Forms: 5–6 frontlett(e, (6 frountlett, 7 frontilet), 6– frontlet. [a. OF. frontelet, dim. of frontel, fronteau FRONTAL sb.: see -LET.]
1. Something worn on the forehead.
a. An ornament or band; also, a bandage worn at night to prevent or remove wrinkles.
1478. in Rolls of Parlt., VI. 289. Frontlettes of blak velvet.
1502. Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 68. A frontlet of golde for the Quene.
c. 1540. J. Heywood, Four P. P., B j b. And they be masked in many nettes As frontlettes, fillettes, partlettes, & braceletes.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 837. They weare also frontlets of feathers: in their eares they weare bones.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 206. Holinesse to the Lord is found written upon the bridles of horses, which is a warlike beast, as well as upon the high Priests frontlet, which is a man of peace.
a. 1717. Parnell, To an Old Beauty, 1.
| In vain, poor nymph, to please our youthful sight | |
| You sleep in cream and frontlets all the night. |
1755. Young, Centaur, vi. Wks. 1757, IV. 255. The Centaurs … wearing frontlets of brass on their foreheads.
1807. Wordsw., White Doe, I. 260. That Dame of haughty air … wears a frontlet edged with gold.
1866. J. G. Murphy, Comm. Ex., xiii. 9. The fillet or frontlet encircles the head.
fig. 1605. Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 208. How now Daughter? what makes that Frontlet on? You are too much of late i’th’frowne.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., XIII. 469. As when we loosed Her radiant frontlet from the brows of Troy.
1876. Swinburne, Erechth., 1395.
| To pluck from thy temples their chaplet enwreathed of the light, | |
| And bind on the brows of thy godhead a frontlet of night? |
b. In Exod. xiii. 16, Deut. vi. 8, or phrases referring thereto: = PHYLACTERY.
1578. Bible (Genev.), Exod. xiii. 16. It shalbe as a token upon thine hande, and as frontlets betwene thine eyes.
1670. L. Stucley, Gossip-Glass, xl. 481. Let it be as Frontlets between thine eyes day and night.
1732. Swift, Lett., Wks. 1841, II. 674. His [Clarendon’s] books had frontlets of Scripture to recommend and sanctify all their venom.
1825. Macaulay, Milton, Ess. (1854), 27. He attacked the licensing system in that sublime treatise which every statesman should wear as a sign upon his hand, and as frontlets between his eyes.
† c. A cloth or bandage containing some medicament; also, the medicament itself. Obs.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. xii. 57. To cause them to sleepe … it is good to make a frontlet with the seede of poppie, [etc.].
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 401. To put them all together into a Frontlet or fore-head cloth.
1621–51. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. v. I. vi. 396. Frontlets are well known to every good wife, Rose water and Vinegar … applied to both temples.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Eye, You are to apply to the Temples a Frontlet made with Provence Roses.
d. = FRONT 9 c. rare–1.
1785. Crabbe, Newspaper, 375. These flaxen frontlets with elastic springs.
e. = FRONTAL 1 b, front-stall (see FRONT sb. 15).
1805. Scott, Last Minstr., I. v. Thirty steeds … Barbed with frontlet of steel.
1873. Ouida, Pascarèl, II. 89. The bullocks went on their slow ways with flowers in their leathern frontlets.
† f. A coronet. Obs.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, VI. Concl. (1611), 283. Twixt an Earle and Vicounts Frontilets The ods is like: so needlesse to be learn’d.
2. = FOREHEAD 1. Now only of animals.
1659. D. Pell, Impr. Sea, 378. Like the smooth-faced fontes, fluvia, stagna, and lacus’s of a land, that lyes with never a wrinckle upon their frontlets.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, I. 201.
| But hills of milder air, that gently rise | |
| O’er dewy dales, a fairer species boast, | |
| Of shorter limb, and frontlet more ornate; | |
| Such the Silurian. |
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. ii. The antlered monarch of the waste … Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xxxix. 236. We can recognize the horns and frontlets of the elk, the cimmaron, and the grim bison.
1858. G. Macdonald, Phantastes, vi. 65. From frontlet to tail, the horse likewise shone red in the sun-set.
1890. Boldrewood, Colonial Reform. (1891), 228. A very evil-looking beast … with a development of horn remarkable even in that forest of frontlets.
b. Ornith. The margin of the head, behind the bill, of birds, generally clothed with rigid bristles.
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 89. The differences assigned to swainsoni, in both size and shade of color, are found in every sufficient series of the North American bird; thus, of two specimens, both shot at Washington, D. C., one has a whitish and the other a brown frontlet.
3. The façade of a building: = FRONT sb. 6. Also transf.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. xx. The antique buildings, climbing high, Whose Gothic frontlets sought the sky.
1830. W. Phillips, Mt. Sinai, I. 338. Fair east he turn’d him, and anon attain’d The beetling frontlet of the mountain.
4. A superfrontal or cloth hanging over the upper part of an altar frontal; also, an ornamental border to an altar-cloth.
1536. Reg. of Riches, in Antiq. Sarisb. (1771), 199. A purpure cloth, with an ymage of the Crucifix … with a divers frontlet, having in every end two white Leopards.
1549. Eng. Ch. Furniture (Peacock, 1860), 246. Item on corporaxe cloth & ij tasslys. Item one lyttell frountlett of ffustyan.
1874. Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 305. One frontlet may serve with a variety of frontals.
1877. J. D. Chambers, Divine Worship, 269. Frontlets may be sewn on the front of these linen cloths so as to hang over the edge.
