Forms: 3–4 atyr, 4–7 atir(e, atier, 5–6 atyre, 6–7 attyre, 4– attire. [f. ATTIRE v.] (With the senses cf. APPAREL, ARRAY.)
† 1. Equipment of man or horse, outfit for war.
1250. Lay., 3275. Mid his fourti cniþtes, and hire hors and hire atyr.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1147. Alle tristy atir þat to batayle longed.
c. 1440. Sir Isumb., 413. Alle the atyre that felle to a knyghte.
† 2. Personal adornment, or decoration; ‘get up.’ Also (with pl.) an ornament. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxiii. 40. Ourned with wommans atyre [Vulg. mundo muliebri].
1568. Bible (Bishops’), Isa. iii. 18. The gorgiousnesse of ye attyre about their feete.
1621. Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., IV. vi. 240. Dressings, bracelets, and attires.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. i. 358. Commonly known by her whorish attire: As crisping and curling.
3. Dress, apparel.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 173. Ladies and damoselis … In faire atire.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 15. To telle of hure atyre · no tyme haue ich nouth.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., Pref. A iij b. Hauing neither house to shroude them in, nor attyre to clothe their backes.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. i. 53. And do you now put on your best attyre? And do you now cull out a Holyday?
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom., I. ii. 73. They plead religious principles for the form of their attire.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 62. The most conspicuous article in her attire was an ample checkered linen apron.
† b. (with pl.) A dress. Obs.
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinsh., II. 130/1. Awaie with his English attires, and on with his brogs, his shirt and other Irish rags.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxix. § 5. Threescore and seuen Attires of Priests.
1787. Miss Burney, in Diary & Lett., III. 367. Two new attires, one half, the other full dressed.
† 4. Head-dress, head-gear; spec. (in 16–17th c.) a head-dress of women. Also aphet. TIRE. Obs. (In this sense fancifully connected with tiara.)
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3704. Helm & heued wyþ al þe atyre In-to þe feld it fleȝ.
1483. Cath. Angl., Atyre of þe hede, tiara.
1530. Palsgr., 195/2. Atyre for a gentilwomans heed, atour.
1583. Babington, Commandm. (1590), 275. The bracelets and the bonets, the attires of the head & the slops, the headbands, [etc.].
1611. Rich, Honest. Age (1844), 37. These Attyre-makers that within these forty yeares were not knowne by that name, and but nowe very lately they kept their lowzie commoditie of periwygs, and their other monstrous attyres, closed in boxes, they might not be seene in open show.
5. Venery and Her. The ‘head-gear’ of a deer.
1562. Leigh, Armorie (1597), 52. He renueth his attire euerie year.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xiv.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v., The Heralds call the Horns of a Stag or Buck his Attire.
1736. Dale, in Phil. Trans., XXXIX. 384. The Present which I herewith make you, is the Head, or rather the Attire (as it is called in Heraldry) of the Moose-Deer.
1857. Fraser’s Mag., LVI. 211. The terms for the attire of a Buck, according to the old woodmen, are the bur, the beam, the brow-antlier, the back-antlier, the advancer, palm, and spellers or spillers.
† 6. The furniture (of a house). Obs.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 86. A pouer hous was son purvaide, And pouer atir tharin was layde.
7. fig. The plants that clothe and deck the earth; the covering of animals, esp. when beautiful; the external surroundings, ‘apparel’ or ‘garb’ of anything immaterial.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. x. 148. Choisest attires of the Garden.
1647. Cowley, Mistr. Weeping, i. Let not ill Fortune see Th’ attire thy sorrow wears.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 501. Earth in her rich attire Consummate lovly smil’d.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., IV. iii. Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire … They coiled and swam, and every track Was a flash of golden fire.
† 8. In plants: The name given by Grew to the parts within the floral leaves or corolla, especially the stamens (seminiform attire), and the florets of the disk in Composite flowers (florid attire). Obs.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. v. (1682), 35. The Flower. The general parts whereof are most commonly three; sc. the Empalement, the Foliation, and the Attire. Ibid., 37. The Attire, I find to be of two kinds, Seminiforme and Florid. Ibid. (1676), IV. II. i. § 3. In all Flowers with the Florid Attire, as of Marigold, Daisy and the like.
1725. in Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v.
1751. in Chambers, Cycl., s.v. [from Grew].
