A. adj.
† 1. Capable of being fashioned, shaped, or moulded. Const. to, unto. Of a damaged article: Capable of being brought into shape. Obs.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 238. Hee that then can endure the hewing, and groweth more and more fashionable vnto good things, he shall be for the Lords vse.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvi. (1632), 835. Nine yeares olde, a most fashionable and waxen ape for all impression.
1614. T. Jackson, The Eternal Truth of Scripture, III. viii. Wks. II. 256. This was Peters Prerogative, unto whom the Keyes are first given … and power by them, to admit as many as were, to exclude all that were not fashionable to this Rock and Corner-stone.
1623. Rowlandson, God’s Bless., 27. Could the iron be pliable and fashionable to the minde of the smith.
1656. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 152. Some cups are broken and not fashionable, they shall be exchanged for new Plate such as may be good and serviceable.
† b. Conformable to. Obs.
1657. R. Carpenter, Astrology, 15. It is most fashionable to Reason, That Job, by Musick … understands [etc.].
† 2. Pertaining to outward form or ceremony; merely formal. Obs. (Cf. FASHION sb. 7.)
1614. Bp. Hall, A Recollection of such Treatises, 612. A fashionable observation of the outwarde Letter, with neglect of the true substance of the Law. Ibid. (1633), Hard Texts, 110. From this time forth, many of those his fashionable disciples, taking this unjust offence at his holy Doctrine, went away from him, and followed his traine no more. Ibid. (a. 1656), Soliloquies, 73. Not that we should, in the midst of a sensible indisposedness of heart, fall suddenly into a fashionable devotion.
1616. S. Ward, Coale from Altar (1627), 47. No maruell if his seruice be formall and fashionable. Ibid., 82. To confess the truth of the fashionable Christian.
† 3. Of a good fashion or appearance; good-looking, stylish. Also, fashionable-like. Obs.
1630. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 135. We have fashionable attendance.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, D iij a. Some of them Bear-like-whelps (by licking and smoothing) have gotten some fashionable like shape.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 244. A Cap … made of a Hare-skin, very convenient and fashionable enough.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5865/4. A light dapple grey Nag … fashionable and full aged.
4. a. Of persons: Observant of or following the fashion; dressing or behaving in conformity with the standard of elegance current in upper-class society.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 165.
| For time is like a fashionable Hoste | |
| That slightly shakes his parting Guest by th’ hand. |
1609. W. M., Man in Moone (1849), 42. A finicall fellow he is, and very fashionable.
1738. Chesterf., Common Sense, 11 Feb., No. 16. Taste is now the fashionable Word of the fashionable World.
1816. Remarks Eng. Mann., 86. Nor do I believe a less fashionable man would have paid any attention.
1845. Florist’s Jrnl., 139. A numerous and fashionable company.
1892. Speaker, 30 July, 141/1. Reviewers are apt to be … slavishly fashionable in adjectives.
absol. 1790. Han. More, Relig. Fash. World (1791), 1. The polite and the fashionable.
b. Of things, esp. dress: Conformable to fashion; in accordance with prevailing usage; of the kind in vogue among persons of the upper class. Of immaterial things: Approved by custom, generally accepted, current (now in depreciatory sense).
1608. W. Sclater, Malachy (1650), 103. The commoness of the sin, and the long custome of it; so long had it continued, and was grown so fashionable, that it seemed to be no sin.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. vi. (1840), 125. Either his person will be more proper, or carriage more court-like, or attendance more accomplished, or attire more fashionable, or some thing will either be or conceived to be more majesticall in one then the other. Ibid. (1650), A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, II. viii. 177. Seeing such chariots were so fashionable in their fights.
1665. Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, An Address to the Royal Society. And tis to be hoped that the the eminence of your condition and the gallantry of your Principles, which are worthy those that own them, will invite Gentlemen to the useful and enobling atudy of Nature and make Philosophy fashionable.
1668. Rokeby, Let., 6 Oct., in Mem. (Surtees), 17. A rideing cloake of ye best worsted camlett of a fashionable sorte.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pygmalion, 45.
| Rich, fashionable Robes her Person deck, | |
| Pendants her Ears, and Pearls adorn her Neck. |
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 229. The fashionable opinions of the court.
1823. Lamb, Elia (1860), 157. Preferred living in a newer and more fashionable mansion.
1825. J. Neal, Brother Jonathan, II. 329. ‘Harry,’ said he, one day, not long afterwards, appearing suddenly before him, in a fashionable dress;—‘Harry!—you have wished me, for a long time, to see the world. I am ready, now. Lead on—I’ll follow you.’
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 515. Artificial ringlets clustering in fashionable profusion round his shoulders.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, 119. Felix Holt had his illusions, like other young men, though they were not of a fashionable sort.
5. a. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of persons of fashion. b. Treating of the world of fashion. c. Frequented or patronized by people of fashion.
a. 1712. Steele, Spect., No. 504, 8 Oct., ¶ 4. These rascals of late years have been the gallants of the town, and carried it with a fashionable haughty air, to the discouragement of modesty, and all honest arts.
1790. Han. More, Relig. Fash. World (1791), 221. That mode of life emphatically distinguished by the appellation of fashionable.
1884. J. Hall, A Chr. Home, v. 102. In the showy walks of a hollow and conventional ‘fashionable life,’ covering up heart-woe under Parisian attire and studied manners, in the gloomy privacy of loveless chambers, in houses of shame, in early graves, and in the living tomb of the lunatic asylum, may be found the victims of man’s infidelity.
b. 1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 169. Nor are Sacred Books wanting to the Sect [of the Dandies]; these they call Fashionable Novels.
1882. Pebody, English Journalism, xi. 78. The Morning Post … made a name for itself by its fresh and sparkling paragraphs of Court and fashionable gossip, and by its free and dashing comments upon the topics of the day.
c. 1815. trans. Duc de Levis’s Engl. 19th Cent., i. 170. Ranelagh pleases them much: it is even called fashionable [orig. il reçoit même l’épithète de fashionable].
1838. Emerson, Nat., Literary Ethics, Wks. (Bohn), II. 214. In fashionable or political saloons.
1839. Hood, Up the Rhine, 43. The Waal branch of the fashionable river.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xviii. Burgess & Co.,—fashionable tailors (but very dear).
1877. Johnston, Dict. Geog., 1234/1. Scarborough … is now the most fashionable watering-place on the N.E. coast.
1881. Lady Herbert, Edith, i. 1. One hansom passed rapidly through the crowded streets, and drew up at a door in a fashionable quarter.
B. sb. A fashionable person. Chiefly in pl.
a. 1800. T. Bellamy, Beggar Boy (1801), I. 178. All the fashionables in town.
1800. H. Wells, Constantia Neville, I. 240. That he was merely a fashionable, she could not believe.
1800. Sporting Mag., XV. Feb., 265/2. The physicians and the apothecaries have had a very good season with our fair fashionables; muslins and rheummatics having been, and still continuing all the rage!
1834. Medwin, Angler in Wales, II. 150. The Garden of the Tuileries, crowded with fashionables of all countries.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xlix. A very pleasing and witty fashionable.
1883. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Girl of Period, II. 11. She will probably end her days as a frantic Fashionable.
