[a. F. bandage, f. bande BAND sb.2: see -AGE. Orig. a term of surgery.]
1. Surg. A strip or band of woven material used to bind up a wound, sore, or fractured limb.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physic, 185/2. On the syde of the Rupture, ther must be sowede a little bandage.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 535. With bandage firm Ulysses’ knee they bound.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxviii. We reduced the fracture, dressed the wound, applied the eighteen-tailed bandage.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xvii. There, there—let me fix this bandage.
b. abst. = BANDAGING vbl. sb. 1.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5901/3. Lectures in Osteology, Bandage, etc.
2. A strip of any flexible material used for binding or covering up, esp. for blindfolding the eyes.
1715. Garth, Claremont, 305 (R.).
| Religion shall dread nothing but disguise, | |
| And Justice need no bandage for her eyes. |
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 15. Glue them together with a bandage of paper.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab., 190. Like bandages of straw Beneath a wakened giant’s strength.
fig. 1750. Shenstone, Ode Indol., 12. Ah! gentle Sloth! indulgent spread The same soft bandage o’er my mind.
1862. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos., IV. v. § 66. Tie the controversy with bandages of argument.
3. A band or strip of material used to bind together and strengthen any structure. arch.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 205. A channel cut into the bandage of Portland-stone.
1842. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., Gloss., Bandages, the rings or chains of iron inserted in the corners of a stone wall … which act as a tie on the walls to keep them together.
