Forms: 6–7 carriere, careere, (6 carire, -eire, carrire), 6–8 carier(e, carrier, -eer, 7 carrere, carere, (carrear, -eere, -eir, careir), 6– career. [a. F. carrière race-course; also career, in various senses; = It., Pr. carriera, Sp. carrera road, career:—late L. carrāria (via) carriage-road, road, f. carr-us wagon.
The normal Central Fr. repr. of late L. carraria is OF. charriere, still usual in the dialects; it is not clear whether carrière is northern, or influenced by It. or Pr.]
† 1. The ground on which a race is run, a race-course; also, the space within the barrier at a tournament. b. transf. The course over which any person or thing passes; road, path, way. Obs.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 286. It was fit for him to go to the other end of the Career.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 46. In the carrere to Her mines.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 6. Rowse Memmon’s mother … That she thy [Phœbus’] career may with roses spread.
1651. Howell, Venice, 39. Since the Portuguais found out the carreer to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Career, or Carier, in the manage, a place inclosed with a barrier, wherein they run the ring.
† 2. Of a horse: A short gallop at full speed (often in phr. to pass a career). Also a charge, encounter (at a tournament or in battle). Obs.
1571. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 139. Seven tall men … made sundry Carreers and brave Turnaments.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., xxxviii. 35 (N.). To stop, to start, to pass carier.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. ii. 142. They [Lanciers] ought to know how to manage well a horse, run a good carrier, [etc.].
1617. Markham, Caval., II. 203. To passe a Cariere, is but to runne with strength and courage such a conuenient course as is meete for his ability.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 766. Mortal combat or carreer with Lance.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Career … is also used for the race, or course of the horse itself, provided it do not exceed two hundred paces.
1764. Harmer, Observ., XXVII. vi. 284. Horses … walking in state and running in full career.
† b. ‘The short turning of a nimble horse, now this way, nowe that way’ (Baret, Alvearie); transf. a frisk, gambol. Obs.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 809/1. Manie a horsse raised on high with carrier, gallop, turne, and stop.
1594. 2nd Rep. Faustus, in Thoms, Prose Rom. (1858), III. 338. Such cranks, such lifts, careers and gambalds, as he plaid there, would have made a horse laugh.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. i. 132. The king is a good king, but … he passes some humors, and carreeres.
3. By extension: A running, course (usually implying swift motion); formerly [like Fr. carrière] applied spec. to the course of the sun or a star through the heavens. Also abstr. Full speed, impetus: chiefly in phrases like in full career, † to take, give (oneself or some thing) career, etc., which were originally terms of horsemanship (see 2).
c. 1534. trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (1846), I. 55. Theie … tooke privilie there carier abowte, and violentlie assailed the tents of there adversaries.
1591. Spenser, Ruins Time, xvi. As ye see fell Boreas … To stop his wearie cáriere suddenly.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 31. Dolphins … leape and bound with full carrere in the tumultuous waues.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 353. The Sun … was hasting now with prone carreer To th’ Ocean Iles.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, III. 35. Sooner may we … stop the Sun in his carriere.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 258. Vast torrents force a terrible career.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. xiii. Stretch onward on thy fleet career!
1863. Mary Howitt, trans. F. Bremer’s Greece, II. xvi. 137. Away we went in full career with the waves and the wind.
b. Hawking. (See quot.)
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Career, in falconry, is a flight or tour of the bird, about one hundred and twenty yards.
4. fig. (from 2 and 3) Rapid and continuous ‘course of action, uninterrupted procedure’ (J.); formerly also, The height, ‘full swing’ of a person’s activity.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. iii. 250. Shall quips and sentences,… awe a man from the careere of his humour? Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., I. ii. 286. Stopping the Cariere Of Laughter, with a sigh.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. ix. (1632), 15. He takes a hundred times more cariere and libertie unto himselfe, than hee did for others.
1643. W. Burton, Beloved City, 57. Antichrist, in the full course and carrére of his happynesse.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess. (1669), 35. Swift as light Thoughts their empty Carriere run.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, xxv. 389. Quickly stopt in his careir of vertue.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. 174. Not to permit the reins to our passions, or give them their full carreer.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Women, II. viii. 29. A … beauty … in the career of her conquests.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 599. William was in the full career of success.
5. A person’s course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life), esp. when publicly conspicuous, or abounding in remarkable incidents; similarly with reference to a nation, a political party, etc. b. In mod. language (after Fr. carrière) freq. used for: A course of professional life or employment, which affords opportunity for progress or advancement in the world.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., II. 424. A more difficult negotiation than you have ever had in your diplomatic career.
1815. Scribbleomania, 200. That great statesman’s public career.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1867), I. i. 7. The Spanish and Italian Peninsulas have had a different history from that which records the career of France, Prussia, the Dutch Commonwealth, the British Empire, the Transatlantic Republic.
1868. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, 20. Harold must go and make a career for himself.
1884. Contemp. Rev., XLVI. 99. An artist, even in the humblest rank, had a career before him.
