[f. FORE- pref. + END.]
1. Of place: The fore part, front. Now chiefly Naut.
c. 1425. Found. St. Bartholomew’s (E.E.T.S.), 39. Presente was seynt Barthilmewe mercyfully, and with his holy hande drewe forth the shippe by the for ende the which goynge forth with his wonnte pase, in the over party of the see come in to the streym, and was delyvered from the sandys.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn and Eglantine, vii. 29. He dyde cut of the hed, & henged hit atte forende of his sadel.
a. 1626. Bacon, New Atl., Wks. 1778, I. 352. In the fore-end of it which was towards him, grew a small green branch of palm.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xiv. Mr. Chucks then sat down upon the fore-end of the booms by the funnel.
1878. W. C. Russell, Wreck of Grosvenor, xxi. I crawled to the fore-end of the poop to look at the mainmast.
b. The fore part of the stock of a gun, which supports the barrel. Also attrib.
1881. Greener, Gun, 250. When the finisher has attended to these points, he has to file up and shape the stock and fore-end, smooth the iron-work. Ibid., 256. All that is required being a sufficient grip to keep the fore-end to the barrels. Ibid., 487. Grasp the gun well forward—if close to the fore-end tip so much the better.
2. Of time: The beginning, early part. Now dial.; chiefly = spring.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., III. iii. 73.
| Where I haue liu’d at honest freedome, payed | |
| More pious debts to Heauen, then in all | |
| The fore-end of my time. |
1768. Wales, in Phil. Trans., LX. 123. In the fore end of December, I went to one of the hunters tents, where I stayed near a week.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxvii. ‘I will be back about the fore-end o’ har’st, and I trust to find ye baith haill and fere.’
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss. ‘The fore end of the year,’ spring.
1890. W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister? xiv. ‘Yow’ve read about her i’ the papers maybe last fore-end?’
