Forms: 6–7 foillage, 7 folliage, fuellage, (9 dial. foilage), 7– foliage. [An altered form after L. folium leaf, or its Eng. derivatives) of foillage, a. F. feuillage (earlier fueillage, foillage) f. feuille leaf: see FOIL sb.1 and -AGE.]
1. The leaves (of a plant or tree) collectively; leafage.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 25. There is not an hearbe throughout the Garden, that taketh vp greater compasse with fuellage than doth the Beet.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, I. 384.
| When swelling Buds their od’rous Foliage shed, | |
| And gently harden into Fruit, the Wise | |
| Spare not the little Off-springs, if they grow | |
| Redundant. |
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 141.
| These naked shoots | |
| Barren as lances, among which the wind | |
| Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes, | |
| Shall put their graceful foliage on again. |
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 175/2. Bulbs are too frequently attacked by vermin when allowed to remain in the ground after the foliage has died down.
1867. Miss Braddon, Aur. Floyd, i. 5. Labouring men’s cottages, gleaming white from the surrounding foliage.
transf. and fig. 1747. W. Gould, An Account of English Ants, 53. Open a Female Nymph, and take out the young Ant, you will, besides the other Parts, observe on each Side of its Breast a small white Foliage of Wings.
1850. Hawthorne, Scarlet L., xiii. (1883), 197. All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it.
2. In Art: The representation of leaves, etc., used for decoration or ornament.
1598. Florio, Fogliami … foillage, or branched worke.
1664. Evelyn, trans. Freart’s Archit., xxxiv. 80. The Foliage which domineers in the Freeze holds not sufficient conformity with the Cornice, as too simple and plain for so rich an Ornament.
1761–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 150. In the chapel the simplicity of the carver’s foliage at once sets off and atones for the glare of Verrio’s paintings.
1849. J. H. Parker, Goth. Archit., iv. (1874), 119–20. Foliage is by no means an essential feature of the Early English style.
1879. Sir G. G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 80. Such parts of the foliage as have not been renewed are most beautifully carved in the same Byzantine style.
b. A representation of a cluster of leaves, sprays, or branches. ? Obs.
1699. Garth, The Dispensary, III. 66.
| A Foliage of dissembl’d Senna leaves | |
| Grav’d round its Brim. |
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 370–1. The Piece of the Head is all beautifully in-laid length-ways with small Streaks and Pieces of other Metal, among which several Foliages, or Branch-work, are nicely indented and interspersed on the Statue.
1801. Coxe, Tour Monmouthsh., I. 74. A semicircular arch, ornamented with a foliage of twisted branches, and reposing on two slender columns.
3. attrib. and Comb., as foliage-border, -stem, -trimming; foliage-bound adj. Also, foliage crop (see quot. 1831); foliage leaf, a leaf in the restricted sense of the word, excluding petals and other modified leaves; foliage plant, one cultivated for its foliage and not for its blossom.
1891. Daily News, 2 July, 6/1. A Louis XVI octagonal gold box, *foliage borders and amber-coloured panels.
1805. Scott, Last Minstr., VI. xxiii.
| Seemed all on fire within, around, | |
| Deep sacristy and altar’s pale, | |
| Shone every pillar foliage-bound, | |
| And glimmered all the dead men’s mail. |
1831. Loudon, Encycl. Agric., Gloss. (ed. 2), 1243/2. *Foliage crops, plants cultivated for their leaves to be used green, and which will not make into hay, as the cabbage tribe.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., I. i. 4. I use the term *foliage-leaves at present simply in order to avoid confusion with the leaves of which flowers are composed.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 634. More often the cotyledons remain thin like shortly stalked foliage-leaves of simple form.
1863. Times, 10 April. *Foliage plants … produce the effect required of them throughout the whole period of their growth.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 122. The rhizome and *foliage-stem may be similar or dissimilar.
1818. La Belle Assemblée, XVII. Jan., 36/2. This is richly ornamented down the sides, and at the wrists, in a *foliage trimming of pale blue satin.
