Forms: 5 faucett, fawcet(t, 5–6 fawset, 6 faucete, -set, (fasset, faulsed, -set), 7 faucit, -sset, 7–8 fosset, (forset), 4– faucet. [a. F. fausset (in sense 1); of unknown etymology.]
† 1. A peg or spigot to stop the vent-hole in a cask or in a tap; a vent-peg. Obs.
c. 1430. Wyclif’s Job. xxxii. 19 (MS. V.). Lo! my wombe is as must with out faucet [1388 spigot] ether a ventyng that brekith newe vessels.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 413. To giue it [ayre] when the fosset is halfe out.
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, II. i.
| But tympanites, which we call the drum, | |
| A wind-bombs in her belly, must be unbraced, | |
| And with a faucet or peg, let out, | |
| And she’ll do well: get her a husband. |
1737. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. v. 266. Give it Vent at the Bouge, with a Hole made with a Gimblet; into which put a Peg or Faucet, that may easily be moved with your Fingers.
2. A tap for drawing liquor from a barrel, etc. Now dial. and U.S.
Formerly more fully spigot and faucet, denoting an old form of tap, still used in some parts of England, consisting of a straight wooden tube, one end of which is tapering to be driven into a hole in the barrel, while the other end is closed by a peg or screw. The peg or screw when loosened allows the liquor to flow out through a hole in the under side of the tube. Properly, the spigot seems to have been the tube, and the faucet the peg or screw (as still in the Sheffield dialect); but in some examples the senses are reversed, and each of the words has been used for the entire apparatus. In the U.S. faucet is now the ordinary word for a tap of any kind.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 204.
| Vernage of Venyce vertuous and Crete; | |
| In faucetez of fyne golde. |
a. 1483. Liber Niger, in Househ. Ord. (1780), 77. He asketh allowaunce for tubbys, treyes, and faucettes, occupied all the yeare before by record of countrollers, and clerkes of the buttreye.
1468. Paston Lett., No. 549, II. 268. For claretts and fawcetts vi d.
1530. Palsgr., 740/1. Our men be to thrustye to tarye tyll their drinke be drawen with a faulsed.
1549. Chaloner, Erasmus on Folly, G iv b. He founde a backe faulset set in his wyne vessell.
1630. Randolph, Aristippus (1652), 16. Thi Nose like a Fausset with the Spicket out.
1683. D’Urfey, New Collection of Songs and Poems, 52. In spite of his spiggot and fawset, the Statesman must go to Old Nick.
1780. Von Troil, Iceland, 190. At the end of this conduit is a hole in the rock, which is shut with a spigot and faucet, and through which you let in as much warm water as you think fit; this, when too hot, may easily be cooled by water from an adjoining brook.
1881. Miss Laffan, Weeds, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 379. This was furnished with a half-dozen faucets, which could be turned on at will.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., Faucet, a wooden tap screw for a barrel.
1890. G. Bonner, In the Haworth, in Harper’s Mag., LXXX., April, 751/2. The dripping of the water from the faucet in the sink sounded sharp and distinct.
fig. 1568. T. Howell, Arb. Amitie, A ij., To Lady Talbot. It is also more agreeable to the way of wisedome, wisely to be silent, then fondly to speake, greater vertue it is, and labour more commendable to learne to suppresse thy tongue, then to seeke the fasset to set abroch the same, for in silence is wisedome and prudence, when in talke fooles are knowne.
1640. Brome, Sparagus Gard., III. iv. Wks. 1873. III. 160. In every man there are all humours to him that can find their faussets, and draw ’hem out to his purpose.
† b. A contemptuous appellation for a tapster.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. ii. My chayre, you false faucet you. Ibid., II. iii. Speake in thy faith of a faucet.
3. Used as a synonym of ADJUTAGE.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Surv. Experim. Philos. (1776), I. 407. To remedy this scattering of the fluid as it issues form the hole, we all know of the contrivance of the fosset or ajutage, which is only a pipe stuck into the hole, that serves to give the fluid a proper direction.
4. U.S. (See quot.)
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Faucet. 2. The enlarged end of a pipe to receive the spigot-end of the next section.
5. attrib. and Comb., as faucet-hole, -seller. Also U.S. faucet-joint (see quot.).
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 79. Hearing a cause betweene an Orendge wife and a Forset-seller.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. iii. 108/1. Tap is the Forset hole made in the head of the Barrel to draw the Liquor out.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Faucet-joint, 1. An expansion-joint for uniting two parts of a straight metallic pipe, which is exposed to great variations of temperature. 2. One form of breech-loader in which the rear of the bore is exposed by the turning of a perforated plug.
