Forms: 6–7 trophe, -ee, -ey, -æ, 6 -æe), 7 -ea, -ie, -ye, (tropee, -æe), 7– trophy. See also TROPÆUM. [a. F. trophée (15th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. post-cl.L. trophæum, cl.L. tropæum, ad. Gr. τρόπαιον, neut. of τροπαῖος, f. τροπή turning, putting to flight, defeat.]
1. Gr. and Rom. Antiq. A structure erected (originally on the field of battle, later in any public place) as a memorial of a victory in war, consisting of arms or other spoils taken from the enemy, hung upon a tree, pillar, etc., and dedicated to some divinity. Hence applied to similar monuments or memorials in later times.
1550. T. Nichols, Thucydides, I. 36. The Athenians dyd make and set vp their Trophe or signe of victorye, pretending to haue had the better.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 145. Religion … hindering the Rhodians to deface this monument, because dedicated tropæes might not be removed.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VII. 254. Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears, And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars, And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars.
1700. Prior, Carmen Seculare, 369. Let every Sacred Pillar bear Trophies of Arms, and Monuments of War.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., ii. (1788), I. 45. Alexander erected the Macedonian trophies on the banks of the Hyphasis.
a. 1854. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., iv. (1855), 146. The banners of the ships of Spain hung out as trophies from the battlements of the Cathedral of St. Paul.
1881. Jowett, Thucyd., I. 159. The Athenians … raised a trophy on the place from which they had just sailed out to their victory.
b. transf. A painted or carved figure of such a memorial; by extension, an ornamental or symbolic group of any objects, or a representation of such a group in decorative art.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 64. The Trophies of his Ormus Victory … painted in Gold … wherein are set downe … the assaults and massacres of the Ormusians.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2363/4. A Steel Sword, the Hill cut with Trophies, the Trophies black, the Ground inlaid with Gold.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 14 Sept. Near the Empress was a gilded trophy wreathed with flowers.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Trophy, in architecture, an ornament which represents the trunk of a tree, charged … with arms or military weapons.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxvi. His gorget, sash, and sabre of the Horse Marines, with his boot-hooks underneath in a trophy.
2. a. transf. Anything taken in war, or in hunting, etc.; a spoil, prize: esp. if kept or displayed as a memorial. Also fig.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. iv. 75. For all the Tuscane menȝe … Greyt trophe and rich spulȝe hyddir bringis.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., I. ii. That trophæe of selfe-loue, and spoile of nature.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., iv. 317. For a Trophy brought the Giants coat away, Made of the beards of Kings.
1681. Flavel, Right. Man’s Ref., x. 244. They are … not left as a prey and trophy to their enemy.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., lxv. (1846), III. 580. A defeat and a wound were the only trophies of his expedition.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xxvii. All around, the walls to grace, Hung trophies of the fight or chase.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea (Low), xiv. § 586. It was upon this plateau that Brooke’s sounding apparatus brought up its first trophies from the bottom of the sea.
1895. J. G. Millais, Breath fr. Veldt (1899), 322. Sable antelope, the heads of which are, to my thinking, the finest trophies that Africa produces.
b. fig. Anything serving as a token or evidence of victory, valor, power, skill, etc.; a monument, memorial.
1569. Spenser, Vis. Bellay, xi. She raisde a Trophee ouer all the worlde.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 31. Whereof this whole Discourse … will be a certaine testimony, if not a Trophey.
1661. Secretary Nicholas, Lett., 18 Nov., in Remembrancia (London, Town Clerk’s Office). The officers of the Trained Bands of the City had been put to great expense and charges in providing themselves with trophies and other necessaries.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, 397. Hands, hearts, and souls, our victories, And spoils, and trophies, our own joyes!
1750. Gray, Elegy, 38. If Mem’ry o’er their Tomb no Trophies raise.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Ode to Beauty, 89. The leafy dell, the city mart, Equal trophies of thine art.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xxi. 292. The triumphs and trophies of intellect.
3. attrib. and Comb., as trophy-badge, -bearer, decoration (see 1 b), flag, -hunter, -hunting, -work; trophy-cress = trophywort; trophy-lock, ‘a lock of hair cut from the head of a slain enemy, used to adorn a weapon or shield’ (Cent. Dict., 1891); trophy-money, trophy-tax, a tax formerly levied in each county, now only in the City of London, for incidental expenses connected with the militia: see quot. 1727–41, and cf. quot. 1661 in 2 b; trophywort, a book-name for the genus TROPÆOLUM.
1891. Westermarck, Hist. Human Marr. (1894), 172. Many ornaments are really nothing but *trophy-badges.
1614. T. White, Martyrd. St. George, C iij b. Thou … the … name dost gaine Of *Trophee-bearer.
1888. Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., *Trophy-cress, the genus Tropæolum.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v. Decoration, *Trophy decoration, decoration by means of groups of arms, musical instruments, scrolls, tools of painting and sculpture, and the like, or what may by extension be called trophies, especially in Italian decorative art.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. II. 1121. The Squire in State … bore The *Trophee-Fiddle and the Case.
1898. G. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 78. To clasp his *trophy flag, and call him Saint.
1863. Harper’s Mag., XXVI. 632/1. He was poking among a pile of burning knapsacks near Savage Station, and, being an insatiable *trophy-hunter, finally extracted a photograph album.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 16 April, 3/3. He interweaves … many little incidents that would escape the notice of the mere trophy-hunter.
1899. W. H. Furness, Folk Lore Borneo, 15. That savage love of *trophy-hunting which seems inborn in mankind.
1837. J. T. Irving, Jr., The Hawk Chief, II. vii. 85–6. It showed that even in old age he shrank not from battle, and still left the *trophy lock for his conqueror.
1664. in J. Croft, Excerpta Ant. (1797), 21. Item, paid for *Trophye Money, 3l. 8s. 8d.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Trophy money, a duty paid annually … towards providing harness, drums, colours, etc., for the militia.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 29. In 1682 a suit was commenced with the college … for trophy-money.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 227/1. The occasional sailor has no chance in the *trophy races.
1901. Daily Chron., 24 July, 5/2. The *‘Trophy Tax,’ or, to give it its full designation, the Trophy Tax Militin Rate … is peculiar to the City of London, and is a relic of the old train-band system.
1708. New View Lond., II. 491/2. A neat white marble monument, enricht with *Trophy work, an Urn, Cherub and Palm branches.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Trophywort, Tropæolum.
Hence Trophyless a., without a trophy.
1814. Morning Post, 19 Oct., 3/1. Our heroes would have been spared the mortification of a trophyless retreat.
1897. 19th Cent., May, 703. The disappointment at returning trophyless.
