Forms: 1 for(e)steal(l, 2–9 forstal(l, 7 foristell, 8 forestal, 6– forestall. In sense 2 also 7–9 fostal. [In sense 1, OE. for-, foresteall, f. FORE- pref. + steall, STALL, app. used in the sense of ‘position taken up’; for sense cf. the vbs. FORELAY, FORSET. In sense 2 f. FORE- pref. + STALL.]
† 1. In OE.; an ambush, plot; an intercepting, waylaying, rescue. Hence in Law, the offence of waylaying or ‘intercepting in the highway’; also, the jurisdiction in respect of this offence, often enumerated amongst feudal rights. Obs.
Cf. Laws Hen. I., § 4. Forestel est, si quis ex transverso incurrat, vel in via expectet et assalliat inimicum suum. Also Concilium Culintonense, Laws of Edmund (Schmid), 181. Et dictum est de investigatione et quæstione pecoris furati, ut ad villam pervestigetur, et non sit foristeallum aliquod illi vel aliqua prohibitio itineris vel quæstionis.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 242. Ða Iudeiscan ealdras geornlice smeadon hu hi Hælend Crist acwellan mihton; ondredon him swa-ðeah þæs folces foresteall.
c. 1000. Laws of Æthelred, v. § 31 (Schmid). Gif hwa forsteal oððon openne wiðercwyde onȝean lah-riht Cristes oððe cyninges ahwar ȝewyrce.
c. 1155. Charter Hen. II., in Anglia, VII. 220. Grithbriches & hamsocne & forstalles & infangenes thiafes.
c. 1250. Gloss. Law Terms, in Rel. Ant., I. 33. Forstal,—Ki autri force desturbe.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 75. Who granted unto them all Regall liberties, except foure pleas, namely, of Burning, Rape, Forstall, and Treasure Trouue, with the profit growing de Croccis, reserved for the Kings of England. Ibid., I. 350. Quitte and quiet from all custome, beside for robbery, peace-breach, and Foristell.
2. Something situated or placed in front.
† a. ? gen. Obs.–1
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., lxv. 83.
| Without trenching: or such defensife forstalles, | |
| Ordnance they ley, to batter that castell walles. |
† b. The front part (of a cart). Obs.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 95. The house was vpon the carte…. A fellow stood in the doore of the house, vpon the forestall of the carte driuing forth the oxen.
c. The space in front of a farmhouse, or the approach to it from the road. dial. only.
1661. Aylesford Par. Reg., in N. & Q., Ser. VIII. V. 244. Henry Gorham and John Allen, the one a Bricklayer, and the other a Carpenters apprentice going into ye River at Jerman’s fforstall to wash themselves upon the xv day of June 1661 were both drowned.
1674. Ray, S. C. Words, A Fostal forte Forestal: A way leading from the high way to a great House.
1736. Pegge, Kenticisms (E.D.S.), Forstal.… It is generally a green place before an house; but otherwise I have known that part of a farmer’s yard lying just before the door call’d the forstal.
1836. Cooper, Provincialisms Sussex, Fostal. [Corruption of Forestall.] A paddock near a farm-house, or a way leading thereto.
3. A (horse’s) frontlet. Cf. headstall.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 170 b. The forstall [frontalia] is full of gylte bollyons.
1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, II. vi. 117. A bridle with a forestall of gold and reins of yellow silk broadly fringed at the lower edge.
