Also 6–8 compartiment, 6 -pertiment, 6–7 -partement; see also COPARTMENT. [a. F. compartiment, in It. -mento, late L. -mentum, f. compartīrī to divide. The Fr. form was long retained in artistic senses.]
I. A division separated by partitions, a part partitioned off.
1. Arch. and Art. A division or separate part of a design; ‘an ornamental subdivisional part, for ornament, of a larger division’ (Gwilt); e.g., a sunk panel in a ceiling or soffit.
1564–78. Bulleyn, Dial. agst. Pest. (1888), 15. The piller was eight foote square … with compartementes of cunnyng masonrie curiously couered with fine golde.
1598. Florio, Compartimento, a compartment, a partition.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 223. [A] toombe … pittifully defaced … the compartiment and other buildings torne downe.
1715. T. Bennet, Ess. 39 Art., 5. The title of this copy is inclos’d with the same compartiment which that copy has.
1726. R. Neve, Builders Dict., Compartment … in Architecture, is a particular Square (for an Inscription or some other Device) marked out in some ornamental Part of a Building.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Compartiment of tiles, an arrangement of white and red tiles varnished for the decoration of a roof.
1852. H. Cotton, Editions of Bible (ed. 2), 274. The title, within a wood-cut compartment. Ibid., 278. Title, within an architectural compartment.
1873. Horner, Walks Florence (1884), I. xvi. 249. The ceiling was divided into thirty-nine compartments.
† b. ‘Fine bindings of books are said to be in compartiment’ (Bailey s.v.). Obs.
[Cf. Littré: Dorures à petits fers qui se mettent sur le plat ou sur le dos des livres.]
1648. Herrick, Hesper., To Closet-Gods. About the cover of this book there went A curious-comely clean compartlement [? mispr. for compartiement].
† 2. Gardening. (See quots.) Obs.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, II. vi. 56. The Tricking of Plots consists in Complements and Compartiments.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., 211. Clip Box, etc. in Parterres, Knots, and Compartiments.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 28. A Wood-work, planted in a very handsome Compartiment.
1731–7. Miller, Gard. Dict., Compartiments are Beds, Plats, Borders, and Walks, laid out according to the Form of the Ground.
1814. [see COPARTMENT].
3. Her. A division of a shield, etc.
1590. [see COPARTMENT].
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, VI. vi. (1611), 271. The Motto, or Word … set in some Scrole or Compartment, placed vsually at the foot of the Escocheon.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cclxi. Noe Fret of Names Worne as a Border, or Compartiment, To glimer ore the Tablet.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Compartments (in Heraldry) are partitions, as also quarterings of the escutcheon, according to the number of coats that are to be in it, or the several divisions made in it.
† 4. A division of troops. Obs.
1590. Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, 7. The bands being in great compertiments and divisions, may be with a great deale more celeritie incorporated with the other great compertiments of the like weapons of other great bands. Ibid., 9. Everie sort of weapon being reduced into bands by themselves, without compertiments of divers sorts of weapons in anie one band.
5. A space or chamber partitioned off. a. in the body of an animal or plant.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), I. IV. viii. 175. Each seed … inclosed in one of the compartments, formed by the transverse membranes of the pod.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 573/1. The stomach … is divided into distinct compartments. Ibid., I. 644/1. The left compartment of the ventricle.
b. One of the divisions of a railway-carriage.
Now one of the most common of the applications.
1862. Shirley, Nugæ Crit., xi. 481. In the engaged compartment of a first-class carriage.
1885. Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, I. 9. She was evidently travelling alone … and she must have been in a compartment by herself.
c. In other applications: e.g., one of the water-tight divisions of a large ship.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., ix. (1878), 144. He pushed a compartment of books.
1881. Daily Tel., 17 Oct. Suddenly liberated here, it … gives rise to an intense cold, which it carries with it into the freezing compartments.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 2. Water-tight bulkheads.—The name applied to the sides of the numerous compartments into which it is customary to divide iron vessels.
1884. Pall Mall G., 25 Aug., 8/2. She had watertight compartments.
6. A separate division or section of anything, whether plane or solid.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 328. The rails were made in eight compartments, and screwed together.
1854. Darwin, Monogr. on Cirripedia, Balanidæ, 33. A barnacle or acorn-shell is an irregular cone, formed generally of six compartments.
1867. Herschel, Fam. Lect. Sc., The Sun, 71. They divide the spectrum into compartments.
1872. Nicholson, Palæont., 150. The sides of the shell are seen to be composed of from 4 to 8 separate pieces, valves, or, as they are technically called, compartments.
II. † 7. The proper disposition and distribution of the parts of any design: = COMPARTITION 2. Obs.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Compartiment [with Painters], is a regular orderly disposition of agreeable Figures all round any Picture, Map, Draught, etc. for its better Ornament.
1715. Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 57. The Compartment of the Building, or the distribution of its parts. Ibid., I. 92. Of all the Bridges … the most worthy of consideration (as well for the strength as the compartment of it).
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Compartiment [in Joinery, etc.], A symmetrical disposition of figures to adorn panels, etc.
b. fig.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 5. Tolerations in things tolerable … are … the faire Compartiments of Christian fraternity.
8. Comb., as compartment-bulkhead, one of the partitions that divide the hold of a ship into watertight compartments; compartment ceiling, one divided into panels (Gwilt); compartment tiles, an arrangement of varnished red and white tiles on a roof (Gwilt): see 1730 in 4 b.
