a. and sb. [f. CHINA + -ESE: in F. chinois. In 16th c. † Chinish was used.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to China. Chinese compliment: a pretended deference to the opinions of others, when one’s mind is already made up.
1577. Eden & Willes, Hist. Trav., 260. Whence the Chinishe nation haue theyr prouision for shyppyng.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 22 Oct. Those of Chinese kings.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. I. iii. 59. The Chinese Language.
1878. J. H. Gray, China, i. There can be … no doubt of the great antiquity of the Chinese Empire.
1882. Mrs. B. M. Croker, Proper Pride, I. vii. 144. Your asking me if I take exception to any of your arrangements is only a Chinese compliment.
2. In the specific names of many natural and artificial productions obtained from China, e.g., Chinese-bellflower, cherry, crab, gall, gelatine, glue, indigo, pear, pitcher-plant, varnish, water-lily, yam, etc.; esp. Chinese-balance (see quot.); Chinese-blue, a mixture of cobalt-blue and flake white; Chinese-capstan (see quot.); Chinese crescent = Chinese pavilion; Chinese fire, in pyrotechnics, a composition consisting of gunpowder, nitre, charcoal, sulphur, and small cast-iron borings; Chinese-grass = CHINA- grass; Chinese lantern, a collapsable lantern of thin colored paper, chiefly used in illuminations; Chinese pavilion (see quot.); Chinese primrose, Primula sinensis, a well-known early flowering window-plant; Chinese tumbler, a toy figure so constructed as to regain its balance from any position; Chinese-wax, see CHINA- wax; Chinese wheel (see quot.); Chinese-white, white oxide of zinc, a valuable pigment; Chinese-windlass (see quot.); Chinese-yellow, a bright sulphuret of arsenic, formerly brought from China.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Chinese-balance, a form of the steelyard having four points of suspension, and as many quadrated sides to the weight-arm of the lever. Ibid., s.v., *Chinese-capstan, a differential hoisting or hauling device, having a vertical axis, and therein only differing from the differential windlass.
1882. Garden, 21 Jan., 46/3. Among deciduous trees that flower about the end of April … one of the most beautiful is the *Chinese Crab.
1869. Eng. Mech., 24 Dec., 354/2. *Chinese or Japanese galls … are supposed to be produced by a … species of aphis on a terebinthinous plant.
1825. in Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 1027. *Chinese lanterns are hung.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 346/1. s.v., *Chinese Pavilion, Chinese Crescent … consists of a pole, with several transverse brass plates of some crescent or fantastic form, and generally terminating at top with a conical pavilion or hat…. On all these parts a number of very small bells are hung, which the performer causes to jingle.
c. 1865. J. Wylde, in Circ. Sc., I. 5. The common toy, the *Chinese tumbler.
1819. Pantologia, s.v. China, The tsi-chu, or varnish tree, which produces the admirable *Chinese varnish. Ibid., s.v. Chinese, *Chinese wheel is an engine … for raising water from rivers to irrigate plantations of sugar canes.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Chinese-windlass, a differential windlass in which the cord winds off one part of the barrel and on to the other.
B. sb.
1. A native of China. [The plural Chineses was in regular use during 17th c.: since it became obs. Chinese has been sing. and pl.; in modern times a sing. Chinee has arisen in vulgar use in U.S. (So sailors say Maltee, Portuguee.)]
1606. E. Scott (title), An exact Discovrse … of the East Indians, as well Chyneses as Iauans.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 438. Sericana, where Chineses drive With Sails and Wind, thir canie Waggons light.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. xv. 406. The Chinese in general are tall.
1703. Cunningham, in Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1206. Saying that the Chineses are strangers to the art of grafting.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 228. The Chinese have long been the most numerous and powerful of these nations.
1878. J. H. Gray, China, xiv. If a Chinese feared or expected something from a foreigner.
1879. Constit. California, art. xix. § 3, in Bryce, Amer. Commw. (1888), II. App. 678. No Chinese shall be employed on any State, county, municipal, or other public work, except in punishment for crime.
b. sing. Chinee.
1871. Bret Harte, That Heathen Chinee. The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
c. Comb., as Chinese-owned.
1881. in Nature, XXV. 179. Large and well-appointed steamers, *Chinese-owned and manned.
2. The Chinese language.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., I. s.v., The Chinese has no analogy to any other language in the world.
1870. Farrar, Grk. Syntax, § 6. Chinese has never possessed cases or inflections of any kind.
