Forms: 1 flór, 3 flor, 4–7 flore, flour(e, 5–6, 9 dial. flur(e, 6 Sc. fluire, (6 floyyre), 6–7 floar(e, 6–8 flower, 7 floore, 7– floor. [OE. flór str. masc. and fem., corresponds to MDu., mod.Du. vloer, MHG. vluor masc. and fem. (mod.Ger. flur fem. field, plain, masc. floor), ON. flór floor of a cowstall:—OTeut. *floru-s:—pre-Teut. *plāru-s or *plōru-s. Cf. OIr. lár, Welsh llawr of same meaning:—pre-Celtic *plār-.]
I. In a house or other structure.
1. The layer of boards, brick, stone, etc., in an apartment, on which people tread; the under surface of the interior of a room.
Beowulf, 725 (Gr.), On faȝne flor feond treddode.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., i. He ȝefeoll niwol of dune on þa flor.
c. 1200. Ormin, 15566.
| & all he warrp ut i þe flor | |
| Þe bordess & te sillferr. |
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 288. Þe flor to brac vnder hem.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 652.
| The knyghtes brake up his chambir dore, | |
| And fande the golde right in the flore | |
| And bare it unto the qwene. |
1528. Lyndesay, Dreme, 13.
| And, sumtyme, playand fairsis on the flure; | |
| And, sumtyme, on myne office takkand cure. |
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 116. That the Body may not take up house-room, or annoy them, they dig an hole in the floar of their house, and put hollowed tree and all in and cover it.
1718. The Free-Thinker, No. 17, 18 May, ¶ 8. She rises with a Stamp and a loud Crack of her Fan, walks two or three Turns in a Fret over the Floor, and taking her Hoop in one Hand in a great Fury, she squeezes sidelong through a Passage Two Yards wide.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxiii. According to usual form, he threw his glove upon the floor of the church.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. v. 40. The stone floor was dark with moisture, and on the walls a glistening was here and there observable, which suggested rheumatism, and other penalties.
b. In extended sense: The base of any cavity; the bottom of a lake, sea, etc.
a. 1000. Satan, 318 (Gr.). Flor attre weol.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXVIII. vi.
| There where the deepe did show his sandy flore, | |
| And heaped waves an uncouth way enwall: | |
| Whereby they past from one to other shore, | |
| Walking on seas, and yet not wett at all. |
1844. Emerson, Lect. New Eng. Ref., Wks. (Bohn), I. 268. They know the speed with which they come straight through the thin masquerade, and conceive a disgust at the indigence of nature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, Charles Fox, Napoleon, Byron—and I could easily add names nearer home, of raging riders, who drive their steeds so hard in the violence of living to forget its illusion: they would know the worst, and tread the floors of hell.
1866. Tate, Brit. Mollusks, iii. 48. The tongue forms the floor of the mouth, and the front part, which is the only part in use, is frequently curved or bent quite over, and its teeth are often broken and blunted; the hinder portion descends obliquely behind the mouth, and its edges are united to form a tube, and enclosed in a membranous sheath, which opens gradually as the part is brought forward to replace the worn portion.
1869. Rawlinson, Anc. Hist., 2. Prehistoric Man, by Sir John Lubbock. London, 1866. This book is based mainly on recent researches into the earliest vestiges of man upon the earth, as those believed to have been found underneath the floors of caves, in ancient gravel deposits, in the soil at the bottom of lakes, in the so-called ‘kitchen-middlings,’ and the like. It is well illustrated.
† c. metonymically. Those who sit on the floor, as opposed to those who occupy elevated seats in token of rank or dignity. Obs.
1655–62. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm. (1669), 296/2. Mean in their condition and rank, being of the floor and lowest of the people, and many of them as mean in their intellectual accomplishments.
1683. R. North, in State Trials (1811), IX. 193–4. These considerations made the lord-mayors be very solicitious to have able sheriffs chosen; and that created differences between him and the aldermen on the one side, and the floor or livery men on the other.
2. The framework or structure of joists, etc., supporting the flooring of a room.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 160. Floor, in Carpentry, it is as well taken for the Fram’d work of Timber, as the Boarding over it.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 220. Bridging Floors.—Floors in which bridging-joists are used.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Floor, the timber, bricks &c. of the platform which forms the base or surface of any story of a house, and on which the planks or flooring is laid.
b. Applied to the ceiling of a room, in its relation to the apartment above. Also transf. of the sky.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., V. i. 58.
| Looke how the floore of heauen | |
| Is thick inlayed with pattens of bright gold. |
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 931. He had an ill grace with him, ever as he spake, to shake and shrinke up his shoulder, he remedied that, by sticking up a broch or spit, or as some say, a dagger, to the floore over head, that for feare of pricking his shoulder, he might forget this evill custome that he had in his gesture.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, I. 287.
| Then Cæsar of Troy’s bright blood shall be born, | |
| Bounding his throne by Ocean, his fame by the firmament floor, | |
| Julius hight, from Iulus, his great forefather of yore. |
3. Naut. a. (see quot. 1867). † b. The deck. c. pl. = floor-timbers.
a. 1618. Raleigh, The First Invention of Shipping, 18. We have given longer Floares to our Ships, then in elder times, and better bearing under water, whereby they never fall into the Sea.
1683. W. Hacke, Collect. Orig. Voy. (1699), I. 37. We took up our Water-Cask from out of the Main Hatch to the Floor, and cleared the Limbers amid-Ships.
1805. D. Steel, Naval Archit., 378. In the Royal Navy and most Merchant Ships, the floors are bolted through the keelson and keel.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Floor, the bottom of a vessel on each side of the kelson; but strictly taken, it is only so much of her bottom as she rests upon when aground. Ibid. Floors or Floor-Timbers.
4. In legislative assemblies, the part of the house where the members sit, and from which they speak.
Hence fig. The right of speaking; as to get or obtain the floor. To take the floor: to get up to address a meeting; to take part in a debate; said also of taking part in a dance. Chiefly U.S.
1774. J. Adams, in Fam. Lett. (1876), 12. He came upon the floor, and asked a member, ‘What state are you in now?’ The member answered, ‘In a state of nature.’
1804. Pitt, Speeches (1806), IV. 354. If, on the other hand, I could feel as the right honourable gentleman on the floor feels.
1811. B. Rush, in J. Adams’ Wks. (1854), IX. 638, note. In exposing the evils of funding systems and banks, summon all the fire of your genius, as it blazed forth on the 2d of July in the year 1776 upon the floor of Congress.
1816. Pickering, Vocab., s.v. To get the floor; that is, to obtain an opportunity of taking part in a debate.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., I. vii. 99. We returned to our seats again; and after refreshing with a glass of ‘Albuquerque,’ a sponge-cake, and a ‘husk’ cigarette, again ‘took the floor.’
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III. xlvi. 391. The Conservatives get what American politicians call ‘the floor;’ and this is Conservative reaction.
1885. Manch. Exam., 15 May, 6/1. Sauntering boldly up the floor of the House.
1886. Lit. World (U.S.), 11 Dec., 469/1. The President took the floor to second the above resolutions, and spoke of Dr. Ingleby’s long and most useful life.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. xii. 157. The senator from Minnesota has the floor. Ibid., I. xiii. 177–8. It has the effect of securing five minutes to the mover of any amendment, and five minutes to the member who first ‘obtains the floor’ (gets the chance of speaking) in opposition to it, permitting no one else to speak.
b. In Courts of Law (see quot.).
1867. Wharton, Law Lex. (ed. 4), Floor of the court. The part of the court between the judges and the first row of counsel. Parties who appear in person stand there.
5. A set of rooms and landings in a house on the same or nearly the same level; a story. See FIRST-FLOOR.
1585. Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 181/2. Tristega.… An house of three sollers, floores, stories or lofts one ouer another.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, I. i.
| He that, building, stayes at one | |
| Floore or the second, hath erected none. |
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 161, 1 Oct., ¶ 5. When I first cheapened my ldogings, the landlady told me, that she hoped I was not an author, for the lodgers on the first floor had stipulated that the upper rooms should not be occupied by a noisy trade.
1830. Tennyson, Mariana, vi.
| Old faces glimmer’d thro’ the doors, | |
| Old footsteps trod the upper floors. |
1831. Sir J. Sinclair, Corr., II. 330. Many buildings having splendid outsides, are let in floors to mechanics.
II. A level space or area.
6. An artificial platform, or leveled space, for the carrying on of some industry, esp. threshing. Cf. threshing-floor. † Rarely, a structure to walk over.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke iii. 17. He feormað his bernes flore.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6104.
| Of hurdles of bruggen they made flores, | |
| And so they wente into the mores. |
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xviii. 83. Þan þai gader þe fruyt and and driez it at þe sonne and seyne layez it apon a flure til it becom blakk and rankled.
1573. Baret, Alv., F 721. A floore where corne is threshed, area.
1702. in Lond. Gaz., No. 3790/4. Every Cistern … Kiln, Floor, Room, or other Place … made use of for the Wetting or Steeping of Corn.
1775. Romans, Hist. Florida, 166. There are generally one or two platforms, from forty to fifty feet square, called drying floors, intended to take all benefit of the fine drying weather during the coffee harvest.
1884. C. T. Davis, Bricks, Tiles, etc., v. (1889), 128. The vegetable soil is carried to the level places where the bricks are moulded, called the ‘floors.’
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Floor, the sand bed of a foundry is termed the floor.
fig. 1781. Cowper, Expostulation, 302.
| Where flails of oratory thresh the floor, | |
| That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing more. |
b. transf. The corn, etc., placed on a ‘floor.’ In Malting, A batch or quantity of grain laid at one time for steeping, a ‘piece.’
1382. Wyclif, Ruth iii. 2. In this nyȝt he wynnewith the flore of his barli.
1832. W. Champion, Maltster’s Guide, 43. The turning of his floors or pieces, by which alone the proper form of the root can be acquired.
1876. Wyllie, in Encycl. Brit., IV. 268. Each steeping is called a ‘floor’ or piece, and must be laid in succession according to age, the most recent next the couch, and the oldest next the kiln.
7. A naturally level space or extended surface. Also = the ground (obs. exc. dial.).
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3250. With þe drowghte of þe daye alle drye ware þe flores!
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 264. Fine Rubies: And are found in the mountaynes in the vpper crust or floure of the earth.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 165.
| Weep no more, woful Shepherds weep no more, | |
| For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, | |
| Sunk though he be beneath the watry floar. |
1692. Ray, Dissol. World, III. v. (1693), 302. There must needs be great Banks or Floors of Earth raised up about the Sea-shores, near the mouths of Rivers, whereby the Shores must necessarily be much promoted and carried forward into the Sea, and so gain upon it, and compel it to recede.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Pastorals, VI. 25.
| His rosy Wreath was dropt not long before, | |
| Born by the tide of Wine, and floating on the Floor. |
1820. Shelley, Cloud, 45.
| That orbèd maiden with white fire laden, | |
| Whom mortals call the moon, | |
| Glides glimmering o’er my fleece-like floor, | |
| By the midnight breezes strewn. |
1839. Longf., Celestial Pilot, 2.
| Through the gross vapors, Mars grows fiery red | |
| Down in the west upon the ocean floor. |
1865. Garland, in Jrnl. Roy. Inst. Cornw., April, 48. Floor, a grass meadow.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Europe, ix. (1894), 198. On two sides purple forests of pine rise steeply from the meadow floor and meet a little way below the inn to form the steep gorge through which the glacier torrent foams downwards to join the Adda at Bormio.
† 8. An area or region. Obs.–1
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 255. Both of them [Visibles and Audibles] spread themselues in Round, and fill a whole Floare or Orbe, vnto certaine Limits.
† 9. = BED sb. 8. Obs. rare. [Cf. MHG. vluor sown field.]
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, II. iv. 206. Of the disposing or appointing of the floores of the kitchin garden.
III. 10. A surface on which something rests; a foundation. ? Obs.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1566), 39 b/1. A flore, or foundacion, wherevpon buildynge is set.
1768. Smeaton, Reports (1797), I. 330. The arches I would recommend are of 12 feet wide, and 6 feet from the floor to the springer.
11. The stratum upon which a seam of coal, etc., immediately lies.
1869. R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 611. Floor—A false bottom, with washdirt lying on it.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 235. In addition to the impressions of plants found in the shales above the coal seams, vegetable remains are also met with in rocks beneath the coal, forming what is called the ‘floor.’
1883. in Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, s.v.
IV. A layer = BED III.
12. A layer, a stratum; a horizontal course.
1692. Ray, Dissol. World, II. iv. (1732), 127. In the upper part of this broken Mountain are seen many Beds or Floors of all kinds of Sea-Shells.
1778. W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 321/1. A Floor is a bed of Ore in a Lode, though supposed not to continue to any great depth or time; therefore is a Stratum of Ore.
1851. G. F. Richardson, Geol., i. 7. In the case of tin it occasionally spreads out into a flat mass, technically called a floor.
13. A unit of measurement used for embankment work (see quots.).
1707. Mortimer, Husb., xv. 309. Of making of Banks. They are measured by the Float or Floor, which is eighteen Foot square and one deep, which contains twelve Cart-load in good Mould.
1797. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, XV. 148. The work has been done by the floor (a floor of earth is twenty feet square, and one foot deep), which is the most certain mode of estimating such work with precision.
1877. in N. W. Linc. Gloss. [= 400 cubic feet].
V. attrib. and Comb.
14. Simple attrib., as floor area, -joist, level, -tile.
1887. Pall Mall G., 9 Nov., 13/2. The … *floor area of the large hall having been fully occupied.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, II. II. xix. 70. Whistling low while he considers how a difficulty about a *floor-joist or a window frame is to be overcome.
1874. Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 127. Much may be done by a judicious arrangement of the steps and *floor levels.
1894. Antiquary, XXX. Aug., 41/2. The *floor-tiles of these hearths or furnaces have been burnt white with intense heat.
15. Special comb., as floor-arch (see quot.); floor-bank (see quot. 1750); floor-board, a board used for flooring, also attrib.; so floor-boarding; floor-frame, (a) the framework of the floor in a vessel; (b) U.S. the main frame of the body of a railway-carriage underneath the floor; floor-guide, floor-hanger (see quots.); floor-head, (a) the upper end of one of the floor-timbers in a vessel; (b) (see quot. 1867); floor-hollow (see quot.); floor-lamp, one that stands on the floor; floor-layer, U.S. a workman who lays down floors; floor-laying, the operation of laying down floors; floor-light (see quot.); floor-pipe, a hot-air pipe laid along the floor of a conservatory; floor-plan, (a) Shipbuilding (see quot. 1867); (b) Arch. (see quot. 1874); floor-plate, (a) Shipbuilding (see quot. 1883); (b) Mech. Engin. = foot-plate; floor-riband (see quots.); floor-rider (see quot.); floor-sweep (see quot.); floor-timber(s (see quot. 1867); floor-walker, U.S. = SHOP-WALKER; floorward a., directed towards the floor; floorward(s adv., towards the floor.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 349/1. *Floor Arch. An arch with a flat extrados.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., I. i. 93. What we call a *Flower-bank; that is, some Earth that lies next the Hedge, thrown over the Roots with a Spade, as soon as the Hedge is riddered, or prepared for it, so that with the first Original, or first raised Flower-bank, the whole Rise of Earth is not above a Foot, or eighteen Inches from the common Level of the Ground.
1805. Priest, in Young’s Ann. Agric., XLIII. 586. The ditches will be filled up, so as to form what are called floor banks, the land being a poor gravelly soil, and, unfortunately for Mr. Hart, not requirinng any water-courses.
1881. F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 146. *Floor boards are, or ought to be, an inch in thickness.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 83/2. Parts of a Solid Floor of fire-proof construction, with a floor-board surface.
1807. Hutton, Course Math., II. 84. In *Floor-boarding, take the length of the room for one dimension, and the breadth for the other, to multiply together for the content.
1775. Falck, Day’s Diving Vessel, 4. A *Floor frame of six beams athwart ship.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., *Floor-guide. In ship-building, a narrow flexible piece of timber placed between the floor-riband and the keel.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 349/1. *Floor Hanger. A shaft bearing fastened to the floor.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Rung-heads, a name sometimes given by shipwrights to the upper ends of the floor-timbers, which are otherwise more properly called *floor-heads.
1856. R. H. Dana, Seamen’s Friend, 5. It is said that a vessel may be prevented from rolling heavily, if, when the ballast is iron, it is stowed up to the floor-heads.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Floor-head, the third diagonal, terminating the length of the floors near the bilge of the ship.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 118. *Floor hellow. The inflected curve that terminates the floor next the keel, and to which the floor-hollow mould is made.
1892. Daily News, 21 Nov., 2/6. The home demand for telescope *floor lamps is still growing.
1863. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 10 May, 4/6. The newly formed union of *floor-layers.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 83/1. Improved method of *Floor-laying without nails.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 349/1. *Floor-light. A frame with glass panes in a floor.
1696. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (ed. 8), 162. The fresh Air entring perpetually thorough the heated Earthen-Pipes into the Conservatory, and as constantly circulating thorough the Orifice of the *Floor-pipe, will give continual Supply of Element.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Floor-plans, longitudinal sections, whereon are represented the water-lines and ribband-lines.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 889/1. Floor-plan.… (Architecture.) A horizontal section, showing the thickness of the walls and partitions, the arrangement of the passages, apartments, and openings at the level of the principal, or receiving floor of the house.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., xix. 407. The *floor-plates are now required to extend to a perpendicular height up the bilges of twice the depth of the floors amidships from the upper side of the keep at the middle-line, and not to be less moulded at their heads than the moulding of the frames.
1883. W. C. Russell, Sailor’s Lang., Floor-plates.—Formerly plates in the bottom of an iron ship corresponding with the floor-timbers in wooden ones.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Floor plates, foot plates.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 118. *Floor riband. The riband next below the floor-heads which supports the floors.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Floor-riders, knees brought in from side to side over the floor ceiling and kelson, to support the bottom, if bilged or weak, for heavy cargo.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 119. *Floor-sweeps. The radii that sweep the heads of the floors.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 2. They lay the Rungs, called *floore timbers … thwart the keele.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Floors or Floor-Timbers, those parts of the ship’s timbers which are placed immediately across the keel.
1884. Milnor (Dakota) Teller, 30 July. These Boston merchants stationed their *floor-walkers at the place appointed by the Philadelphia agent.
1887. Pall Mall G., 12 March, 12/1. A constantly repeated *floor-ward glance of bashfulness and modesty.
1863. Reader, 31 Oct., 502. The devil smites him on the side of the throat with a great pole like a flag-staff: the victim, not yet quite awake, screams out, and his stretched hands feel about in the air as he is bundled down *floorwards.
