Pl. areas, rarely areæ. [a. L. ārea a vacant piece of level ground in a town.]
1. A vacant piece of ground, a level space not built over or otherwise occupied; a clear or open space within a building, such as the unseated part of a church, the arena of an amphitheatre, etc.
1538. Leland, Itin., IV. 60. In the west Part of this Street is a large Area invironed with meetly good Buildinges.
1651. Wotton. Reliq., 45 (R.). A floor or area of goodly length.
1726. Cavallier, Mem., I. 107. The Gun-powder being … spread over Floors and Areas made for that purpose.
1740. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 301. The area or platform of the old stage.
1762. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), IV. lii. 88. That the communion table should be removed from the middle of the area.
1869. Lubbock, Preh. Times, viii. 273. With a level area at the summit.
1884. Daily News, 10 March, 4/2. (Theat. Advt.) Comfortable area seats at sixpence.
2. An enclosed court, spec. a sunken court, shut off from the pavement by railings, and approached by a flight of steps, which gives access to the basement of dwelling-houses. Dry area: a covered channel round the external walls of a building to prevent damp.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. Add. xi. 24. The Temple was the area and court of Religion.
1694. Lond. Gaz., mmmxii/4. The Dining Room Floor … hath … a pleasant Airy 30 foot long.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 454, ¶ 6. One of the Windows which opened to the Area below.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., VI. 9. To go, like gentlemen, out of the hall door … and not out of the back door, or by the area.
1839. Dickens, O. Twist (1850), 45/2. Pulling the caps from the heads of small boys and tossing them down areas.
b. Often attrib., as in area-bell, -gate, etc. Area-sneak: a thief who steals into kitchens through area-gates left open.
1836. Dickens, Sketches, v. (1850), 16/2. [I] rang the area-bell. Ibid. (1838), Nich. Nick., vi. (C. D. ed.), 42. With spears in their hands like lacquered area railings.
1869. Eng. Mech., 14 May, 181/1. Would infallibly become pickpockets or area-sneaks.
3. The amount of surface contained within given limits; superficial extent. (Formerly used also of cubic content.) Area of planetary motion: the space contained by any arc of the orbit and the two radii which intercept it.
1570. Billingsley, Euclia, I. iv. The area of a triangle, is that space, which is contayned within the sydes of a triangle.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geogr. Del., I. viii. 201. The Areæ or spaces comprehended of Solide figures.
1685. Boyle, Free Enq., 312. So the Bigness or Area of the Pupil varies.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 179, ¶ 6. The Area of my Green-House is a Hundred Paces long, Fifty broad.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., A line, or radius, drawn from the centre of the sun to the centre of the planet, always sweeps or describes elliptic Areas proportional to the times.
1831. Brewster, Optics, v. 46. Increasing the size of the lens or the area of its surface. Ibid., Newton (1855), II. xiv. 11. Newton regarded the areas of curves as generated by drawing the ordinate into the abscissa.
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., v. 201. The equable description of areas by the earth about the sun.
4. A particular extent of surface, esp. of the earth’s surface; a space, region, tract.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xx. (1852), 480. The East Indian archipelago … is in most parts an area of elevation.
1854. Latham, in Lect. Educ. R. Instit., 95. The area over which a language is spoken.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., II. ii. 107. There are still in India great areas uncultivated.
b. Biol. A limited part of the surface of any organism, distinguished by color, texture, etc., from that which surrounds it.
1851. Richardson, Geol., viii. 232. The part which is bent against the ventral valve is called the area.
1857. Berkeley, Crypt. Bot., § 395. Anastomosing so as to form little areæ.
1880. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v., The germinative area … an opaque spot in which the embryo appears.
5. fig. Of extent conceived by the mind: Surface (obs.); scope, range, extent.
1627. G. Watts, Bacon’s Adv. Learn. (1640), Pref. 29. The minds of men are after such strange waies besieged, that for to admit the true beams of things, a sincere and polisht Area is wanting.
1852. D. Mitchell, Dream Life, 163. The whole area of life.
1872. Liddon, Elem. Relig., i. 26. The exact area and import of these truths.
† 6. A bed or border in a garden. (So in L.) Obs.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Gard. Cyrus, i. 95. The area or decussated plot might be a perfect square.
1669. J. Rose, Eng. Viney. Vind. (1675), 25. That when the ridges come to be levell’d, the top of your sets may be even with the area.
7. A bald place on the head; a disease of the hair that causes it to fall off and leave bald patches. (So in L.)
1706. in Phillips.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Area is a general kind of depilation.
1880. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
