[f. APPLY v. + -ANCE.]
† 1. Compliance, willing service; subservience.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. i. 116. I come to tender it, and my appliance With all bound humblenesse. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., III. i. 89. Too noble, to conserue a life In base appliances.
2. The action of putting to, administering, using, putting into practice; application.
1561. T. N[orton], Calvin’s Inst. It remaineth that by applyance all the same [benefits] may come to us.
1608. Shaks., Per., III. ii. 86. An Egyptian, had nine hours lien dead, By good appliance was recovered.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iii. The human soul … could be acted-on through the muscular integument by the appliance of birch-rods.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., I. xx. Have you done this, by the appliance and aid of doctors?
1868. G. Macdonald, Eng. Antiphon, xviii. 264. He becomes either a man of appliance, a man of science, a mystic, or a poet.
3. A thing applied as means to an end; apparatus.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. 20. With all appliances and meanes to boote. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., I. i. 124. Aske God for Temp’rance; that’s th’ appliance onely which your disease requires.
1861. Stanley, East. Ch., ii. Introd. 60. All the appliances of antiquarian and artistic knowledge.
1876. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. viii. 231. To avail themselves of improved mechanical appliances.
