shaftesb., Charac., I. iii. (1737), III. 25. The common Amble or Canterbury is not … more tiresom to a good Rider, than this See-Saw of Essay-Writers is to an able Reader.
1729. Dennis, Pope’s Dunc. (N.). The Pegasus of Pope, like a Kentish post-horse, is always on the Canterbury.
2. A piece of furniture; a stand with light partitions to hold music-portfolios and the like.
1849. in Smart, Supp.
1857. J. H. Walsh, Dom. Econ., 202. Rosewood or mahogany plain Canterbury with drawer.
1880. Argosy, XXX. 9. Look in the canterbury and find me that piece by Schubert.
1883. Miss Braddon, Gold. Calf, I. i. 13. In an ancient canterbury under the ancient piano.
