Also 9 lable. [f. LABEL sb.1] trans. To affix a label to, mark with a label.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 265. I will giue out diuers schedules of my beautie. It shalle Inuentoried and euery particle and vtensile labell’d to my will: As, Item two lippes Indifferent redde [etc.].
1786. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 2 Aug. The Queen … employed the Princess Royal to label them [books].
1790. W. Hastings, Lett., 2 Dec., in Boswell, Johnson (1793), III. 315. A parcel containing other select papers, and labelled with the titles appertaining to them.
1831. Carlyle, Misc., II. 399. Common ashes are solemnly labelled as fell poison.
c. 1865. J. Wylde, in Circ. Sci., I. 313/2. This may be labled ‘oxygen mixture.’
1885. Law Times, LXXVIII. 385/2. The due diligence of the consignors in labelling and delivering the goods to the carriers.
1893. G. E. Matheson, About Holland, 22. A carriage labelled Niet rooken.
b. fig. To describe or designate as with a label; to set down in a category (as so and so).
a. 1853. Robertson, Lect., ii. (1858), 59. This foolish and wicked system of labelling men with names.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1872), 277. We cannot label Voltaire either spiritualist or materialist.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 293. He despatches the bad to Tartarus, labelled either as curable or incurable.
1881. M. Arnold, Byron, in Macm. Mag., XLIII. 376. It would be most unjust to label Byron … as a rhetorician only.
Hence Labelling vbl. sb. Also Labeller.
1871. Echo, 8 Feb. The public … condemn us for labelling the Poison…. By inserting this in your next issue you will greatly oblige one of the labellers.
1895. Athenæum, 17 Aug., 219/3. A labelling of Welsh names.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 26 March, 2/1. Bottle fillers, washers, and labellers.
