Forms see sb. [f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To use the Arabic numerals in the processes of arithmetic; to work the elementary rules of arithmetic; now chiefly a term of elementary education.
1530. Palsgr., 485/1. I cyfer, I acompte or reken by algorisme.
1598. Florio, Zifrare, to cifre or cast account.
1633. Massinger, Guardian, I. i. Let him know No more than how to cipher well.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 208. ’Twas certain he could write and cypher too.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., 64. All children should learn to read, write, and cipher.
b. trans. To work out arithmetically.
1860. Holland, Miss Gilbert, ii. 45. The manufacturer ciphered it with his eyes on the ceiling.
c. To calculate, cast in the mind, think out. (U.S. colloq.)
1837–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 18. Nabb, the constable, had a writ agin him, and he was cyphering a good while how he should catch him.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Napoleon, Wks. (Bohn), I. 368. Bonaparte superadded to this mineral and animal force, insight and generalization … as if the sea and land had taken flesh and begun to cipher.
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Roughing It, xv. 124 (Hoppe). She puzzles her brain to cipher out some scheme for getting it into my hands.
2. To express by characters of any kind; esp. to write in cipher or cryptogram.
1563–87. Foxe, Acts & Mon. (1596), 1074/1. Not onlie the Priests that marrie, but them also that saie or cypher that a Priest maie marrie.
1565–78. Cooper, Thesaurus, Notis scribere, to cipher.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., V. vi. (ed. 7), 545. Such a kind of writing [Chinese], that every man of what nation soever … might pronounce in his mother tongue, even as it were Ciphered.
1630. Hayward, Edw. VI., 9. His notes he cyphered with greeke characters to the end that they who waited on him should not read them.
1779–81. Johnson, Lives Poets, Cowley. He was employed … in cyphering and decyphering the letters.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. IV. iii. Letters go in cipher,—one of them … hard to decipher; Fersen having ciphered it in haste.
† 3. gen. To express, show forth, make manifest by any outward signs, portray, delineate. Const. forth, out. Obs.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (1877), 26. You do well to request me to cipher foorth vnto you parts of those great abuses.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon (1861), 165. More I could not cipher-out by signs.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 207. The Herrald will contriue, To cipher me how fondlie I did dote. Ibid., 1396. The face of either cipher’d either’s heart.
1640. J. Gough, Strange Discov., I. i. B 2 (N.). Read the characters Of gravity and wisdome ciphered in Your aged face.
† 4. To decipher. Obs.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 81. The illiterate, that know not how To cipher what is writ in learned books.
† 5. To express by a cipher, monogram, or the like.
a. 1628. Ld. Brooke, Cælica, LXXV. Wks. 1633, 221. Wherein my name cyphred were.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2323/4. Which Watch belongeth to John Irving Esq.; and has his Name cyphered in silver Studds upon the Case.
† 6. To make a cipher of, make nought of. Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 18. Ep. Ded. I considered that bestowyng vpon your Lordship the first vewe of this mine impression (a feat of mine owne simple facultie) it could not scypher her maiesties honour or prerogatiue in the guift, nor yet the Authour of his thanks.
7. Cricket. To assign a cipher to in the score, put out without scoring.
1882. Daily Tel., 12 June, 3/6. Neither he [Butler] nor Selby were destined to stay long, the former being cyphered to a full toss from Garrett, and the latter very finely caught by Bonnor.
8. intr. Of an organ: To sound any note continuously without pressure on the corresponding key. See CIPHER sb. 7.
1779. Burney, Infant Music., in Phil. Trans., LXIX. 198. While he was playing the organ, a particular note hung, or, to speak the language of organ-builders, ciphered, by which the tone was continued without the pressure of the finger.
1869. Haweis, Gd. Words, Supp. 1 March, 10/2. The organist is disturbed if his organ begins to cipher.
9. Naval. Arch. To bevel or chamfer away.
1674. Petty, Dupl. Proportion, 23. If the same Triangular head [of a ship] be cyphered away into an Angle from bottom to top.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4935/4. Having the Edge next towards the Lince pin Cyphered off.
