[f. FORE- pref. + LOCK sb.2]

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  1.  A lock of hair growing from the fore part of the head, just above the forehead.

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c. 1000.  New Aldhelm Gloss., in Anglia (1891), XIII. 37. Foreloccas, antie frontis.

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1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., 87. A square Forehead, upon which those forelocks of the Haire abide moderately elevated.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 301.

                    Hyacinthin Locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustring, but not beneath his shoulders broad.

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1832.  Ht. Martineau, Each & All, v. 62. There was plenty of bobbing from the girls, and pulling of forelocks from the boys.

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1878.  Besant & Rice, Celia’s Arb., xxii. All had a word to say to the Captain, touching their forelocks by way of preface.

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  transf.  1619.  Bainbridge, Descr. Late Comet, 9. This Comets forelock was a better Ephemeris for the Sunnes place then many in great request.

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  b.  Of a horse, etc.: A detached lock above the forehead.

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1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 59, 8 May, ¶ 4. The Forelock of the Horse in the Antique Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, represents at a distance the shape of an Owl, to intimate the Country of the Statuary, who, in all probability, was an Athenian.

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1781.  Cowper, Charity, 175.

        Snuffs up the morning air, forgets the rein;
Loose fly his forelock and his ample mane.
    Ibid. (1791), Iliad, XIX. 304.
Atrides, drawing forth his dagger bright,
Appendant ever to his sword’s hugh sheath,
Sever’d the bristly forelock of the boar.

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1870.  Bryant, Iliad, I. III. 91.

                            Then the son
Of Atreus drew a dagger which he wore
Slung by his sword’s huge sheath, and clipped away
The forelocks of the lambs.

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  2.  fig.: esp. in phrase to take time, opportunity, etc., by the forelock.

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  (Suggested by the representation described in Phædrus, Fab., V. viii., ‘Calvus, comosa fronte, nudo occipitio,… Occasionem rerum significat brevem.’)

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1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 65. Thinking to make hay while the Sunne shined, and take opportunitie by her forelockes.

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1594.  Spenser, Amoretti, lxx.

        Tell her the ioyous time wil not be staid
vnlesse she doe him by the forelock take.

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1639.  Massinger, Unnat. Combat, V i.

                        Do not flatter
Thyself with an imaginary hope,
But that I’ll take occasion by the forelock,
And make use of my fortune.

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1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 301. I took time by the fore-lock, and left them to echoe the news-whoop.

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1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. 231. I became a Philosopher, desiring to know the soul of man, to catch Truth by the wings and Wisdom by the forelock; and I found shadows, vapors, follies, bound into a system!

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1874.  Motley, Barneveld, I. vii. 213. The States must seize the occasion, he repeated. It was bald behind, and must be grasped by the forlock.

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