Also 7 suitte. [a. F. suite: see SUIT sb.]
1. A train of followers, attendants or servants; a retinue. Also ellipt. (colloq.) = members of a suite.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, V. i. A person who makes so grand a figure in the Court, without the Suitte of a Princess.
1752. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), III. 261. I have … secured you a place in the Suite of the King’s electoral Embassador.
1766. G. Williams, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), II. 32. Lord Lincoln … set out immediately with his whole suite for Jack Shelley’s.
1788. Pasquin, Childr. Thespis (1792), 80. Like the suite of the morning, which Guido drew dancing.
1817. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), II. 353. Breakfasted in company with the President and suite.
1877. Froude, Short Stud. (1883), IV. I. ix. 104. Turning … to the young lords in the archbishop’s suite.
1889. Marchioness Dufferin, Our Viceregal Life India, I. 205. He and his wife and two ‘suite’ came to breakfast.
2. A succession or series; in earlier use often applied to a series of publications; now chiefly said of series of specimens.
1722. Richardson, Statues in Italy, 151. Here is a Suite of Emperors; Busts, Antique.
1761. T. Warton, Life Bathurst, 94. The following suite of letters, written by himself, while Vice-chancellor.
1770. Earl Malmesbury, Diaries & Corr., I. 53. A continued suite of childish amusements.
1779. Gibbon, in Life & Lett. (1880), 262. Another reason, which must … pin me to Bentinck-street, is the Decline and Fall. I have resolved to bring out the suite in the course of next year.
1805–17. R. Jameson, Charac. Min. (ed. 3), 127. The suite of crystals of a mineral species.
1824. W. Irving, in Life & Lett. (1862), II. 152. Mr. Galignani calls … about my editing suite of English authors.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. Pref. p. viii. Suites of shells common to the Sub-apennine beds and to the Mediterranean.
1845. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop., VI. 678/2. Some of these marls contain beds of gypsum and fossils resembling the suite of Gosau.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. ii. His laughter exposed a suite of fair white teeth.
1858. Thackeray, Virgin., xxx. There is nothing so flattering in the world as a good suite of trumps.
1864. J. C. Atkinson, Stanton Grange, 295. A suite of tree-sparrow’s eggs, not less than 20 in number.
1874. Westropp, Prec. Stones, 3. The colour suite [of diamonds] is, however, extensive.
b. A number of rooms forming a set used together by a person, a family or company of persons. Also in a suite 5 b (below).
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 8 Sept. A suite of eight or ten large rooms.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xliv. A room that opens beyond the saloon, and terminates the suite.
1809. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. iii. 80. Five splendid rooms open in a suite.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 103. My suite of apartments were in a proud melancholy palace.
1885. Mabel Collins, Prettiest Woman, i. Her home was a pretty little suite on the second floor.
c. A set of furniture of the same pattern.
1851. Catal. Gt. Exhib., III. 824/1. Suite of sculptured decorative furniture.
1833. Miss Broughton, Belinda, II. 286. The early English suite of rush-bottomed chairs.
d. Mus. † (a) A set or series of lessons, etc. (cf. SUIT sb. 18 c); (b) a series of dance tunes arranged for one or more instruments and composed in the same key or related keys.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., Suite, (French) The name formerly given to a set, or course, of lessons, sonatas, concertos, &c. [1811 adds Also applied to a single piece when consisting of several movements.]
1886. A. Weir, Hist. Basis Mod. Europe (1889), 548. The grand cyclic forms of modern art, the offspring of the suites.
1887. H. C. Banister, Mus. Anal., 15. The Suites and Partitas of Bach.
3. A sequel, result. rare.
c. 1800. H. K. White, My own Character, 27. And so in the suite, by these laudable ends, I’ve a great many foes.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxiv. In case the battle of the previous night should have any suite.
4. A sequel to a literary work. rare.
1839. W. Irving, in Ticknor, Prescott (1864), 181. I had always intended to write an account of the ‘Conquest of Mexico,’ as a suite to my ‘Columbus.’
5. ǁ En suite. a. In agreement or harmony (with).
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl (1813), II. 79. The decorations … were not even en suite with the polish of the owner’s mind.
1860. Once a Week, 3 Nov., 520/1. She was an antique gem, was this concierge, and we thought if everything in the establishment were en suite [etc.].
b. Of rooms: In a series leading from one to the other.
1818. Mrs. Opie, New Tales, I. 24. Elegant rooms thrown open en suite.
1837. J. F. Cooper, Europe, I. 321. The state apartments lie en suite, in the main body of the building.
