Forms: α. 4 cuyschun, cuȝshen, 4–6 cuyssh-, cuissh-, -in, -en, -un, -yn, etc.; 4–7 quishin, qui-, quy-, qwi-, qwy-, (quyi-), -ss-, -ssh-, -ssch-, -sch-, -sh-, (szh-), -in, -yn, -en, -ene, -an, -on, -un, -ion, -yon, -ing, ynge, etc.; 6 quesion, 8 quishing; 4–5 whyss-, whyssh-, whish-, wyssh-, -in, -yne, -ene, etc., etc. β. 4–6 cusshyn, -on, -en, -ion, -eyn, -on; 5 cusch-, cosch-, cossh-, kussh-, kossch-, cos-, -yn(e, -en, -oun, -one, -yon, -ing, cowssing, etc.; 6–7 cush-en, -in, -yn, -ian, -eon, -ing, etc., (6 cussin, cochen, kushen; 7 cuoshen, coussin, -ion); 6– cushion. (Nearly 70 forms occur.)
[Of this word ME. had two types, α. cuisshin, quishin (north. whishin), a. OF. coissin, later coessin, cuissin (13–15th c. in Littré); and β. cusshyn, cushin, a. F. coussin (14th c.)—earlier cussin (12th c. in Hatzf.); in both languages the latter type is the surviving one. OF. coissin was = Fr. coissin, Cat. coixi, Sp. coxin, cojin, It. coscino, cuscino:—L. type coxīnum, f. coxa hip, thigh: cf. L. cubitāl elbow-cushion, f. cubitus elbow. (See P. Meyer in Romania 1892, 87).
The history of the form coussin, with which cushion goes, is more obscure. Hatzfeld suggests that it is an altered variant of coissin, influenced by OF. coute quilt:—L. culcita quilt, cushion. T. A. Jenkins in Mod. Lang. Notes, May 1893, argues for its being:—late L. *culticīnum, for *culcitīnum, a conjectured deriv. of culcita; in which case coissin and coussin would be distinct words without etymological connection: this their history makes improbable.]
1. A case of cloth, silk, etc., stuffed with some soft elastic material, used to give support or ease to the body in sitting, reclining or kneeling.
α. c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 877. Whyssynes vpon queldepoyntes, þa[t] koynt wer boþe.
[1361. Will of Edw. Blk. Prince, in Nichols, Royal Wills (1780), 74. Curtyns, quissyns, trav’syn.]
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1229. And doun she sette here by hym … vp-on a quysshon [v.r. cuisshyn] gold y-bete.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Sam. v. 9. Seetis of skynnes, ethir cuyschuns.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 579. Bryng a chayere and a qwyschene.
1418. E. E. Wills (1882), 36. vj. reof quisshens of worsted.
1530. Palsgr., 211/2. Cuysshen, coessyn.
1547. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. App. A. 293. Ther was a carpet and quission laid … for the chief mourner.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XIX. iv. Beautified with green quishins.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 74. It serueth vs instead of a quishion.
β. 1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xiii. 18. Woo to hem that sewen togider cusshens [1388 cuschens] vndir eche cubit of hoond.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 94. Coschyne, sedile. Ibid., 111. Cuschone [1499 Pynson cusshyn], cuscina.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XIX. xi. And there was layd a cusshyn of gold that he shold knele vpon.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 151. They set them downe on cosshyns of sylke.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 800/1. With cushins of fine gold.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 243. Ile haue them sleepe on Cushions in my Tent.
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 52. A Soldier lent you his Cloak for a Cushing.
a. 1732. Gay, Mad-Dog, Poems (1745), II. 62 (R.). A Prude, at morn and ev’ning prayer, Had worn her velvet cushion bare.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 103. A space on the tiny lawn where rugs and cushions were spread out.
b. That set on the book-board of a pulpit, etc., to support the bible or other book; cf. cushion-cuffer, -thumper in 11.
1615. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 69. One clothe and one quission of black vellure for the pulpett.
1709. Steele & Swift, Tatler, No. 70, ¶ 4. Neither is banging a Cushion, Oratory.
1719. Swift, To Yng. Clergyman. You will observe some clergymen with their heads held down … within an inch of the cushion.
1872. E. Peacock, Mabel Heron, I. ix. 151. To mend a rent in the cushion of the reading-desk.
c. The seat of a judge or ruler. Cf. WOOLSACK.
1659. B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 82. Maurice … having changed the Magistrates in many Towns … the Arminians were fain to leave the cushion against their wills.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), I. 130. The Court of Common Pleas had been outwitted by the Kings Bench, till his Lordship came upon the cushion.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 415. Bhawani Sing … was placed upon his cushion of sovereignty by the assistant to the Political Agent in Malwa.
d. fig.; also as an emblem of ease and luxury.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, B iv. The diuell take al, if truth find not as many soft cushions to leane on, as trecherie.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. vii. 43. Not moouing From th’ Caske to th’ Cushion.
1652. A. Ross, Hist. World, Pref. 1. Idlenesse … the Devils Cushion, as the Fathers call it.
1785. Cowper, Wks. (1837), XV. 174. At last [I] have placed myself much at my ease upon the cushion of this one resolution.
1833. Carlyle, Misc. (1872), V. 89. Cullies, the easy cushion on which Knaves and Knavesses repose.
2. transf. a. Applied to anything resembling or acting as a cushion.
1813. Scott, Triermain, I. viii. The silver-moss and lichen twined … A cushion fit for age.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, i. 19. Protected from … the violence of its waves by cushions of still water.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 220. A circular leaf-bearing cushion.
† b. A swelling simulating pregnancy: sometimes called Queen Mary’s cushion, after Mary Tudor. (Perhaps sometimes an actual cushion or pad.) Obs.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. iv. 16. But I would the Fruite of her Wombe might miscarry. Officer. If it do, you shall haue a dozen of Cushions againe, you haue but eleuen now.
1649. Milton, Eikon., iii. (1851), 356. And thus his pregnant motives are at last prov’d nothing but a Tympany, or a Queen Maries Cushion.
1689. Let. fr. the Pope, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), I. 370 (D.). That a King… should praise (or rather mock) God for a child, whilst his Queen had only conceived a pillow, and was brought to bed of a cushion…. This was the old contrivance of another Mary-Queen.
1694. S. Johnson, Notes Past. Lett. Bp. Burnet, I. 37. His Wife went fourty Weeks with a Cushion.
3. In various specific and technical applications: as, the ‘pillow’ used in making bone-lace; a receptacle for pins, a PIN-CUSHION; † an ink-pad for inking a seal, die, etc. (obs.); a flat leathern bag filled with pounce, used by engravers to support the plate; the elastic leathern pad on which gold-leaf is spread and cut with the palette-knife; the rubber of an electrical machine.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 316. To see her … take her cushin for bone lace, or her rocke to spinne.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 98. Your Beards deserue not so honourable a graue, as to stuffe a Botchers Cushion.
1735. Dict. Polygraph., s.v. Engraving, The Graving cushion is a roundish, but flattish leather bag filled with sand to lay the plate upon, on which it may be turn’d easily any way at pleasure.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 93. Like those cushions your gossips stick with pins in hearts, lozenges, and various forms, against a lying-in.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 43/2. He dipt his seal on the cushion and sealed the bond.
1832. Nat. Philos., Electric., iii. § 57. 15 (Useful Knowl. Soc.). The earlier electricians contented themselves with using the hand as a rubber, till a cushion was introduced for that purpose by Professor Winkler.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 117. (Carver & Gilder), With one hand he holds the cushion, which is merely a flat board covered with soft leather. Ibid., 214. (Engraver), The sand-bag, or cushion … is used for laying the copper plate upon.
1866. Joyce’s Sci. Dial., 492. (Electrical Machine) The cushion or rubber is fixed on a glass pillar.
b. A pad worn by women under the hair; a pad or bustle worn beneath the skirt of a woman’s dress.
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 424. We are sorry to find the Ladies returning … to the long-exploded mode of dressing their hair with the borrowed aid of the Cushion.
1806. Lady Douglas, in Examiner, 14 March 1813, 173/1. She wore a cushion behind.
1860. Fairholt, Costume (ed. 2), 476. The hair was arranged over a cushion formed of wool, and covered with silk.
c. The elastic rim or lining of the inner side of a billiard-table, from which the balls rebound.
1778. C. Jones, Hoyle’s Games Impr., 193. The Adversary is obliged to play Bricole from the opposite Cushion.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, xii. A game of billiards on a wooden table that had no cushions.
1856. Crawley, Billiards (1859), 5. The cushions are now almost universally made of Vulcanised India-rubber, though … old players say that the stroke is more certain from the old stuffed list cushions.
d. Mech. A body of steam (or air) left in the cylinder of a steam-engine (or air-engine) to act as an elastic buffer to the piston.
1848. Pract. Mech. Jrnl., I. 78/2. A cushion of steam is interposed to partially sustain the force of the blow [in a steam hammer].
1859. Rankine, Steam Engine, 364. The volume of the cushion air when it is under the greatest pressure [in an air engine].
4. In a horse, pig, etc.: a. The fleshy part of the buttock. b. The fibro-fatty frog in the interior of a horse’s hoof; also the coronet or fibrous pad extending round the upper part of the foot, immediately above, and united to the hoof.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4777/4. Both of them formerly cut with I. G. on the Cushion. Ibid. (1712), No. 4858/4. A black Spot on each Quishing. Ibid. (1722), No. 6079/9.
1892. W. Fream, Elem. Agric., xix. (ed. 3), 313. Outside these structures are two fibro-cartilages, one on each side, united behind and below by the plantar cushion.… The coronary cushion.
Mod. A cut of bacon off the cushion.
5. a. Ent. The little pad or cushion-like process of an insect’s foot; a pulvillus. b. Bot. The enlargement at, or just below, the point of attachment of some leaves; a pulvinus; also a dense mass of foliage such as is formed by some saxifrages and stonecrops.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 285. A distinct cushion; antennæ of nine joints.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 137. Sedum acre … Tufts or cushions 3–10 in. diam.
6. Arch. = COUSSINET, q.v.
1852. Brees, Gloss. Pract. Archit., 133. Cushion, or Coussinet, a stone lying on the top of a pier supporting an arch.
† 7. A drinking-vessel. Obs.
1594. Taming of Shrew, II. Why, Tapster, I say, Fils a fresh cushen heere!
c. 1618. Fletcher, Q. Corinth, II. iv. Quissions ye Knaves! (Enter drawers with Quissions).
8. (Our) Lady’s Cushion, a name for several plants, esp. Armeria maritima.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. l. 509. Some call it [Thrift] in Englishe our Ladies quishion.
9. Cycling. Short for cushion-tire.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Sept., 1/1. Twenty-one starters, five using pneumatic tyres, two cushions, all the rest solids.
10. Phrases. † a. To miss the cushion: to miss the mark; to make a mistake, err. Obs.
c. 1525. Skelton, Col. Cloute, 998. And whan he weneth to syt Yet may he mysse the quysshyon.
1535. Joye, Apol. Tindale, 48. Yet hath he missed the kushen in many placis.
1571. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1623), 168. He was elected Archbishop of St. Davids, but at Rome he was out bid, by him that had more money, and missed the Cushin.
1593. Drayton, Eclogues, viii. 80. Thy Wits doe erre and misse the Cushion quite.
1608. Hieron, Defence, II. 157. He hath missed the cushen and sitteth bare.
1609. Sir E. Hoby, Lett. to T. H[iggons], 45. They may misse the cushion in the Analogie of the place.
† b. Beside (or wide of) the cushion: away from the main purpose or argument, beside the mark; erroneously or mistakenly. Obs.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., B j b. Thou leanest beside the cushing.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 78. He raungeth abroad to originall sinne altogether besides the cushian.
1598. R. Bernard, trans. Terence (1607), 230. Thou art beside the cushin [L. erras].
1690. W. Walker, Idiom. Anglo-Lat., 517. He is wide of the cushion.
a. 1783. H. Brooke, Female Officer, I. xiii. The man did not speak much beside the cushion of common sense.
† c. To set or put beside (or besides) the cushion: to turn (any one) out of his place or position; to depose, set aside; to deprive or disappoint of an office or dignity. Obs.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 80. I may set you besyde the cushyn yit.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1305/1. To put enimitie betweene the king and hir; and to set hir besides the cushion.
a. 1624. Bp. M. Smith, Serm., 188. Sometimes putting them besides the cushion, and placing others in their roome.
1663. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1792), I. 291 (Jam.). The master of Forbes’ regiment was … discharged…. Thus is he set beside the cushion.
11. attrib. and Comb., as cushion-canvas, -layer, -stuffer; cushion-footed, -like, -shaped adjs.; cushion capital Arch. (see quots.); † cushion-cuffer = cushion-thumper; † cushion-lord (see quot.); cushion-pink, a name for Thrift (Armeria maritima); cushion-rafter, an auxiliary rafter beneath and parallel to a principal rafter, a principal brace; cushion-rest in Billiards (see quot.); cushion-scale, a common scale-insect, very injurious to orange and other trees; cushion-star, a fossil star-fish of the genus Goniaster; cushion-stitch, a flat embroidery stitch used to fill in backgrounds in old needlework, esp. in Church embroidery; cushion-thumper, a preacher who indulges in violent action; cushion-tire, a bicycle tire made of india-rubber tubing stuffed with shreds of india-rubber; hence cushion-tired ppl. a.; cushion-work in Embroidery (see quot.). Also CUSHION-CLOTH, -DANCE.
1611. Cotgr., Gaze, *Cushion Canuas; the thinne Canuas that serues women for a ground vnto their Cushions, or Purse-worke, &c.
1835. Whewell, Archit. Notes, 55. *Cushion capitals … consist of large cubical masses projecting considerably over the shaft of the column, and rounded off at the lower corners.
1842–76. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., Gloss., Cushion Capital, a capital used in Romanesque and early Mediæval architecture, resembling a cushion pressed down by a weight. It is also a cap consisting of a cube rounded off at its lower angles, largely used in the Norman period.
1683. E. Hooker, Pref. Ep. Pordage’s Mystic Div., 36. Our impertinently idl Pulpit-praters, or … too busily laborious *Cushion-Cuffers.
1865. Reader, 12 Aug., 175/3. A smooth and velvety tiger … Supple and *cushion-footed.
1679. Trials of Green & Berry, 64. Mrs. Warrier … being *Cushion-layer in the Chappel.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. II. lix. Soft mosse … Whose velvet hue and verdure *cushion-like did show.
1847–78. Halliwell, *Cushion-lord, a lord made by favour, and not for good service to the state; hence, an effeminate person.
1863. Prior, Plant-n., *Cushion-pink, from its dense tufted growth.
1819. P. Nicholson, Archit. Dict., 652/1. Sometimes called principal braces, and sometimes *cushion rafters.
1873. Bennett & ‘Cavendish,’ Billiards, 28. *Cushion-rests are rests, shaped to fit over the face of the cushion.
1886. Rep. Comm. Agric. Washington U.S., 466. The Cottony *Cushion-scale is found only in California, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
1843. Forbes, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 80. Orange-yellow … with crimson-red, are the usual hues of the *cushion-stars.
1886. Daily News, 14 Dec., 7/6. Billiard *cushion stuffer wanted.
1876. Rock, Text. Fabr., viii. 81. Done in cross and tent stitch, or the *‘cushion style.’
a. 1643. W. Cartwright, Ordinary, III. v. Thou violent *cushion-thumper, hold thy tongue.
1891. Cyclist, 25 Feb., 164. *Cushion Tyres are getting quite fashionable here.
1891. Wheeling, 4 March, 436. We rode 40 miles on a *cushion-tyred Cremorne.
1845. Ecclesiologist, IV. 98. The [gold] threads are laid upon the linen, and fastened down at intervals with silk. This method is called *cushion-work.
