Also 8 treves, 8–9 travisse, 9 trevesse, -vis, -ise, -iss, travis, -ise, -iss; Sc. dial. traivis, triviss, -ess, trivage; Eng. dial. travvis, travase, trivitch. [dial. var. of TRAVERSE sb. q.v.
Similar forms occur as obs. or dial. variants in senses for which TRAVERSE is the current form; but in the following senses the altered forms are alone in use.]
1. A wooden partition 41/2 to 6 feet high, separating two stalls in a stable. (See TRAVERSE sb., branch IV, of which this is a specific sense.)
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxv[i], Beyond the ‘treviss,’ which formed one side of the stall, stood a cow. Ibid. (1826), Woodst., i. Stakes and trevisses of rough-hewn timber … seemed to intimate that the hallowed precincts had been … made the quarters of a troop of horse.
1827. Hogg, in Blackw. Mag., XXI. 69. As I was suppering the horses the night … behold I looks up, and there’s my auld master standing leaning against the trivage.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1070. The trevises to be 6 feet high at the front posts, and 4 feet and a half high at the hind posts. Ibid., § 1103. The back posts of the trivesses to be made of oak 6 inches square.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 125. The hind posts of travises should be of solid wood rounded in front.
2. A horse’s stall in a stable.
(Bears the same relation to 1 as TRAVERSE sb. 14 to 13.)
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Cl.), 152. There were fifty-eight treveses in one end [of the stables].
1859. J. Brown, Rab & Fr. (1862), 33. He [Rab] lay in the treviss wi’ the mear, and wadna come oot.
1884. J. Purves, in Gd. Words, Nov., 766/2. The horses crunching their food and rattling their halter-chains in the treviss.
1896. J. Lumsden, Battle of Dunbar, etc., 13. Her neibor in the nearer triviss The maist redoubted naig alive is!
3. Comb. Travis- or trevis-board, -boarding (in a stable).
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1070. 11/2-inch trevise-boards to be mortised into the hind post, which must be set 8 feet from the front wall. Ibid., § 1103. The trivess boarding to be 7 feet high in front, and 8 feet at the back end.
