ppl. a. [f. FILE v.1 + -ED1.] In senses of the vb.: chiefly fig. of speech, etc.: Polished, smooth, neatly finished off or elaborated; fine (now rare). Also with defining word prefixed as fair-filed, trite-filed adjs.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 477. What so euer thou art, thy tong is fayre fyled.
1548–77. Vicary, Anat., Pref. Verse.
| Our heads doo lacke that fyled phrase, | |
| whereon fine wittes delight to gase. |
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., II. 22 b.
| Their earnestnesse in teaching still, and déepe dissembling chere, | |
| Their eloquence, and filed tongue, and grauitie seuere: | |
| That men did thinke ech thing was well bestowed, and happily, | |
| That giuen was vnto so good and holy company. |
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 379/2. Take filed Iron, put it in an earthen panne, besprinckle it with Saultewater and mixe it well together.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 328. Wee goe not about with filed speech and rich rewards to circumvent thee, whose inuincible mind wee haue so often in vaine prooued with our forces and power.
1623. B. Jonson, Pref. Verses, in 1st Fo. Shaks.
| Look how the father’s face | |
| Lives in his issue; even so the race | |
| Of Shakspeare’s mind, and manners, brightly shines | |
| In his well torned, and true-filed lines. |
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxx. Thou hast a better filed tongue than either Crèvecœur or I.
1888. Hasluck, The Mechanic’s Workshop Handybook, 87. With regard to finishing filed work, such as has to be made particularly presentable to the eye, there are many ways of polishing and burnishing, but, properly speaking, these are not filing.
1892. The Nation (N.Y.), 4 Aug., LX. 88/3. Mr. Aldrich’s filed lines, with the touch of nature and sentiment, show show his even power.
