Forms: 5 facioun, 6 facion, -yon, fation, fasshion, 7 fashon, 6– fashion. [f. prec. sb.; cf. F. façonner.]
1. trans. To give fashion or shape to; to form, mould, shape (either a material or immaterial object). Also, To fashion out.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. xxx. (1483), 78. That this forsaid statua be faciound duely and fourmed as it sholde.
c. 1500. Melusine, 50. Tentes … so meruayllously facyoned.
1551. T. Wilson, Logike (1580), 45. The shape, or fashion of any thyng, is a cause whereby the thyng that is made hath his name, as leather when it is made or fashioned for the foote, is called a shoee.
1608. D. T., Ess. Pol. & Mor., 66 b. To polish and fashion out his then rough-hewen fortune.
1611. Bible, Job xxxi. 15. Did not hee that made mee in the wombe, make him? and did not one fashion vs in the wombe?
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. ii. § 2. The same Inability, will every one find in himself, who shall go about to fashion in his Understanding any simple Idea, not received in by his Senses, from external Objects.
1697. Dryden, Virgil, Life (1721), I. 41. A course Stone is presently fashion’d; but a Diamond, of not many Karats, is many Weeks in Cutting, and in Polishing many more.
1713. Gay, The Fan, I. 112, Poems (1720), I. 35.
| A different toil another forge employs; | |
| Here the loud hammer fashions female toys; | |
| Hence is the fair with ornament supplied, | |
| Hence sprung the glittering implements of pride. |
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., 83.
| Our stage is so prettily fashion’d for viewing, | |
| The whole house can see what the whole house is doing. |
1838. Lytton, Alice, 28. Young people fashion and form each other.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, 18. Fragments of rude pottery fashioned by the hand were abundant.
1878. A Masque of Poets, 76, A Lover’s Tests.
| The wish I might have fashioned died | |
| In dreams that never brought you to my side! |
† b. Said of the constituent parts of anything.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xx. 51. This Bladder is seated … in a Cavity fashioned by the Os sacrum, the Hip and Share-bones.
† c. To make good-looking; to beautify. Obs.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Epist. * * j. He was disfiguered to fashion vs, he dyed for our life.
2. a. To form, frame, make. rare.
c. 1549. Hist. Lucres, A ij b. Her browes bente, facioned with fewe heares, by due space deuyded.
1608. D. T., Ess. Pol. & Mor., 46 b. Favorinus … had reason … to fashion them this reply.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 304. On the beaten road there is tolerable travelling; but it is sore work, and many have to perish, fashioning a path through the impassable!
1863. Longf., Wayside Inn, Prel., 275.
| The instrument on which he played | |
| Was in Cremona’s workshops made … | |
| Fashioned of maple and of pine. |
1880. E. Kirke, Garfield, 13/2. Bringing his saw and jackplane again into play, he fashioned companies, officers, and non-commissioned officers out of maple blocks.
† b. To contrive, manage. Obs.
c. 1540. Pilgr. Tale, 79, in Thynne, Animadv., App. i. 79.
| Then could he fation in the best wyce | |
| many a deynte dyche in seruys. |
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 194.
| Now I perceive they haue conioyned, all three, | |
| To fashion this false sport in spite of me. | |
| Ibid. (1596), 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 297. | |
| Where you and Dowglas and our powers at once, | |
| As I will fashion it, shall happily meete. |
3. To give a specified shape to; to model according to, after, or like (something); to form † into (the shape of something); to shape into or to (something). Also refl. and † intr. for refl.
1526. Tindale, Rom. viii. 29. They shuld be like fassioned vnto the shape of his sonne.
a. 1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 421. We are exhorted to fashion ourselves according to that similitude and likeness which is in him.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. iii. 142. Fashioning them [the Hotblouds] like Pharaoes souldiours in the rechie painting.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 151. Coines … fashioned like point-aglets.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Plants, II. II. § 31. The Mould; about which, the other more passive Principles gathering themselves, they all consort and fashion to it.
1774. J. Bryant, A New System; or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology, I. 467. They reared a Petra, or high place, by heaping up a vast mound of earth This they fashioned to a conical figure.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature (1799), II. 149. Some of them [seeds] are fashioned into the figure of shells, others into boats, rafts, skiffs, single and double canoes, similar to those of the South-Seas.
1809. Pinkney, Travels through the South of France, 242. Chairs fashioned according to the designs of artists.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 508. Hiring a smith to fashion his steel into picks or awls.
1872. Bageot, Physics & Pol. (1876), 216. Communities which are fashioned after the structure of the elder world.
b. With complement or complementary obj.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. iii. 65.
| When Talbot hath set footing once in France, | |
| And fashion’d thee that instrument of ill. | |
| Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. ii. 200. | |
| Let me, if not be birth, haue lands by wit, | |
| All with me’s meete, that I can fashion fit. |
† 4. To change the fashion of; to modify, transform. With compl. like, or const. to. Obs.
1528. Tindale, Obed. Chr. Man, 97 b. When a man fealeth that his herte consenteth vnto the law of God and fealeth him selfe meke, pacient, curtous and mercyfull to his neyboure, altered and fascioned lyke vnto Christe, why shuld he doute but that God hath forgeven him and chosen hym and put his sprite in hym, though he never cromme hys synne in to the prestes eare?
1547. Homilies, I., Falling from God, I. (1859), 84. Be fashioned to him in all goodness requisite to the children of God.
1576. A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 382. Take heede that you forsake drunkennesse, and fashion your selfe to sobernesse, if you meane to kepe the credite and opinion of a wise man, and the report of one that is honest.
a. 1592. H. Smith, Serm. (1866), II. 289. Fashion thyself to Paul, and we will look on thee.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 220. Send him but hither, and Ile fashion him.
1611. Bible, Phil. iii. 21. Who shall change our vile bodie, that it may bee fashioned like vnto his glorious body.
1753. Foote, Eng. in Paris, Epil. Wks. 1799, I. 31. His roughness she’ll soften, his figure she’ll fashion.
† b. To counterfeit, pervert. Obs.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. iii. 31. Iohn. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace, and it better fits my bloud to be disdain’d of all, then to fashion a carriage to rob loue from any.
| Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., I. ii. 14. | |
| And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, | |
| That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading. |
5. To give (a person or thing) a fashion or form suitable to or to do (something); to accommodate, adapt to. Also refl. and intr. for refl. Now rare.
1526. Tindale, 1 Cor. ix. 22. In all thynge I fasshioned my silfe to all men, to save att the lest waye some.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., III. i. 135.
| Duk. How shall I fashion me to weare a cloake? | |
| Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, V. iv. 88. | |
| A halting sonnet of his owne pure braine, | |
| Fashioned to Beatrice. |
1608. D. T., Ess. Pol. & Mor., 88 b. There are some that fashion themselves to nothing more, then how to become speculative into another.
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., vi. 50. It was spoken corruptly, according as the Peoples tongues would fashion to it.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. ii. 50.
| Grif. This Cardinall, | |
| Though from an humble Stocke, undoubtedly | |
| Was fashion’d to much Honor. From his Cradle | |
| He was a Scholler, and a ripe, and good one. |
1623. Massinger, The Duke of Milan, II. i.
| Lies so false and wicked, | |
| And fashion’d to so damnable a purpose. |
1630. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 529. We fashion our selves to extoll the ages past.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 146. Doctrines fashioned to the varying hour.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), II. i. 3. These priests fashioned that which they did not understand to their respective wants and wishes.
† b. To present the form of; to represent. Obs.
1590–6. Spenser (title), The Faerie Queene, Disposed into twelve books fashioning XII Morall vertues.
c. intr. To bring oneself, ‘have the face’ (to do something). dial. (Cf. quot. 1591 in 5.)
1847. E. Brontë, Wuthertng Heights (1858), 11. Aw wonder how yah can faishion to stand theear i’ idleness. Ibid., 29. She did fly up, asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house.
1883. Almondbury & Huddersf. Gloss., ‘Why don’t you go and ask him for it?’ ‘I cannot fashion.’
6. Naut. (See quot.) Obs.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), C iv b. The knees … fashion the transoms to the ship’s side. [Ibid. supra: The knees which connect the beams to the sides.]
