[ad. L. structūra, f. struct-, struĕre to build: see -URE. Cf. F. structure, Sp., Pg. estructura, It. struttura.]
1. The action, practice or process of building or construction. Now rare or Obs.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., IX. 134. This doon, the sidis [of the tank] make vp with structure [L. quo facto latera puteorum structura suscipiat].
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Structure, building, setting in good order.
1624. Wotton, Elem. Arch., I. 48. This is yet a weake piece of Structure, because the Supporters are subiect to much impulsion.
1693. J. Dryden, Jr., trans. Juvenal, XIV. 116. His Son builds on, and never is content, Till the last Farthing is in Structure spent.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Praise of Drunkenness, Wks. 1730, I. 32. If we look back into the primitive history of the first ages,… from the very first structure of the world, we shall find [etc.].
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., Life, 5. A Florentine, who had worked for him … in the structure of the Choir.
1770. Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 292. Presses of his structure became … general throughout the Low Countries.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., Pref. p. v. A distinct account of the progress and structure of the Edystone Lighthouse.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VII. iii. The scarcity of brick and stone at the period of its structure.
2. Manner of building or construction; the way in which an edifice, machine, implement, etc., is made or put together.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. ii. 317. The structure of this City was beautifull and high.
1695. trans. Misson’s Voy. Italy, II. 158. The structure of the Cathedral is not much unlike to that of the Church of Siena.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 72. He can spy out the Faults in the Structure of a Boat, sooner than those of himself.
1772. Pennant, Tours Scot. (1774), 1. Chester; a city without parallel for the singular structure of the four principal streets, which are as if excavated out of the earth.
1826. Art Brewing (ed. 2), 149. There are variations in the structure of these mills—some are worked by hand, others by horse and water.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. III. iv. They … show purchased dirks, of an improved structure, made to order.
1908. Animal Management (War Office), 176. In speaking of the structure of the saddle.
3. The mutual relation of the constituent parts or elements of a whole as determining its peculiar nature or character; make, frame.
a. gen.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., IV. 1075. An Idoll, that Iphthima did present In structure of her euery lineament [marg. δεμας membrorum structura).
1657. J. Cooke, Hall’s Cures Engelisht, 203. My Lady Rainsford beautifull and of a gallant structure of body.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 262. The admirable structure of this part of the Country.
1757. R. Price, Review Morals, i. (1769), 13. Then … it [morality] has no other measure or standard, besides every one’s private structure of mind and sensations.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 51. Of the internal Structure of the Earth.
1803. Brougham, Colon. Policy, I. 50. The structure of society … is the same in all those settlements.
1814. Brewster, in Phil. Trans., CIV. 438. The interior part of the drop had a structure similar to that of fluid glass.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, iii. (1858), 12. With a feeling of thankfulness rather that there do exist men of that structure too.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 2. Men … became conscious of new fibre in their moral structure.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., ii. 20. The structure of the Southern Hemisphere.
b. Anat., Biol., etc.
1615. H. Crooke, Body of Man, VIII. iv. (1631), 730. Of the Vse, Figure and Structure of the Hand.
1725. N. Robinson, Th. Physick, 49. This imperfect Sketch,… concerning the Structure, Mechanism, Laws, Properties, and Motions of that System of Matter, that compose a human Body.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VIII. 11. Many philosophers … have … minutely examined their [sc. caterpillars’] structure and internal conformation.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 56. Every plant examined as to external structure, displays at least four systems of organs.
1835. J. Duncan, Beetles (Nat. Libr.), 142. An exotic group, very closely related to the Gyrini, but offering so many minute modifications of structure as to warrant their separation into a distinct genus.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., v. (1873), 114. Variations of structure arising in the young or larvæ naturally tend to affect the structure of the mature animal.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 88. The secretion of dermal glands … always appears first in the walls of the cells, and gives them a peculiar structure.
c. Geol., Min., etc.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 27. Fragments of stone broken from simple rocks display the structure of the internal parts.
1822. Cleaveland, Min. & Geol. (ed. 2), I. 58. The structure of a mineral undoubtedly depends on the shape, size, and arrangement of the minute parts, of which it is composed.
1879. A. Geikie, in Encycl. Brit., X. 229/1. There are two leading types of structure among rocks—crystalline or massive, and fragmental.
d. With reference to a literary composition, a verse or sentence, a language, etc.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Epist., I. xix. 37. I fear’d to change the Structure of his Line.
1749. Power Pros. Numbers, Pref. 3. A critical Regard to the Structure of their Periods.
1789. New Lond. Mag., July, 361/1. A new farce … was presented last Saturday at this theatre. The structure is light and pleasant.
1814. Keble, Occas. Papers (1877), 154. There remain two sorts of imitation instrumental to Poetry: indirect, by which the style and structure takes the colour of the subject; and direct.
1823. Thomasina Ross, Bouterwek’s Hist. Sp. Lit., I. 260. Combining the unity of ideas, which ought to distinguish that species of composition [sc. the sonnet], with the most elegant rounding and regularity of structure.
1833. J. Rush, Philos. Human Voice, xlv. (ed. 2), 313. When the structure of a sentence is so much involved as to produce a momentary hesitation in an audience, about its concord or government.
1857. J. D. Morell, Gram. Engl. Lang., 49. The Structure of Words. 1. Roots and Derivatives.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xix. 371. 1hc Apocalypse is … thoroughly poetical in structure.
1887. Spectator, 23 July, 996/1. The story itself is in structure extremely simple.
4. The coexistence in a whole of distinct parts having a definite manner of arrangement.
1873. Spencer, Study Sociol., iii. (1880), 63. Though structure up to a certain point [in the animal organism] is requisite for growth, structure beyond that point impedes growth.
1876. [see STRUCTURE v.].
5. concr. That which is built or constructed.
a. A building or edifice of any kind, esp. a pile of building of some considerable size and imposing appearance.
1615. Brathwait, Strappado, 104. Her structures ruin’d are, and there doth grow, A groue of fatall Elmes.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 707. The bodies … were buried in the Abbey Church,… in Saint Peters, and in other religious Structures.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 297. Dilichius … not onely mentions the seven Hills, but tells also what magnificent structures stand upon them.
1739. Gray, Lett., Poems (1775), 69. A church … which is, indeed, a most stately structure.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. i. I saw from out the wave her structures rise As from the stroke of the enchanter’s wand.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorks., viii. 202. Of these humble structures we have only the foundations.
1879. Tourgee, Fool’s Errand, viii. 34. This log house had in time given way to a more pretentious structure of brick.
transf. 1671. Milton, Samson, 1239. [Spoken to the giant Harapha.] Go baffl’d coward, lest I run upon thee,… And with one buffet lay thy structure low.
b. fig.
1637. Saltonstall, Eusebius’ Constantine, 49. Your contentions doe arise from points not concerning the maine structure of Religion.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 269. The whole structure of his civitas might bee dissolved.
1694. Prior, Hymn to Sun, viii. Eternal Stuctures let Them raise, On William’s and Maria’s Praise: Nor want new Subject for the Song.
1892. Westcott, Gospel of Life, 256. Christianity … is not a structure of institutions.
c. Buildings collectively.
1671. Milton, P. R., III. 286. Ecbatana her structure vast there shews.
6. In a wider sense: A fabric or framework of material parts put together.
1677. T. Jordan, Lond. Triumphs, title-p., Illustrated with many Magnificent Structures & Pageants.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 247. Then [he] lights the structure with averted eyes, The rolling smoke involves the sacrifice.
1788. Cowper, Gratitude, 25. This moveable structure of shelves,… charg’d with octavos and twelves.
1841. Whewell, Mech. Engin., 1. Combinations of material parts,… when constructed with a view to support weights, or to resist forces without being moved,… are termed Structures. Ibid., 51. Structures are of various kinds, as Frames, which have their parts connected by pins or mortises; and Arches, in which the parts are connected only by contact.
1883. W. J. M. Rankine, in Encycl. Brit., XV. 750/1. The principles of the support of a floating structure form an important part of Hydromechanics.
7. An organized body or combination of mutually connected and dependent parts or elements. Chiefly in Biol., applied to component parts of an animal or vegetable organism.
1830. J. G. Strutt, Sylva Brit., 6. Each stage of the existence of these wonderful vegetable structures.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., vi. (1873), 140. When we see any structure highly perfected for any particular habit, as the wings of a bird for flight.
1876. Spencer, Princ. Sociol., § 254 (1885), I. 526. The general law of organization … is that distinct duties entail distinct structures.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 1. The substance of plants is not homogeneous, but is composed of small structures, generally indistinguishable by the naked eye…. These structures are termed Cells.
8. attrib. and Comb.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxvii. 386. All the ice that forms the lower portion of this glacier has to pass through the structure-mill at the bottom of the fall, and the consequence is that it is all laminated.
1879. Amer. Jrnl. Sci., May, 405. On the Structure-formulas of Aromatic Compounds.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 670. They … turn it bodily over and over, with structure-straining bumps to the boat, and any amount of advice … to each other.
