[a. OF. arche-r (13th c.); cf. mod.F. arquer.]
1. To furnish with an arch or vault.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, V. 1577. By the sydes … the strete was archet full abilly.
1463. Bury Wills (1850), 37. That the Rysbygate [be] … archyd and enbatelyd.
1530. Palsgr., 435/2. I arche a buyldyng with arches, Je arche.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 72. Dinocrates began to Arche the Temple … with Load stone.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., IV. 84. And Arch’d the Chambers of the Vaulted Sky.
1881. Daily News, 28 Sept., 5/4. The gateway … was arched with black.
2. To form into an arch or vault, to curve. a. trans. and refl.
1625. Bacon, Gardens, Ess. (Arb.), 561. Fine Deuices, of Arching Water without Spilling.
1713. Guardian, No. 10, ¶ 3. He may arch his eyebrows.
1858. Kingsley, Lett., I. 21. It arched itself into one vast dome of red-hot iron.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 77. Arched like the back of a frightened Cat.
b. absol. and intr.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 102. Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand.
1818. Keats, Endym., III. 221. His snow-white brows went arching up.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, xvi. I. 157. Arches not there the sky above us?
3. with over. (In prec. senses and const.)
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 202. The sound … archeth over the wall.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., iii. 98. Arched over with an exterior Crust of Earth.
1797. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXII. 282. Hope arches her glistering rainbow over every scene of storm.
1849. Robertson, Serm., Ser. I. xv. (1866), 256. Because the Infinite above is arching over the soul.
† 4. (esp. with together.) To put together like the stones of an arch, so that all mutually support each other. To arch up: to support on the same principle. Obs.
1581. [see ARCHED].
1649. Selden, Laws of Eng., I. xliii. (1739), 70. The Saxon Commonwealth was a building … arched together both for Peace and War.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 227. Mutually arching up one another. Ibid. (1662), Worthies (1840), III. 173. How the statesmen in that age were arched together in affinity.
5. trans. To overarch; to span.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, II. 21. The vine that arch’d His evening seat.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 4. 249. The blue blocks that arch the source of the Arveiron.
