Also 5 stansel, stencel. [In sense 1, a. OF. estanceler, estenceler, f. estencele (mod.F. étincelle):—popular L. *stincilla metathesis of scintilla spark. In sense 2, a late derivative of STENCIL sb., which appears to be f. the verb.]
† 1. trans. To ornament with bright colors or pieces of precious metal. Obs.
a. 1420. Aunturs of Arth. (Irel. MS.), xxxi. 2. In stele was he stuffut, that sterne on his stede, With his sternes of gold, stanseld on stray.
14[?]. Sir Beues (S.), 3777 + 7. Florysschyd [v.r. Stencelled] wiþ rosys off syluyr bryȝt.
2. a. To produce (an inscription, design, etc.) by using a stencil. To stencil out, to blot out by stencilling.
1861. Sala, Dutch Pict., xiv. 215. His Lordship’s invitation … printed upon placards, and stencilled on the walls.
1886. Art Jrnl., April, 107/2. Old English, Arabic, and other inscriptions may be stencilled as friezes in rooms.
1894. Fiske, Holiday Stor. (1900), 108. The goods are probably shipped West and sold, the dealers’ names and numbers being stencilled out.
b. To mark or paint (a surface) with an inscription or design by means of a stencil.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 580. 278. A simple … mode of stencilling the walls of plain cottages.
1865. Reader, 4 Feb., 130/3. The earliest cards were stencilled, the figures being produced by a brush passing over the stencil, in which the outlines were cut through.
Hence Stencilled ppl. a.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, lxiii. 354. A fragment of glass nailed against the stencilled wall.
1881. Young, Ev. Man his own Mechanic, § 1409. 644. A … pale blue ground with a stencilled pattern in darker shades of blue.
