vbl. sb. Forms: 4 celyng, (6 sel-, sil-, syling), 6–7 seeling, 7 ceeling, 7–8 siel(e)ing, 6– cieling, 7– ceiling. [f. prec. + -ING1.]
I. The action of the verb CEIL.
† 1. The action of lining (the roof or walls of) an apartment with boards, or (more rarely) with plaster, etc. Obs. exc. Naut.
(The sense ‘carving’ is possible in the two earliest quots.)
1497. Acc. Ld. Treas., I. 357 (Jam. s.v. Siling). Item, to the kervour that tuk in task the siling of the chapel, in part of payment, ij lib. xiiijs.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 243. Vautynge, and celynge, with cunnyng caruynge and peyntynge … ornatteth wondersly lordys howsis.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 13. There remaines nothing … but onely seeling the Cabins.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 149/2. Seileing is House Painting where Plaister Walls are made to look like Wainscate or outlandish Timber.
2. esp. The lining of the roof of a room with woodwork, plaster, or the like; now, usually, with lath and plaster.
1764. Harmer, Observ., iii. 90. Their cieling their rooms with wood and neatly painting, and sometimes gilding them.
1801. Hutton, Course Math. (1828), II. 88. Plasterers’ work … namely, ceiling, which is plastering on laths.
II. concretely.
† 3. A screen of tapestry, a curtain. Obs.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 626. Celynge, velamen.
1548. Hall, Chron. (14 Edw. IV.), I. 232 b. The Frenche kyng … caused the lord of Countay … with the lord of Argenton … to stande secretly behynd a selyng or a hangyng in his chamber … so that what soever were purposed to hym, they standing behind the clothe, might easely se, and facile heare the same.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 342. He is the curtaine and seeling, the rafter and ornament of his church.
1632. Sanderson, 12 Serm., 343. Creepeth in betweene the walls and seelings.
† 4. The wooden lining of the roof or walls of a room; panelling; wainscoting. Obs. Cf. CEIL v. 2.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1231. Þe celynge with-inne was siluer plat & with red gold ful wel yguld.
1555. Fardle Facions, II. i. 117. They haue—cielinges, voultinges, dores and gates couered with siluer.
1598. Florio, Ciélo.… Also the seeling, vpper-face or rooffe of a house.
1612. Bacon, Ess. Vain-glory (Arb.), 464. Varnish, that makes Seelings not onely Shine, but Last.
1632. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 187. Five yeards and a halfe of square sealing to the orgaine frame.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 67. They go out into the room about three-quarters of a yard, and are faced with some neat sieleing.
b. Naut. The inside planking of a ship’s bottom, carried up to the lowest deck; = FOOT-WALING.
1633. T. James, Voy., 50. In the runne of her…; he cut away the sealing.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 117. Their ceiling was dammed up with a certain kind of mortar to dead the shot.
1688. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 783. Cutting … the Seeling of the Ship, they immediately stopt the Leak.
1749. Waddell, ibid., XLVI. 112. Another Part of it went through the Starboard Side, without any Hurt to the Ceiling (or inside Plank).
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 203. Between the inside lining of the ship’s bottom, which is called the cieling, and the outside planking, there is a space of about seventeen or eighteen inches.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., xix. 424. The Liverpool rule gives no dimensions, but states that the ceiling in the flat of hold is to be laid in hatches.
5. esp. The undercovering of a roof or floor, concealing the timbers; the plaster of the top of a room.
1535. Coverdale, Song of Sol. i. 17. Ye sylinges of oure house are of Cedre tre, & oure balkes of Cypresse.
1598. Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., IV. xv. (1622), 133. Betweene the roofe and the seeling, the three Senators … hid themselues.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., II. xix. It [my cottage] doth adore thee with the seeling lowe.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Builder, 67. Every hundred of Laths cover six yards or Ceeling or Partitioning.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xxxvi. 136. The ceiling is always of wood … inlaid or painted with flowers.
1731. Fielding, Grub St. Op., I. xi. Do’st thou not expect the cieling to fall down on thy head for so notorious a lie?
1874. Parker, Illustr. Gothic Archit., I. iii. 53. At Canterbury … the choir itself had a flat boarded ceiling.
1878. Grove, Dict. Music, I. 172. The water had found its way through the ceiling into the room beneath.
6. transf. and fig.
1596. Drayton, Leg., I. 344. The Brow of Heav’n … The gorgeous Seeling of th’ immortall Frame.
1614. T. Adams, Devil’s Banquet, 315. You that haue neglected heauen, which God hath made your more glorious seeling.
c. 1630. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 322. Those boundless bounds where stars do move, The cieling of the christal round above.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 205. The rose’s blushing bloom, Loveliest cieling of the bower.
7. Comb., mostly attrib., as ceiling-board, -joist, -relievo, -sky, -work; also ceiling-wards adv.
c. 1520. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 202. Johanni Henryson … sawyng seylyng bordes per iij dies et di., 21d.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxiii. [lxxiv.] 6. They cutt downe all the sylinge worke of ye Sanctuary with bylles & axes.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 68. Seeling Joyses on Cellaring.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., A covering of plaster over laths nailed, where there is no upper room, on joists for the purpose: hence called ceiling joists.
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg, li. 4. Nothing but gold!… On the walls … the ceiling-sky.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 402. 537. A Nereid … in a ceiling-relievo at Palmyra.
1879. Daily News, 21 Aug., 3/1. These princesses who piously fold their hands and look ceiling-wards in crises.
