1. Vessels or other objects made of baked clay.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 29. The Town [Delft] is noted for good earthen Ware, as Stone-jugs, Pots, &c.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm., xxvi. (1841), I. 267. Earthenware from Stafford, Nottingham, and Kent.
1792. Phil. Trans., LXXXII. 270. When earthen ware is mentioned in this paper, the cream-coloured or queen’s ware is meant.
1879. J. J. Young, Ceram. Art, 30. The manufacture of earthen-ware.
b. In pl. Kinds of earthenware.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., i. 19. Efforts .. for improving the quality of common earthenwares made in Staffordshire.
2. The material of which such vessels are made.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 295. Pour it into a jar of stone or earthenware.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), Introd. 40. A trough of earthen-ware, divided in its length by numerous partitions of the same material.
1873. Watts, Fownes’ Chem., 347. Earthenware is made from a white secondary clay.
3. attrib. and in comb., as earthenware vessel, -dealer, -man.
1812. J. & H. Smith, Rej. Addr., v. (1873), 41. England is a large earthenware pipkin.
1813. Examiner, 23 May, 329/1. J. Downes, High Holborn, earthenwareman.
1863. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, 53. The light by which the minister was reading was a wax-candle in a white earthenware candlestick.
