Also 7 carractre, caracter, charracter. [f. prec. sb. By Shakespeare, and in 17th c., often accented chara·cter.]
1. trans. To engrave, imprint; to inscribe, write.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. vii. 4. The Table wherein all my thoughts Are visibly Character’d, and engrau’d. Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., cviii. What ’s in the braine that Inck may character Which hath not figur’d to thee my true spirit?
1609. Heywood, Bryt. Troy, V. xxviii. The hoofed Centaures … character deepe halfe Moones where they tread.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 823. As if in golden pomp Were character’d on ev’ry statesman’s door, ‘Batter’d and bankrupt fortunes mended here.’
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, II. 1052. His holy ring Charactered over with the ineffable spell.
b. fig.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. iii. 59. These few Precepts in thy memory See thou Character.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 101. Religion charactereth it selfe upon the regenerate soule in innocency.
1657. Divine Lover, 278. Imprint, and caracter them in my Hart.
2. To represent, symbolize, portray. arch.
1594. Greene, Selimus, Prol. You shall behold him character in bloud, The image of an vnplacable King.
a. 1640. Day, Parl. Bees, ii. (1881), 17. The Author in his Russet Bee Characters Hospitalitie.
1782. Paine, Let. Abbé Raynel (1791), 47. Several of our passions are strongly charactered by the animal world.
a. 1834. Lamb, Final Mem., viii. (1848), 272. The contrition so queerly charactered of a contrite sinner.
3. To describe the qualities of; to delineate, describe; = CHARACTERIZE v. 3.
1618. Hist. Perkin Warbeck, in Select. fr. Harl. Misc. (1793), 68. Perkin, according to the Dutch phrase, who character cowardly and timorous younglings in that manner.
1627. Bargrave, Serm., 8. In Sauls offence cleerely characterd in this Chapter, two points are most remarkable.
1798. Southey, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor, I. 232. You have well charactered him.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., I. I. 189. There’s our Count Charactered in a word.
† b. with complement. Obs.
1647. W. Browne, Polex., II. 27. This great Prince, which his [divining] art had charactered to him for the miracle of these times.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. lxx. (1739), 187. Otherwise it can … be charactered as a trick.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, I. ii. 6. Charactered to be a countrey flowing with milk and honey. Ibid., II. xii. 254. The Canaanites … hitherto had charactered them invincible.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xxi. 237. He was charactered to be a virtuous godly man.
4. To distinguish by particular marks, signs or features; to stamp; = CHARACTERIZE v. 4.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., i. 26. We call that Aspect an Opposition, and character the Aspect thus ∞.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), I. xxi. 85. We have … charactered them with a ‘Rem.’ for ‘Remove.’
c. 1800. K. White, Christmas-Day, 25. So has the year been character’d with woe.
1805. Southey, Madoc in Azt., iii. But her son Had Nature character’d so legibly, That when his tongue told fair, his face bewray’d The lurking falsehood.
5. To invest with a character, impart a character to; = CHARACTERIZE v. 5.
1654. [see next].
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. vii. 23. That the Days are … Character’d in their constitution, according to her accesses or recesses to the Sun or Tropick.
1814. Southey, Roderick, xvii. A warrior’s impulse character’d The impassion’d gesture.
1865. Bushnell, Vicar. Sacr., II. vii. (1866), 434. The trusting of one’s self over, sinner to Saviour, to be in him, and of him, and new charactered by Him.
