[subst. use of the adj.: cf. the parallel history of COMPOST sb. Originally stressed on second syllable; so in H. More, and still dialectally; Shaks. has both, but co·mpound more frequently.]
1. quasi-concr. A union, combination, or mixture of elements.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iv. I. iii. (1676), 404/2. Mahometans are a compound of Gentiles, Jews, and Christians.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 220, ¶ 3. A Compound of Two very different Liquors.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), II. VIII. v. 237. Their customs … are a kind of compound of those of Lima and Quita.
1814. Scott, Wav., xlvii. It was not fear, it was not ardour,—it was a compound of both.
2. concr. a. A compound substance; spec. a compounded drug, as opposed to ‘simples.’
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. v. 9. These most poysonous Compounds.
1641. Bp. Hall, Serm., in Rem. Wks. (1660), 52. As we say in our philosophy … only compounds nourish.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sc. & Art, I. 42. Compounds formed by the mixture of two or more different metals, are called alloys.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 80. Compounds which contain a larger proportion of oxygen.
b. transf. of what is immaterial.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. iv. § 26 (1864), 301. Volition is a compound, made up of this and something else.
c. A compound word, a verbal compound.
1530. Palsgr., 395. Je prens is a symple whiche hath for his compoundes je reprens, etc.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., lxxvi. To new-found methods and to compounds strange.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 126. Wee retaine it in the compound Husband.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 127. Classified, in that jargon which makes an uncouth compound pass muster for a new critical nicety, as a tendency-poet.
† d. A composite number. Obs.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., I. vii. (ed. 7), 25. Such numbers as may be evenly divided by another number without leaving any remainder, are called Compounds.
e. A compound locomotive.
1890. Railway Herald, 25 Oct., 6/3. The driver of one of the latest compounds on L. & N. W. [railway]. Ibid. The compounds make up in oil what they save in coal.
† 3. A composition, a thing made up. Obs.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, vi. (1664), 79. Strugling together … will soon dissever the parts, and rend in sunder the whole Compound.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. iii. Man’s compounds have o’erthrown his simplenesse.
1773. J. Ross, Fratricide (MS.), II. 922. What am I but a compound frail of dust, Wak’d into life by thy enlivening breath?
4. Compounding, composition.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., iii. 41. Imperfect … in regard of the Compound.
1694. W. Holder, Harmony (1731), 39. Whereas beyond an Octave, all is but Repetition of these [concords] in Compound with the Eighth, as a Tenth is an Eighth and a Third.
1741. Betterton, in Oldys, Eng. Stage, ii. 19. Roxana is haughty, malicious, insinuating, with this Compound, She is made desperately in Love with Alexander.
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., I. Surrey, 139. The Name of this … District is of Saxon Compound.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), I. xxv. 205. A different compound of character.
