Sugar-loaf

[f. SUGAR sb. + LOAF sb.¹ 3.]

  1.  A molded conical mass of hard refined sugar (now rarely made).

1422.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 59. In 1 Sugyrlaffe, 8s. 4d.

1452.  Paston Lett., I. 236. I pray yow that ye woll vouchesaff to send me an other sugor loff, for my old is do.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 380. Teneriffa is … a greate hyghe picke lyke a suger lofe.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., III. i. 69 b. Wearing on their heads a hygh yealow hatte made after the fashion of a suger loofe.

1604.  [? Chettle], Wit of Woman, G 4, Giue the gentlewoman a leashe of angells, to buy a sugar loafe.

1660.  Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xxxiii. 247. A Gardiner’s watering Pot shap’d conically, or like a Sugar-Loaf.

1707.  Lady Grisell Baillie, Househ. Bk. (S.H.S.), 69. For a suger lofe £3. 7s. 6d.

1800.  B. Moseley, Treat. Sugar (ed. 2), 113. The blue paper for covering sugar-loaves.

1835.  App. Munic. Corpor. Rep., IV. 2896. (Kingston-upon-Thames), The High Steward … is entitled to 18 sugar loaves every year. These are worth about 9l., and are usually distributed in charity.

1871.  W. H. G. Kingston, Banks of Amazon (1872), 112. Appeared the snow-capped, truncated peak of Cotopaxi, looking like a vast sugar-loaf.

  2.  transf. A thing having the shape of a sugar-loaf. a. Usually sugar-loaf-hat (see 3): A conical hat, pointed, rounded or flat at the top, worn during the Tudor and Stuart periods and after the French Revolution.

1607.  Dekker & Webster, Westw. Hoe, V. iii. Do not I know you, grannam? and that sugar-loaf?

  b.  A high conical hill.

a. 1691.  Boyle, Hist. Air (1692), 184. Till they arrived at the top of the sugar-loaf, or highest pile of the mountain.

1715.  Phil. Trans., XXIX. 318. The white Cloud still hiding the greatest part of the Sugar-loaf [sc. Teneriffe].

1862.  Chambers’ Encycl., IV. 745/2. The rock [of Gibraltar], at its highest point, the Sugar Loaf, attains an elevation of 1439 feet above the sea.

1879.  Stevenson, Trav. Donkey (1886), 30. The outline of a wooded sugar-loaf in black.

  c.  A kind of cabbage.

1766.  Complete Farmer, 7 P 4/1. I have not one cabbage this year of the sort I intended to have; what I have being chiefly sugar-loaf, the seedsman having deceived me.

1778.  [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 28 April 1777. The savoys and sugar-loaves were soon gone.

1842.  Lance, Cottage Farmer, 15. When you plant out your cabbages at the outset, first put a row of early Yorks, then a row of Sugar-loafs.

  d.  A variety of pine-apple, Ananas pyramidalis.

1796.  Nemnich, Polyglot.-Lex., VI. 910. Sugar-loaf pine-apple, Bromelia ananas.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 600. The Brown Sugar-loaf.

1885.  Lady Brassey, The Trades, 343. The sweeter and more juicy ‘sugar-loaf’ is preferred in England.

  e.  A species of fossilized sea-urchin.

1862.  Chambers’ Encycl., IV. 578/1. Galerites. [The name] popularly given to them … ‘Sugar-loaves,’ is descriptive of the elongated and more or less conical shape of their shell.

  3.  attrib. and Comb. Shaped like or otherwise resembling a sugar-loaf, as sugar-loaf bonnet, button, cabbage (see 2 c), cap, cornea, crown, eminence, hat (see 2 a), head, hill (see 2 b), mountain (see 2 b), pine (see 2 d), pippin, rock, -shape, stone, -stump, yew; used for sugar-loaves or loaf-sugar, as sugar-loaf form, mould, paper; parasynthetic and similative, as sugar-loaf-like, -shaped adjs.; sugar-loaf page, a page wearing sugar-loaf buttons; sugar-loaf sea, ‘high turbulent waves with little wind’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.); sugar-loaf tool, a tool with an end of conical shape used in seal-engraving to smoothe the surfaces of shields.

1885.  Dillon, Fairholt’s Cost. in Eng., I. 403. The high *sugar-loaf bonnet of the French peasants.

1833.  T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. vi. A small white-faced boy, who was called ‘page’ to aunt Eleanor … who … wore … two hundred and forty-eight white *sugar-loaf buttons on his jacket.

1786.  Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 130. *Sugar-loaf cabbage.

1838.  Penny Cycl., XI. 75/1. Salads go to market as soon as they are of sufficient size, and sugar-loaf cabbages succeed them.

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, XII. i. ¶ 3. *Sugar-loaf caps of paper.

1885.  Dillon, Fairholt’s Cost. in Eng., II. 237. The tall *sugar-loaf crown and broad brim.

1867.  Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 192/1. When it has been sufficiently concentrated … it is run into the *sugar-loaf forms.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 165/1. Apex,… a *suger loafe hat: a coppid tanke hat.

1807–8.  W. Irving, Salmag., xviii. (1860), 402. He usually wore a high sugar-loaf hat with a narrow brim.

1885.  Dillon, Fairholt’s Cost. in Eng., I. 402. He wears the high sugar-loaf hat in which the revolutionary heroes … enshrined their evil heads.

1793.  Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xx. 102. All Indians with flat or *sugar-loaf heads.

1808.  Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), II. App. 5. A beautiful little *sugar loaf hill.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. i. 11/1. They wear their Hats higher in the Crown (*Sugar Loafe like) … then Men do. Ibid., xxii. (Roxb.), 280/2. A great *Sugar loaf Mould.

1866.  Chambers’ Encycl., VIII. 269/1. The peak called, from its peculiar shape, *Sugar-loaf Mountain.

1837.  Thackeray, Ravenswing, v. The *sugar-loaf page asked whether master was coming home early.

1859.  F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 90. Blue *sugar-loaf paper.

1796.  Nemnich, Polyglot.-Lex., VI. 958. *Sugar-loaf pine, Ananas pyramidalis.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 533. Dessert apples…. *Sugarloaf Pippin, Wormsley Pippin.

1712.  E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 384. A *Sugar-Loaf Rock above Water.

1852.  Burn, Naval & Milit. Dict., II. (1863), 276/2. *Sugar-loaf sea, mer clapoteuse.

1849.  Cupples, Green Hand, xiv. The *sugar-loaf shape of the headland.

1885.  Dillon, Fairholt’s Cost. in Eng., I. 183. A *sugar-loaf-shaped erection of red cloth.

1789.  J. Williams, Min. Kingd., II. 129. The … hard, granulated, *sugar-loaf-stone.

1878.  Dunglison, Med. Lex., *Sugarloaf Stump, a conical shape assumed by the stump after amputation … due to excessive muscular retraction.

1756.  Mrs. Delaney, Autobiog. (1861), III. 435. The gardens seem to be laid out in the old-fashioned way of mince pies, arbours, and *sugarloaf yews.

  Hence Sugar-loafed († -loaved) ppl. a., shaped like a sugar-loaf.

1702.  W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, xl. 156. A sort of Sugar-loaved Hats.

1842.  Thackeray, Fitz-Boodle’s Prof., Wks. 1898, IV. 346. A jacket covered with sugar-loafed buttons.

1872.  Baker, Nile Trib., ix. 148. A steep sugar-loafed hill.

1875.  Encycl. Brit., II. 556/1. The bassinet was now worn beneath the huge sugar-loafed helm.