Also 5–7 for-. [f. FORE- pref. + SIDE. Cf. Du. voorzijde, Ger. vorseite.]
1. The fore part; the front; also, the upper side (of anything). Now rare exc. techn.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 161. Þese .vij. ribbis … in þe forside of a man þei haue no fastnynge to no boon.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. xxvii. 82. Sharp yrons were dressed to the foresyde of the same engyn.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke vii. 85 b. Because the tables of the parlour stoode so, that they letted her to come and caste herselfe down prostrate on the fore syde, at the feete of Iesus: she stood behynd at his backe and (aswell as she might do,) begonne to washe his feet with teares of wepyng.
1569. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 311. On lytlye pattlett sett wth pearll on the forsyd.
1642. Relat. Action bef. Cyrencester, 8. The Colonell perceiving the garden wall (within which the enemies muskettiers stood) too high to be entred on the foreside, found a way to get into it on the back side.
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 103. There also I saw the picture of David killing Goliath: It turns upon a frame, & shews you both the fore-side of those combatants, and their backsides too, which other pictures do not.
1738. [G. Smith], Curious Relat., I. iv. 470. They have another Skin … which covers their Pack, and a square one to cover their Foreside.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xxix. Reversing his body, and overturning it upside-down, and fore-side back, without touching any thing, he brought himself betwixt the horse’s two ears.
1884. F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 9. The advantage of making the backs of the escape wheel teeth radial and the foresides curved.
fig. 1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. iii. 39.
| Now when these counterfeits were thus vncased | |
| Out of the foreside of their forgerie, | |
| And in the sight of all men cleane disgraced, | |
| All gan to iest and gibe full merilie | |
| At the remembrance of their knauerie. |
a. 1655. Vines, Lord’s Supp. (1677), 343. There [at the bottom] lies abundance of self-love, and self-interest, even when there is a good countenance and fore-side.
1685. Renwick, Serm., etc., xiii. (1776), 159. The earth, trees, mountains, hills, and vallies, yea, and piles of grass, are all written over, back-side and fore-side, with legible characters of the knowledge of God.
2. The front side or edge.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 164. Raiser, is a Board set on edge under the Fore-side of a step.
3. attrib.
a. 1643. W. Cartwright, Lady-Errant, V. i.
| This foreside blow | |
| Cuts off thrice three, this back-blow thrice three more. |
