Forms: 3–6 chaunge, 4 chonge, 4–6 chaynge, (5 chounge), 3, 6– change. [a. AF. chaunge, OF. change (= Pr. camge, camje, Sp. cange):—late L. cambi-um exchange (Laws of Lombards), f. cambīre, to CHANGE.]
1. The act or fact of changing (see CHANGE v. 1, 2); substitution of one thing for another; succession of one thing in place of another.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 132. Change worþ of bischopriches, & þe digne sege y wys Worþ ybroȝt to Canterbury, þat at London now ys.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 195. Thus was there made a newe chaunge.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 61. In the Realme of Fraunce was never chaunge of their Kyng … but by the Rebellions of such mighty Subgetts.
1473. Warkw., Chron., 11. Alle Englonde … hatyd hym, and were fulle gladde to have a chounge.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 31, marg. note. Chaunge of ayre is daungerous.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess. (1669), 136. No change of Consuls marks to him the year.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xxix. 93. Everything I see seems to me a change of scene.
1733. Miss Kelly, in Swift’s Lett. (1768), IV. 47. For God’s sake try the change of air.
1832. Prop. Reg. Instr. Cavalry, III. 46. Change of Position is when the Line moves altogether off its ground, at the same time advancing or retiring one of its flanks.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, I. 220 (Hoppe). Said to have made a change for the better.
b. Substitution of other conditions or circumstances, variety; esp. in colloq. phr. for a change.
1681. Dryden, Span. Friar, Prol. 33.
| Our Fathers did for change to France repair, | |
| And they for change will try our English Air. |
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. xi. 314. Our English take 6 or 7 ripe Plantains … and boil them instead of a Bag-pudding…: this is a very good way for a change.
1842. Tennyson, Walking to Mail, 18. He … sick of home went overseas for change.
1876. Burnaby, Ride Khiva, xviii. Anything for a change … we are bored to death here.
† c. ? A round in dancing. Obs.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 209. Then in our measure, vouchsafe but one change.
d. spec. The passing from life; death.
1611. Bible, Job xiv. 14. All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite, till my change come.
1741–3. Wesley, Jrnl. (1749), 56. I went to my mother, and found her change was near…. She was in her last conflict.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., lxxxiii. I fear, sir, your Aunt … is not in such a state of mind as will fit her very well for the change which is imminent.
† e. To put the change upon: to deceive, mislead (a person); to make things appear to (him) other than they are. Obs.
1693. Congreve, Double Deal., V. iv. I have put the change upon her, that she may be otherwise employed.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., I. (1721), 51. He put the Change upon the unthinking Senate, and ordain’d a Presbyter or Elder in the room of every Parish-Priest.
1742. Jarvis, Don Quix., II. II. ix. 140 (D.). Those enchanters, who persecute me, are perpetually setting shapes before me as they really are, and presently putting the change upon me, and transforming them into whatever they please.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., iii. You cannot put the change on me so easy as you think.
† 2. The act of giving and receiving reciprocally; exchange. In change: in exchange. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 28820. If þou had lede, & hade nede For to haue gold ne wald þou bede For to ma [= make] chaunge.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIX. 379. Of hym … chaynge wes maid For othir that men takyn had.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqrs. T., 527. Took his herte in chaunge for myn.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7881. Þai … made a chaunge … of hor choise lordes, Toax … was turnyt to the grekes, For Antenor.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 155. Chaunge is no robry, but robry maketh chaunge.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 185. That I … Maintain’d the change of words with any creature. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 27. They will almost, Giue vs a Prince of blood … In change of him.
† b. spec. Exchange of merchandise, commerce.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 57. Þe auteris of Crist are maad þe bordis of chaungis bi couetous men.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. Introd. 32. Ane riche toun … quhair sum time wes gret change, be repair of uncouth marchandis.
3. A place where merchants meet for the transaction of business, an exchange. (Since 1800, erroneously treated as an abbreviation of Exchange, and written ’Change.) Now chiefly in phr. on ’Change, at the Exchange.
a. 1400. Octouian, 793. As he toward the chounge yode.
1614. T. Adams, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xii. 2. ‘A heart and a heart’; one for the church, another for the change.
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, I. i. 3. She saw you yesterday at the Change.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 386, ¶ 5. If such a Man comes from Change.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 341. It is powerful on Change.
1821. in W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 49. Old stock-jobbers … are gone hobbling to ’Change.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Fate, Wks. (Bohn), II. 321. What good, honest, generous men at home, will be wolves and foxes on change!
1876. Green, Short Hist., vii. (1881), 415. Grave merchants upon ’change.
4. The act of changing (see CHANGE v. 6, 7); alteration in the state or quality of anything; the fact of becoming other than it was; variation, mutation.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 166. Worldliche þinges þet beoð, ase þe mone, euer ine chaunge.
1340. Ayenb., 104. He [God] is zoþliche … wiþ-oute enye chonge eure to yleste.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. ix. (1495), 93. Flewme is able to be … chaunged in to blode, and whan the chaunge is full made [etc.].
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5441. Withoute chaunge or variaunce.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. § 11. A true change both of soul and body … from death to life.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 311. Remarkable Changes that have happen’d among the Fix’d Stars.
1775. Sheridan, St. Patr. Day, II. iv. Justice. Do you really see any change in me? Rosy. Change! never was man so altered.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 182. Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
1850. T. T. Lynch, Theoph. Trinal, ii. 20. Growth is the reconcilement of permanence and change.
1858. J. H. Bennet, Nutrition, i. 26. Change, constant change, is the law of organic life.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 1 (1882), 61. The change in himself was as startling as the change in his policy.
† b. spec. Changefulness, changing humor, caprice; ‘inconstancy, fickleness’ (Schmidt). Obs.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xx. A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change. Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. i. 291. You see how full of changes his age is. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., I. vi. 115. And himselfe, not I Inclin’d to this intelligence, pronounce The Beggery of his change.
1675. Dryden, Aurengz., I. i. 401. You bid me fear; in that your change I know.
c. Mus. Variation; modulation.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., IV. ii. 69. Harke, what fine change is in the Musique.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 332/2. Change. The word used as the short for change of key or Modulation.
d. Change of life: (see quot.).
1834. J. M. Good, Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 54, note. When menstruation is about to cease, the period is called ‘the change or turn of life.’
1864. F. Churchill, Dis. Women, VI. 237. The period occupied by this ‘change of life’ ranges from two to four years, if not longer.
5. Of the moon: a. Properly, the passage from one ‘moon’ (i.e., monthly revolution) to another, the coming of the ‘new moon’; b. extended more or less widely to include also the attainment of ‘full moon,’ and even of intermediate phases.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 109. Of flodes high and ebbes lowe, Upon his [the Moon’s] chaunge it shall be knowe.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 178. To follow still the changes of the Moone With fresh suspitions.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. I. 10. A Rule to find the Change, Full, and Quarters of the Moon…. The 29th day of October is the day of her Change, or New Moon.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 551. Sacrificing at the change of every moon many victims, chiefly children, to the river Ganges.
1858. in Merc. Mar. Mag., V. 365–6. It is high water, full and change … at 10h. 11m.
1881. W. H. Rideing, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 810/1. I still have ’em [fits] once or twice a week sometimes, always with a change in the moon.
6. That which is or may be substituted for another of the same kind; esp. in phrase change of raiment (apparel, etc.). (In this sense sometimes unchanged in the plural; see quot. 1611.)
1592. Greene, Groatsw. Wit (1617), 9. Mistresse Lamilia, like a cunning Angler made readie her chaunge of baytes.
1611. Bible, Lev. xxvii. 33. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it, and the change thereof, shall be holy. Ibid., Judg. xiv. 12. I will giue you thirtie sheetes, and thirtie change of garments.
1815. Scribbleomania, 141. Who, drench’d, ne’er catch cold, though without change of smickets.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz (1866), 248. Four horses with clothes on—change for a coach.
1876. Burnaby, Ride Khiva, xxi. A change of clothes, a few instruments and my gun.
7. a. Money of a lower denomination given in exchange for a larger coin, a bank-note, etc.; hence generally, coins of low denomination (often with adj. small); also coins of one currency given in exchange for those of another. b. The balance that remains over and is returned when anything is paid for by a piece of money greater than its price.
1622. Massinger, etc. Old Law, V. i. Lysander. Your hat is too high-crowned. Gnotho. I do give him two crowns for ’t, and that ’s equal change all the world over.
1691. Locke, Money, Wks. 1727, II. 97. These in Change will answer all the Fractions between Sixpence and a Farthing.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 177, ¶ 7. He had just received in a handful of change, the piece that he had … been seeking.
1777. Sheridan, Trip Scarb., I. i. Can you give me change for a guinea?
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, iv. I’ll … bring back your change all right.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 25. Still used as small change.
Mod. No change given. Passengers are requested to examine their tickets and change before leaving.
fig. 1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 199. A poor Anglo-Saxon must … look twice at his small change of quarters and minutes.
c. slang. Something given or taken in return. In such phrases as to give (a person) change, to do him a service; also ironically, to give him his deserts, ‘pay him out’; to take one’s change out of, to take one’s revenge on (a person), or for (a thing); take your change out of that! a slang expression when a ‘settler’ is given in the shape of either a repartee or a blow.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., IV. xi. (1849), 184. Take your change out of that!
1847. De Quincey, Secret Soc., Wks. vi. 238. I should certainly have ‘taken my change’ out of the airs she continually gave herself.
1855. Thackeray, Diary J. de la Pluche, Misc. (1855), II. 171 (Hoppe). Whenever I see him in a very public place, I take my change for my money. I digg him in the ribbs, or slap his padded old shoulders.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., v. (Hoppe). If you showed me a B, I could so far give you change for it, as to answer Boffin.
8. spec. in pl. † a. Math. The different orders in which a set or series of things can be arranged; permutations (obs.). b. Bell-ringing. The different orders in which a peal of bells may be rung.
(The name has reference to a change from the ‘usual order,’ viz. the diatonic scale, struck from the highest to the lowest bell; but in a wider sense, this is included as one of the changes; see Grove, Dict. Mus., s.v.)
1669. Holder, Elem. Speech, 3 (J.). Four Bells admit Twenty four changes in Ringing.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 462/2. In … Ringing Bells … Changes or Tunes [is] when they are rung to Immitate the airy sound of a Psalme or Song.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Changes, in arithmetic, &c. the permutations or variations of any number of quantities; with regard to their position, order, &c.
1864. Jean Ingelow, Poems, 140. O Boston bells! Ply all your changes.
c. To ring the changes: (a.) to go through all the changes in ringing a peal of bells; fig. to go through all the possible variations of any process; to repeat the same words, statements, etc., in various ways. (Constr. on, upon; now usually contemptuous.) (b.) slang: see quot. 1786, 1874.
1614. T. Adams, Devil’s Banquet, 331. Some ring the Changes of opinions.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 62. They shall only ring you over a few changes upon the three words: crying, Faith, Hope, and Charity: Hope, Faith, and Charity; and so on.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 36. A parcel of roaring bullies … ringing the changes on butchers cleavers.
1786. Remark. Trials J. Shepherd, 8. To initiate him into the art of what that gentleman stiled ringing the changes; that is, ingeniously substituting a worse for a better article, and decamping without a discovery.
1843. Southey, Doctor, lxxxvi. (D.). He could … have astounded him by ringing changes upon Almugea, Cazimi, [etc.].
1874. Slang Dict., s.v. Ring,… ‘to ring the changes’ in low life means to change bad money for good.
9. Hunting. Phr. To hunt change: see quots., and cf. COUNTER adv. ? Obs.
1677. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1706), 16. When the Hounds … take fresh scent, hunting another Chase … we say, they Hunt Change.
1704. Worlidge, Dict. Rust. et Urb., s.v. Buck-Hunting, To have a care of Hunting Counter or Change, because of the plenty of Fallow Deer that use to come more directly upon the Hounds, than the red Deer doth.
1721–1800. Bailey, Change [among Hunters] is when a Buck, &c., met by chance, is taken for that they were in pursuit of.
† 10. Surveying. (See quot.) Obs.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. V. i. § 2. 4. Provide ten small sticks … at the end of every one of those Chains, stick one of these … into the Ground, which let him that followeth take up…. These Ten Chains if the distance be large, you call a Change, and so you may denominate every large distance by Changes, Chains and Links.
11. Sc. An ale-house; = CHANGE-HOUSE.
c. 1730. Burt, Lett. N. Scotl. (1818), I. 68–9. A gentleman that keeps a change.… They call an alehouse a change.
12. Comb. and attrib.
a. Comb., as change-day, -time (sense 5), change-ringer, -ringing (sense 8 b), change-keeper (sense 11); Change Alley, a narrow street in London, scene of the gambling in South Sea and other stocks (see ALLEY); change-broker = exchange broker; change-ratio (see quot.); change-wheel (see quot.). See also CHANGE-HOUSE.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., VI. v. Poor sub-lieutenant Duhamel, innocent *Change-broker.
* 1633. T. James, Voyage, 18. It flowes on the *change day, about a eleuen a clocke.
1752. in Scots. Mag. (1753), July, 338/1. Duncan Campbell *changekeeper.
1883. A. Grey, in Nature, XXVII. 320. The multiplier … or *change-ratio as it has been called by Professor James Thompson, is … the number of the new units of velocity equivalent to one of the old units.
1884. Athenæum, 18 Oct., 501/3. The *change-ringers have done far more evil than revolution and bigotry combined.
1872. Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., iii. 31. Of all arts and pastimes, *change-ringing is pre-eminently one which exercises the mind and body at the same time.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 526. *Change-wheels, having varying numbers of cogs of the same pitch, are used to connect the main arbor of the lathe with the feed-screw.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 266/1. The screw is driven by means of … change-wheels from the end of the lathe-spindle.
b. attrib. in sense ‘taking the place of another, acting as substitute, exchange-, vice-.’
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. II. i. § 3. 747. The change-horses being better at the regular hunt-stable.
1886. Daily News, 22 July, 5/1. Mr. Trumble, Mr. Bonnor, and Mr. Jones are also very useful change bowlers.
1884. Bp. of Chichester, in Times, 20 Aug., 5/6. To keep a book … in which the name of every change-preacher should be entered.
