| 释义 |
▪ I. window, n.|ˈwɪndəʊ|
Forms: 3 windoȝe, -ohe, -ewe (?), wyndouwe, 3–4 windou, 4 wyndew, wondowe, wyntdouwe, pl. windos, Sc. vyndow, 4–6 wyndow(e, -ou, wyndo, 5–6 wyndoe, 6 -oo, wendo, windoe, pl. wyndose, wyendos, vynndovs, wendoyes, Sc. vindo, wondow, 6–7 windo, -owe, 4– window.
[ME. windoȝe, a. ON. vindauga, f. vindr wind n.1 + auga eye n.1 (See also wind-door, windore, windown, winnock.) The Scand. word replaced and finally superseded OE. éaᵹþyrel eyethurl, éaᵹduru, but the French-derived fenester was in concurrent use down to the beginning of the modern period.]
1. a. An opening in a wall or side of a building, ship, or carriage, to admit light or air, or both, and to afford a view of what is outside or inside.
In ancient buildings it was either left entirely open, furnished with shutters or curtains, or (sometimes) glazed; in modern buildings or vehicles for human occupation, it is usually fitted with sheets of glass (horn, mica, etc.), a frame containing a pane or panes of glass, or glazed sashes, the whole framework being known as the window.
It has been suggested that widewen in Lay. 30822 is a miswriting for wīdewen = windewen ‘windows’.
a1225Ancr. R. 50 Þe leste þæt ȝe euer muwen luuieð our þurles, al beon heo lutle, þe parluris lest & nerewest [Titus MS. windohes, al beon ho lutle, þe parlure windohe beo least & narewest]. c1250Gen. & Ex. 602 Fowerti dais after ðis, Arches windoȝe undon it is. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 241/35 To a derne wyndouwe softeliche seint Nicholas gan gon. a1300Cursor M. 15035 O walles and windos als Þair hefdes ouer þai hang. 13..K. Alis. 6164 (Laud MS.), Wyndewes closed by on gynne. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 52 Þer nis nouþur Wyndou ne Auter, Þat I ne schulde maken oþur mende and my nome write. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxii. (Laurentius) 725 His vyndow opnyt he in hy. c1380Sir Ferumb. 1362 Atte wondowe sche lynede out. c1450Merlin x. 140 Merlin..opened the two wyndowes towarde the gardyn, for he wolde that thei hadde lyght ther-ynne. 1530Palsgr. 289/1 Wyndowes that be in a house toppe, lucarne. 1542Boorde Regyment viii. E j b, In the nyght let the wyndowes of your howse, specyallye of your chambre bee closed. 1549Compl. Scot. xvii. 148 In ȝour glasyn vindois. 1566in Peacock Engl. Ch. Furniture (1866) 98 The roode lofte—taken downe and sold..to harrie walwyn..wch he doth mynd to make windoes of. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 177 The earle Bothwell..come out at ane wondow [v.r. windok] be ane tow. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. ii. 2 But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? 1632Milton Penseroso 159 Storied Windows richly dight. 1667― P.L. iv. 191 As a Thief..In at the window climbes. 1781Cowper Retirement 498 Trees are to be seen From ev'ry window. 1837Dickens Pickw. li, The windows were looked out of often enough to justify the imposition of an additional duty upon them. 1853― Bleak Ho. xx, Mr. Guppy has been lolling out of window all the morning. 1855Poultry Chron. III. 507 A window..of perforated zinc. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 162 Against some of the windows..the snow was also piled, obscuring more than half their light. 1864W. Lewins H.M. Mails 201 [At the last stroke of] six, when all the windows fall like so many swords of Damocles.
b. With qualification denoting (a) the building, room, vehicle, etc. to which the window belongs, as carriage window, church window, door-window, lobby window, office window, parlour window, steeple window, stove window, shop-window, or (b) the form or material, as double-window, drop-window, French window, wheel-window, bay-, bow-, glass-, rose-window.
a1225[see above]. 1428[see bay-window]. 1447–8[see gable n.1 4]. 1450Rolls of Parlt. V. 182/2 A Gavill Wyndowe over a Cloyster. 1485Rec. St. Mary at Hill 29 All the glass wyndowes in the saide place. c1495Ibid. 102 Church wyndowis, the vestry wyndowis. 1560,1680[see stove n.1 6]. 1581Burne in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 110 At the tolbuith vindo. 1583Exchequer Rolls Scot. XXI. 556 At the chekker hous windo. 1616[see door n. 8]. 1854Directory Bath, Wells, etc. p. ix, When the Letter⁓box is closed for the despatch of any Mail,..an extra box is opened in the Lobby Window. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Double-window, one having two sets of sash, inclosing a body of air as a non-conductor of heat and to deaden noise.
2. transf. A window space or opening; esp. in phr. in the window, now chiefly with reference to the exhibition of notices, advertisements, etc., or the display of goods (as in a shop-window).
to dress a window: cf. window-dresser, -dressing in 5 e.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. xxxi. 91 In a wyndou ther we stod, we custe us fyfty sythe. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xlv. (Cristine) 19 Incense laid in a wyndo by. 1382Wyclif Acts xx. 9 Sum ȝong man, Euticus bi name, sittinge on the wyndow [Vulg. super fenestram; ἐπὶ τῆς θυρίδος; 1526 Tindale in a wyndowe]. 1543Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 410 No man..shall have no kynd of merchandiz in ther houssis shopis or wyndous to be sold to strangers. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 36 Searching the Window for a Flint, I found This Paper. 1648Bp. Hall Breathings Devout Soul xix. 29 Whiles I have but a spider in my window, or a bee in my garden, or a worm under my feet. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vi. §46 At Fotheringhay-Castle I have read written by Her in a window, with a pointed Diamond [etc.]. 1757Hist. Two Mod. Adventurers II. 195 The Sashes were thrown up, and they were all sitting in the Windows. 1823Scott Quentin D. xix, An old romaunt..which lay beside him in the window. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Pawnbroker's Shop, The articles of stock which are displayed in some profusion in the window. 1861Brit. Postal Guide 1 Jan. 26 A list of the addresses is fixed in the window of the Post Office to which they may have been sent. 1905Wells Kipps i. ii. §2 Carshot, the window⁓dresser..nagged persistently..until the window was done.
b. goldsmith's window (Gold-mining colloq.): a rich working in which the gold shows abundantly.
1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Rt. xiv, This..was after we had worked out our ‘goldsmith's window’, as the adjacent diggers christened it.
3. a. Applied to openings resembling or likened to a window in shape or function.
e.g. † An opening in the side of a vessel, as a salt-cellar, a censer, and the like; † an opening or gap; † a blank space left in a writing; a shutter, valve, door, or similar opening; pl. a pattern of squares made with sugar on bread and butter; soap-bubbles blown between the finger and thumb.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) x. 38 Þat tabernacle has na wyndowes. a1400Morte Arth. 911 The vesare, the aventaile, enarmede so faire, Voyde with-owttyne vice, with wyndowes of syluer. 1459Paston Lett. I. 470, j saltsaler..with many wyndowes. 1517in Archaeologia LXI. 84 A tabernacle of golde with vij wyndowes of birell for the sacrament. c1530in Gutch Coll. Cur. (1781) II. 311 Oone Sensour parcell gilte withe Windowes gilte and thoppar Boolls. 1533Cranmer Let. in Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.) 249 That your said collation have a window expedient to set what name I will therein. 1549Chaloner Erasm. on Folly N j, How many wyndowes [orig. nodos] they muste make to theyr shooes. 1576Baker Gesner's Jewell of Health 162 An apt hole..which may one whyles shutte, and another whyles open,..through the helpe of a certayne plate or wyndowe of yron. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 317 Euery House openeth their Cisterne window, and receiueth as much water, as is able to suffice them till the next Inundation. a1700Evelyn Diary 30 Sept. 1644, In the piers of the arches are windowes as it were, to receive the water when it is high and full. 1708W. King Cookery (1709) 81 The Fav'rite Child..makes great clutter, Till he has Windows on his Bread and Butter. 1832L. Hunt Lines written in May 15 The merry sap has run up in the bowers, And burst the windows of the buds in flowers. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxxii, Putting the fore-finger and thumb of each hand together, as if he was making ‘windows’ with soap-suds. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 476 A large, well⁓made lamp, having side windows. 1894S. R. Bottone Electr. Instr. Making (ed. 6) 52 The..finished fixed sheet, with its ‘windows’, central aperture, and side strips.
b. windows of heaven: openings in the firmament through which rain was thought to pour.
A literalism from Heb. 'ărubbōth hashshāmayim, which is rendered in the LXX by καταρράκται τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, in the Vulgate by cataractæ cæli = ‘the floodgates of heaven’ (Douay version); in the early Wycliffite version ‘the goteris of heuene’: cf. cataract 1.
1388Wyclif Gen. vii. 11 The wyndowis of heuene weren opened, and reyn was maad on erthe. c1420Prymer 67 [Ps. xlii. 7] Depþe clepiþ depþe, in þe vois of þi wyndowis. 1611Cotgr., Ventailles du ciel, the windowes, or floud⁓gates, of heauen. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 849 The deep, who now had stopt His Sluces, as the Heav'n his windows shut. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxx, The rain was worse than ever,..the wind was not cold, but the windows of heaven were opened. 1869Goulburn Purs. Holiness i. 1 [Elijah] shut up the windows of the sky by his prayers, and by his prayers re-opened them.
c. Anat. = fenestra 1.
1615Crooke Body of Man 603 Betwixt these two windows aboue the lower hole is there a little knub or protuberation. 1683Snape Anat. Horse iii. xiv. (1686) 139 The third is called the Stirrop,..and is fixed..round that passage that is called the oval window. 1718J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. I. xiii. §7. 249 There are yet two Openings in..the Drum [of the ear]: the first of 'em are called the Oval Window... The other is called the Round Window. 1879Calderwood Mind & Br. 71.
d. Geol. = fenster.
1908H. B. C. Sollas tr. Suess's Face of Earth III. viii. 350 This term ‘window’ has been brought into use by our fellow geologists in Switzerland, and we shall adopt it in this work for those cases in which a subjacent tectonic element is brought to light by erosion. 1927L. W. Collet Structure of Alps ii. i. 26 Three windows occur in the Eastern Alps. 1939,1954[see fenster]. 1980Sci. Amer. Oct. 131/2 The presence of sedimentary rocks in the windows of the Blue Ridge indicates that the crystalline rocks there overlie sedimentary material.
e. A transparent panel in a package, through which the contents can be seen; spec. on an envelope (see window-envelope, sense 5 e).
1914[see window-envelope, sense 5 e below]. 1938D. E. A. Charlton Art of Packaging 94 The latest..improvement..[paper] napkins visible through a cellophane window. 1952E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper & Paper-making (ed. 2) 90 The use of..envelopes..with cellophane windows is prohibited by most continental postal administrations. 1977C. McCarry Secret Lovers iii. 40 Wilson..flipped the plastic windows to make certain that all the papers were still in the wallet.
f. Freq. with capital initial. Mil. code name: = chaff n.1 6 b.
1942Ld. Cherwell in Oxf. Mag. (1963) 9 May 283/1 If you go into the meeting and try to get ‘Window’ used, you'll find me and Tizard united against you. 1946J. P. Baxter Scientists against Time vi. 93 The British used Window for the first time over Hamburg on the night of July 24–25, 1943. 1947[see chaff n.1 6 b]. 1962A. P. Rowe Let. in R. V. Jones Most Secret War (1978) iv. 41 What I want to emphasize is that from no one at no time did I hear a breath of anything like window. 1963D. Irving Destruction of Dresden iii. iii. 135 The crews of these new bomber formations had been cascading Window into the air in copious amounts. 1980M. Middlebrook Battle of Hamburg viii. 125 It is not known which aircraft dropped the first bundle of Window.
g. Computers. (i) The screen of a VDU regarded as a means of displaying part of a drawing stored in a computer; the part of a drawing, program, etc., chosen for display.
1966Computer Jrnl. IX. 21/1 The 10-inch square display screen..is treated as a ‘window’ on to a very large drawing board. Ibid. 22/1 The display ‘window’ can be moved one grid space in any of four directions. 1968IBM Systems Jrnl. VII. 163 A subsequent computation can determine the point at which any line crosses the edge of the window. 1982J. E. Scott Introd. Interactive Computer Graphics vii. 124 The size and location of the window are expressed in user coordinates because the window is specified in relation to the drawing... The dimensions and center point of the viewport are expressed in normalized screen coordinates.
(ii) = viewport 2.
1974AFIPS Conf. Proc. XLIII. 251/1 The display screen is divisible into rectangular, possibly overlapping ‘windows’. 1980W. Newman in C. E. Vandoni Eurographics 80, 4 NAN..uses overlapping windows, in this case in colour but with contents restricted to text. 1983MicroComputer Printout Sept. 57/2 A similar, but more flexible system allows you to split the screen into two windows for viewing different sections of the model at once. 1985Acorn User Feb. 37/2 Windows can be created which can then be rearranged to provide any print format required.
4. a. fig. Applied to the senses or organs of sense, esp. the eyes, regarded as inlets or outlets to or from the mind or soul (also transf. in Shakes., applied to the eyelids).
a1340Hampole Psalter cxviii. 37 We syn wiþ oure eghen when we couayte the þynge þat we see, and swa ded cummys in at þe wyndous of oure wittes. c1386Chaucer Melib. ⁋456 Thou hast suffred hem entre in to thyn herte wilfully by the wyndowes of thy body. 1481Caxton Reynard xl. (Arb.) 109 Whan ye here after slepe ye nede not to shette but one wyndowe where another muste shette two. 1544T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1553) B viij, The eyes..are the windowes of the minde, for bothe ioye and anger..are seen..through them. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 848 Behold the window of my heart, mine eie. 1592― Ven. & Ad. 482 Her two blew windowes faintly she vpheaueth. 1594― Rich. III, v. iii. 116 Ere I let fall the windowes of mine eyes. 1652Benlowes Theoph. iii. xxx, Those Lights, the radiant Windows of her Minde. 1860Slang Dict. (ed. 2), Windows, the eyes, or ‘peepers’. 1889Rider Haggard Cleopatra (II. iii.) in Illustr. Lond. News 23 Feb. 236/3 She..opened the windows of her eyes.
b. fig. and in allusive or proverbial expressions.
to go (be thrown, etc.) out of the window (U.S. without of), to be abandoned, discarded, or made worthless; also (U.S.) to be out the window. to open a window to: to give an opportunity or occasion for (after Terence Heaut. iii. i. 72 [481] quantam fenestram ad nequitiem patefeceris). to throw the house out at (the) window [= F. jeter la maison par la fenêtre]: to make a great commotion, turn everything topsy-turvy. to come in by the window [= F. entrer par la fenêtre], to come in stealthily.
c1420Prymer 12 Þou art maad wyndowe of heuene, þat soreuful men entre as sterris. 14..Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 187 Loke owt at the wyndows of kyndnesse. 1523[Coverdale] Old God (1534) G, Whan Pipine..sawe so great a wyndowe opened, and so great an occasyon gyuen to hym self, for to inuade the realme. 1551Crowley Pleas. & Payne 350 And youe were gladde to take them in, Bycause you knewe that they dyd knowe That youe came in by the wyndowe. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxxxix. i, Yea closest closett of my thought Hath open windowes to thine eyes. 1589Nashe Countercuffe Wks. (Grosart) I. 128 To open such a windowe to the deuill, as they were presently giuen ouer as a pray to the iawes of hell. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 129 For such a fault as this, which of us here would not have cried out that the walles should have burst withall, and beene readie to have throwen the house out of window? 1611,1844[see house n.1 19]. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 73 Sometimes shee is all for belly cheare and banquettings, and as we say, throwes the house out at the windowes. 1639J. Clarke Parœm. 28 Love creeps in at window, but goes out at doore. 1687Boyle Martyrd. Theodora vi. 110 The wounds that we quietly suffer to pierce our Breasts, would open you Windows into our hearts. 1809Malkin Gil Blas vii. xi. ⁋6 The enraged marquis..pounding Laura's fair face to a jelly with his fist, and turning her whole house out at window. 1879Farrar St. Paul II. 90 His Second Epistle to the Corinthians opens a window into the very emotions of his heart. 1939H. L. Ickes Secret Diary (1954) III. 3 Steve Early..said that the ‘brain trust was out of the window’. 1945Sun (Baltimore) 1 Oct. 4-0/3 Production of specialty goods—such as birthday and wedding cakes—was ‘out the window’. 1946Ibid. 6 July 4/1 As a guide, past experience went out the window early this year when the number of retirements suddenly increased. 1964S. M. Miller in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 300 The concept of ‘unemployables’ was largely thrown out the window. 1968F. Lundberg Rich & Super-Rich iv. 173 As FDR himself said, ‘the New Deal is out the window.’ 1969G. Donaldson Fifteen Men xi. 184 ‘The Uncle Louis kissing babies went out of the window this afternoon’, said Green. 1977Chicago Tribune 2 Oct. xiii. 24/3 The old rule-of-thumb of putting insulation with a resistance rating of 19 in your attic (R-19) is ‘out the window’.
c. A continuous range of electromagnetic wavelengths for which the atmosphere (or some other medium) is relatively transparent.
1949Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. XXX. 233/1 Dr. Buettner indicated as one problem the measurement of solar radiation near 0·21µ, where absorption due to ozone decreases and that due to oxygen increases, forming a ‘window’ in the solar spectrum. 1969Guardian 6 Feb. 9 The earth's infra-red ‘windows’ are at wavelengths of 1 to 2 and 8 to 14 microns. 1970Nature 10 Oct. 158/1 This particular solvent is transparent in the region of the neodymium laser wavelength (1·06 µm) and..the absorption spectrum of the resulting solution exhibits a ‘window’ in this region. 1974Sci. Amer. Apr. 71/3 The most recently opened window on the galactic center is at X-ray wavelengths.
d. = launch window s.v. launch n.1 7; weather window: see weather n. 7. Chiefly U.S.
1965[see launch window s.v. launch n.1 7]. 1967N.Y. Times 18 Oct. 30/1 The Soviet and American vehicles flew to Venus close together because both were fired during one of the periodic ‘windows’ for such shots. 1968Sci. Jrnl. Dec. 17/2 Between February and April next year the ‘window’ will be open for launchings to Mars. 1973Times 15 May 1/5 There will be tomorrow only a 10-minute ‘window’—the period in which the rocket must be launched to reach the appropriate orbit. 1977A. Peccei Human Quality ix. 190 This is therefore the time to act. The seventies offer what in space exploration is called a ‘window’, an opportunity, and probably one of the last ones, for us to launch such an undertaking.
e. Hence used more widely in sense ‘a period of time’, in phrases window of opportunity (or vulnerability), esp. with reference to the arms race. orig. U.S.
1979Hearings U.S. Congr. Sen. Comm. Armed Services i. 168 We are facing a window of ICBM vulnerability during the period of 1982 to 1986. 1980N.Y. Times 22 Sept. a27/2 To intimidate the Americans with a Soviet ‘window of opportunity’ to knock out Minuteman missiles. 1981Ibid. 3 Oct. 13/1 Mr. Reagan..enlarged upon the meaning of his oft-repeated theme about the ‘window of vulnerability’... The term is generally used to mean the time period in which American land-based missiles are believed to be vulnerable to a surprise Soviet attack. Today, Mr. Reagan said it also applied to Soviet superiority at sea and in Europe. 1982Nature 4 Mar. 5/1 Environmentalists and labour union groups are seizing this ‘window of opportunity’ between the failure of the last industry challenge and the eventual tightening up of administrative requirements to get as much information on existing pesticides..as they can. 1985Sunday Times 16 June 60/8 Regional bank bosses know that..they must rush to acquire their neighbours, to make the most of their window of opportunity.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. Simple attrib., as window-arch, † window-band (band n.1 3), window-bay (cf. bay-window), window-blind (blind n. 2), † window carpet (carpet n. 1), window-casement, window-clasp, window-circle, window-curtain, window-cushion, window-flower, window-frame (frame n. 11), window-glass (glass n.1 1, 7), window-grate, window-hanging(s, window-head, window-hole, window-hook, window-jamb, window-leaves (pl.; leaf n.1 12 b), † window-nail, window-opening, window-pole, window-recess, window-sash (sash n.2 1), window-shade, window-shaft, window-shelf, † window slab, window-slit, window-square, window-sticker (sticker 5 a), window strap, † window stuff, window-ticket, window-tracery, window-unit, window-void (void n.1 3 a).
b. Objective, as window-breaking (in quots. attrib.), window-smashing, window-veiling; window-breaker, window-mender, window-smasher, window-surveyor.
c. Adverbial, as window-broken adj.; † window-gazer.
d. Appositive, ‘that is a window’, consisting chiefly of glass, as window door, window wall.
1835R. Willis Archit. Mid. Ages vi. 57 The..*window⁓arch side.
1419Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 145 In iiij par. de dorbandes, j *wyndoband. 1551Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. X. 34, xl pair of wyndo bandis.
1861Rossetti Let. June (1965) II. 406, I offered to paint figures of some kind on the blank spaces of one of the gallery *window bays. 1920D. H. Lawrence Women in Love i. 3 Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen sat..in the window-bay of their father's house..working and talking.
1730Fielding Tom Thumb ii. ii, Ha! the *Window-Blinds are gone, A Country Dance of Joys is in your Face. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. ii, The yellow window-blind of Pubsey and Co. was drawn down upon the day's work.
1903‘O. Henry’ in McClure's Mag. July 333/1 We'll get that cannon..and fire some *window-breakers with it. 1944Blunden Cricket Country i. 14 Marbles, tops of various shape and various function—the window-breaker never was so bad as his name, the peg-top always looked more sinister.
1784Cowper Tiroc. 228 His wild excursions, *window-breaking feats. 1861A. Strickland Old Friends Ser. ii. 71 The notorious young outlaw..of window-breaking fame.
1859Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. I. 11 *Window-broken, rat-deserted..houses.
1575in Archaeologia XXX. 10, v *windowe carpetts of Bramage.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing x. ⁋10 The Fore-end of the Tympan is made of Iron... This Iron is somewhat thinner and narrower than an ordinary *Window-Casement.
1865G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 34 The towers musical, the quiet-walled grove, The *window-circles.
a1865Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xxxiv. (1867) 339 The *window-clasp was unused and stiff.
1600in W. F. Shaw Mem. Eastry (1870) 225 Three *window curtaines. 1713Berkeley Guardian No. 49 ⁋8 My Couches, Beds, and Window-Curtains are of Irish Stuff. 1870Dickens E. Drood i, Through the ragged window-curtain, the light of early day steals in from a miserable court.
1617in W. F. Shaw Mem. Eastry (1870) 227 Fowre *window cushens.
1926D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serpent xi. 181 Ramón..closed the *window-doors.
1818Keats Endymion ii. 28 Juliet leaning Amid her *window-flowers. 1703*Window-frame [see window-sill]. 1804W. L. Bowles Spir. Discov. v. 51 When winds of winter shake the window-frame. 1837Dickens Pickw. xi, A tear trembled on his sentimental eyelid like a rain-drop on a window-frame.
1574Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 304 Her sonnes gluttonous, her daughters *windowgazers.
1634–5Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 89 The glass-works, where is made *window-glass. 1709Lond. Gaz. No. 4538/4, 60 Cases of White Normandy Window-Glass. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xii, [He] let down the window-glass. 1847M. Howitt Ballads 6 The ivy creeps o'er the window-glass. 1892‘H. S. Merriman’ Slave of Lamp xvi, That super-innocent old man with the white hair who wears window-glass spectacles... They struck me as window-glass—quite flat.
1813Scott Trierm. iii. xix, A wicket *window⁓grate.
1840Dickens Old C. Shop lii, The tattered *window-hangings.
1730T. Boston Mem. viii. (1899) 169, I espied above the *window-head two little old books. 1835R. Willis Archit. Mid. Ages vi. 65 A row of small sunk pannels upon the space between the dripstone and the window head.
1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xxxiv. 351 When we got to the cabin, we took a look..and on..the north side we found a square *window-hole. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 558 There are a mass of black heads sticking through the window hole.
1659[Harvard] College Book 1, in Publ. Colonial Soc. Mass. (1925) XV. 10 It[em] for *window-hookes{ddd}—04[d.]. 1932Blunden Face of England 130 One bird came to the window-hook.
1727E. Laurence Duty of Steward 158 Door-Jaumes and *Window-Jaumes. 1748Richardson Clarissa IV. li. 302 The slit-deal lining of the window-jambs.
1466Churchw. Acc., Yatton (Som. Rec. Soc.) 104 For angyng of *wyndow-levys in the treser-howse vjd. 1547Inv. of Guarderobes (MS. Harl. 1419, lf. 58), Twoo wyndowe leves. 1758Borlase Nat. Hist. Cornw. 57 In the Smith's shop the window-leaves shook, and the slating of the house cracked.
1350in Riley Mem. Lond. (1868) 262, 2,600 de *wyndounail,..23,000 de rofnail. 1502–3Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 355 For xijc windo nales quhilk ȝeid to the wrichtis in Cambusnethane.
a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 136 The walls..are replaced by *window-openings decorated with stained glass.
1922W. B. Yeats Trembling of Veil i. xix. 64 A fellow-theosophist once found him hanging from the *window-pole. 1984New Yorker 24 Dec. 44/2 Dusk was gathering in the tall windows that needed a window pole to close.
1838Dickens O. Twist xxxvi, Oliver walked into the *window-recess.
1806J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life x. §61 The machinery of the *window-sash abruptly striking work. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxvi, Throwing up the window-sash.
1810Hull Improv. Act 55 Any..*window-shades, blinds, or other projections. 1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 Oct. 7/4 If you want window shades for your home, we will be pleased to send our men and give you an estimate. 1978S. Brill Teamsters iv. 127 Though darkened by the drawn windowshade it was a comfortable room.
1918D. H. Lawrence New Poems 54 Petals heaped between the *window-shafts In a drift die there.
1884Black Jud. Shakespeare iii, Did I leave it on the *window-shelf?
1769–91P. Whalley Northamptonshire II. 185/1 Chimney pieces and *window slabs of this stone.
1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abr. xlii. 490 It [sc. the Castle of Chillon] has romantic *window-slits that let in generous bars of light. 1955J. R. R. Tolkien Return of King vi. i. 184 A door on his left faced a window-slit looking out westward.
1909Daily Chron. 15 Dec. 7/7 The police state that the *window smashers were not local men.
1907Westm. Gaz. 12 Dec. 9/4 Much *window-smashing took place.
1699J. Wallis Let. 10 Oct. in Private Corresp. Samuel Pepys (1926) I. 189 The sun-shine does appear with the distinct figure of the *window-squares upon the ground within doors. 1956D. Gascoyne Night Thoughts 24 Behind the rows of window-squares.
1963Daily Tel. 3 Dec 15/4 A new *window-sticker and poster campaign.
1888Barrie When a Man's single v, As he drew near his destination his hands fidgetted with the *window strap [of a carriage].
1591in Archaeologia LXIV. 369 Hewinge and woorckinge of ix foots of playne *windoe stuffe for the stayres.
1750in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918) 23 The *Window Surveyor came.
1881Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 20 *Window Ticket-Maker.
a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 276 The development and progressive changes in *window-tracery.
1962Listener 11 Jan. 63/2 The endlessly repeated small *window-units of multi-storey buildings tend to be both boring and overpowering.
1828Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. My Godmothers, She seemed to consider this *window-veiling as a point of propriety.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 213 The sink..should be of polished free-stone, made to fit the *window-void.
1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 25 Sept. 34/7 (Advt.), Recreation room..with ‘*window wall’ walkout to patio and garden. 1977Chicago Tribune 2 Oct. xii. 10/2 Two large terraces which can be entered through window walls provide a breathtaking lake view.
e. Special combs.: window-bar, (a) any of a set of bars fitted in a window to prevent ingress and egress or accidental fall (in quot. 1607 fig. in reference to open work in a dress); (b) a bar to secure window-shutters when closed; (c) a mullion; window bill, a poster or advertisement for display in a window; window-board, (a) a shutter; (b) a wooden window-ledge; window bottom dial. = window-sill; window-box, a box placed outside a window, in which ornamental plants are cultivated; window-card, a card to be displayed in a window; window-case [case n.2 5], a window-frame; window-cleaner (see quot. 1858); windowclerk, = window-man (a); † window-clothes, window-curtains; window display, a display of goods in a shop-window; window-dress [back-formation f. window-dresser, etc.], (a) intr. to arrange and display goods to the best advantage in a shop-window; (b) trans. (in quots. fig.: see window-dressing (c)); window-dresser, one whose business it is to arrange and display goods to the best advantage in a shop-window; also fig. (see next, c); window-dressing, † (a) the fittings and ornaments of a window; (b) the dressing (dress v. 8) of a window with goods attractively displayed; (c) fig. a display made in such a manner as to give a falsely favourable impression of the facts; esp. the arrangement of a balance-sheet so as to suggest that the business concerned is more prosperous than it is; † window-dropper, one who drops (stealthily) from a window; window-envelope, an envelope with an opening or transparent ‘panel’ in the front through which the address is visible; † window fine, ? a fine exacted from non-burgesses for exposing goods for sale in their windows; window gardening, the cultivation of plants in window spaces or on window-sills; window garden, (a display of plants in) flower pots or boxes on a window-ledge or sill; window-gazing, staring at the displays in shop-windows, window shopping (see window-gazer, sense 5 c); hence (as back-formation) window-gaze v. intr.; window guidance, a form of credit rationing practised by Japanese banks; window-jack, ‘a scaffold for carpenters, painters, or cleaners, enabling them to reach the outside of the window’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); window-ledge, = window-sill; † window-lid [lid n. 1 b], a window-shutter; window-lights pl. [light n. 10], window-panes, esp. as the subject of tax; the tax itself; † window-look, a look or glance through a window; window-man, (a) a man formerly employed at a post-office to attend at the window to receive packets and answer inquiries; (b) a salesman who sells from the window (not from the counter); window-martin, = window swallow; window-mirror, a mirror fixed outside a window and adjustable so as to reflect the image of objects in the street (Knight 1875); † window-money, = window-tax; window-mount v., to fix in a mount in the manner of panes of glass in a window; window operation = window guidance; (see quot. 1965); window-oyster, an oyster of the family Placunidæ, so called from its translucent shell; window-pane, (a) see pane n.1 6; (b) U.S., see quot. 1873; (c) slang, a monocle; (d) in full, window-pane check: a kind of large check pattern on clothes; a single square of this; also window-pane checked a.; window-peeper, a surveyor whose duty it was to inspect the assessment of window-tax; window plant, (a) a plant grown indoors in the light of a window; (b) any of several succulent plants of the genera Mesembryanthemum, Lithops, or closely related genera, which grow almost buried in the ground, with only a transparent section of a leaf visible above it; † window-post, any of the vertical parts of a window architrave; window-screen, (a) an ornamental device of any kind for filling a window-opening, e.g. lattice-work or stained glass; (b) U.S., a screen of mesh designed to be put across a window-opening to admit air whilst excluding insects, etc.; window-seat, a seat fixed under a window or windows, in a room usually in a recess or bay, often upholstered; also a seat by the window in a train, bus, aeroplane, etc.; † window-set pa. pple., set or furnished with windows; window-shell, = window-oyster; window-shop v. intr., to go from shop to shop to look at the goods displayed in shop-windows without buying; freq. as pres. pple.; also in extended use and fig.; hence window-shopper; window-shopping ppl. a. and vbl. n.; † window-shut = window-shutter, a shutter used to darken or secure a window-opening; † window-song, a serenade; window-stone, a stone window-sill; window-stool [stool n. 9] = window-sill; window swallow, the house martin; window table, a table (pleasantly situated) by the window in a restaurant, etc.; window-tax, a duty levied upon windows, imposed in 1695 and abolished in 1851; window-trimmer U.S. = window-dresser; window-trimming U.S. = window-dressing; also fig.; window-washer (chiefly U.S.), (a) = screen-washer s.v. screen n.1 9 a, (b) one whose job is to wash windows, a window-cleaner; also window-washing vbl. n.; window winder: in a motor vehicle, a mechanism for opening and shutting the (side-)windows; † window work, lattice-work used to screen window-openings (in quot. fig. of open lace-work); the structure of a window (in quot. fig. of that of the eye); † window yeld [yield n.1], see quot.
1607Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 116 Those Milke pappes That through the *window Barne [sic] bore at mens eyes. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. i. 14 Only fit for sleight uses, as Window-Bars, Brewers-Bars, Fire-Bars, &c. 1833Tennyson May Queen iii. x. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. lii, The massive iron window-bars and iron-bound door.
1868Era Almanack p. xi, Theatrical posters, *window bills, show cards, portraits, &c. 1965Spectator 29 Jan. 124/1 Window-bills went up in streets where they had never formerly been seen.
1628Maitl. Club Misc. III. 372 The *window brodis hie and low to be layit over. [1683: see winder n.5] 17..Dainty Davie ii. in Herd's Scott. Songs (1776) II. 215 It was in and through the window-broads, And a' the tirlie wirlies o'd. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 91 Eight window-boards, and shelves and work to pantries. 1823Joanna Baillie's Coll. Poems 295 The seam'd window-board betrays Interior light.
[1877Window-bottom: see winder n.5] 1914D. H. Lawrence Prussian Officer 162 The daffodils in the white *window-bottoms shone across the room. 1960Times 24 Oct. 12/6 Altar and every window-bottom would be bright with rosy apples.
1895‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Dec. 144/1 A watering-pot in her hand and *window-boxes of red flowers under its spout. 1899Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 1/3 You are worthy of a sort of window-box cultivation.
1905*Window-card [see cut-out n. 2 c]. 1965F. Sargeson Memoirs of Peon v. 115 There was a window-card that advertised board and lodging.
1663Gerbier Counsel 44 Well proportioned *window-cases. 1766Entick London IV. 185 With window-cases, handsomely ornamented. 1807W. Irving Salmag. No. 5 (1811) I. 107 And can it be this book so base Is laid on every window-case? 1884[see facing vbl. n. 6 b].
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Window-cleaner, a frame for placing outside of a window, to sit or stand on when cleaning the window-panes; a person who contracts for cleaning windows. 1881Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 52 Painter. Glazier... Window Cleaner.
1864W. Lewins H.M. Mails 239 In larger towns where one clerk is specially retained for these duties, he is known as the ‘*window clerk’, as it devolves upon him to answer all..inquiries.
1584–5Sir R. Sadler St. Papers (1809) III. 247 Some dornix to make..*window clothes for her chambre.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 689/1 Store Lamp... Just the thing to throw light on a *window display. 1930Daily Express 6 Oct. 9/2 A blaze of warm, glowing colours, elaborate window displays..usher in..the autumn shopping season. 1962E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) lxx. 538 One corner store nearby offered a neat window display of ready-made, well-tailored children's garments.
1913J. M. Keynes Indian Currency & Finance vii. 205 It is scarcely possible..that they should ‘*window-dress’ their balance sheets. 1928Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Industr. Inquiry) 417 The common practice of ‘window-dressing’ the published statements by making them refer to the figures of specially selected days instead of the daily averages should be made illegal. 1957A. C. L. Day Outl. Monetary Economics xiii. 177 Each of the four of the Big Five banks which window-dressed its balance sheet made it up on a different day of the week from the others. 1971D. Clark Sick to Death iii. 56 Nobody will let us near a shop to window dress on Saturdays... But on Sundays we get a free run because the shops are shut. 1980Daily Tel. 24 Sept. 17/8 The cheque was part of an elaborate fraud designed to ‘window-dress’ the balance sheet of a troubled banking company.
1865General Advertiser (Dublin) 9 Dec., Wanted for the Drapery, a first-class, pushing Sales-woman; must be a good *window dresser. 1897Westm. Gaz. 22 July 8/1 The London and Westminster Bank is not one of the window-dressers.
1790Act 30 Geo. III, c. 53 §58 Copings, Cornices, Facies, Door, and *Window Dressings. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. x. 13 These shutters may be fixed at small cost, and without interfering with the existent window dressings. 1895Daily News 17 Oct. 5/4 Prizes are to be given to tradesmen for the best display of what is called window dressing. 1898Westm. Gaz. 24 Sept. 6/1 [The finances of Chili] are..in a chaotic state despite all the elegant window-dressing. 1909Ibid. 9 Mar. 2/1 The promise of high duties against other countries deceives nobody: it is only political window-dressing.
1753–4Richardson Grandison VI. 65 The hedge and ditch-leapers, the river-forders, the *window-droppers.
1914Maclean's Mag. Dec. 124/1 Use B-E *window envelopes. 1923Glasgow Herald 7 Apr. 14 The use of ‘window’ envelopes for the transmission of medical records.
1529Nottingham Rec. III. 180, xiiij d. pro le *wyndow fyne.
1884G. W. Cable Dr. Sevier xii. 81 The asylumed window of ‘St. Anna's’ could glance down into it over their poor little *window-gardens. 1980News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 28 Oct. wa–2/7 Additions, solariums, greenhouses, window gardens, decks.
1824Loudon Greenhouse Comp. i. 256 Those who wish further details as to plants in rooms, or what the French and Germans call *window gardening.
1959Spectator 21 Aug. 218/3 As you walk the busy streets and *window-gaze. 1968Daily Mirror 20 Aug. 9/4 Take a look at the men's wear section in the chain stores; window-gaze in any man's shop.
1949M. Steen Twilight on Floods iv. vi. 614 Up the Haymarket to Regent Street for an orgy of *window-gazing. 1961R. Graves More Poems 42 Window-gazing, at one time or another In the course of travel. 1964Econ. Picture of Japan (Keidanren) iv. 53 For several years after the War, the financial policy of the Bank of Japan was characterized more or less by a qualitative control policy or a selective loans system or a so-called ‘*window guidance’. 1977Ann. Rep. Bank Internat. Settlements 60 In Japan the authorities kept ‘window guidance’ ceilings on bank credit expansion in force as a precaution.
1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz, Hospital Patient, The miserable shadow of a man..which crouches beneath a *window-ledge, to sleep where there is some shelter from the rain.
a1697Aubrey in Thoms Anecd. (1839) 96 Whereas his former physitian shutt up his windows,..he did open his *window lids, and let in the light.
1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4876/3 *Window Lights stopped up after Michaelmas last..are subject to the Duty on Window Lights. 1774Foote Cozeners i. (1778) 10 The collector of the window-lights in Falkland's Island. 1801T. Peck Norwich Directory 4 Surveyor of the Window-Lights, &c. for Yarmouth District.
a1586Sidney Eclogues i. Wks. 1922 II. 217 These shepheards two..Whose mettall stiff he [sc. Cupid] knew he could not bende With hear-say, pictures or a *window looke.
1708J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. (ed. 22) 714 Officers of the Inland-Office..*Window-Man, 60l. 1718Ibid. (ed. 25) 165 A List of the Officers of the General-Post-Office in Lombard-Street... Window-Man for the By-Days. 1850Q. Rev. June 113 The Postmaster-General, by printed ‘Notices’..remonstrated with the public; his recommendations, however, were not only unheeded, but the window-men, who..repeated them, were..insulted. 1887Daily News 6 July 8/7 Cheesemongers.—Wanted, by Advertiser, Situation as Manager, Windowman, or Scalesman.
1860Tristram Gt. Sahara vi. 100 The swallow and the *window-martin thread the lanes.
1700O. Heywood Diaries (1885) IV. 228 Naylor Hopkin came for *window⁓mony, 5 sh. 1759Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xxiii, If the fixture of Momus's glass in the human breast..had taken place,..This foolish consequence would certainly have followed,—That the very wisest..of us all..must have paid window⁓money every day of our lives.
190019th Century Apr. 619 Many years later we had them [sc. drawings] *window⁓mounted with great care.
1961Monthly Econ. Rev. (Bank of Japan) Sept. 9/1 The practice of the Bank of Japan in giving guidance to client commercial banks regarding their fund position and operation..has come to be..known as ‘*window operation’. 1965H. T. Patrick in W. W. Lockwood State & Econ. Enterprise in Japan xii. 609 In 1954..and especially in 1957 and 1961–1962, the Bank of Japan had to resort to direct credit rationing... The term for this is madoguchi shidō. The Bank of Japan does not like to have this technique called credit rationing, referring to it instead as ‘window operation’, a more literal translation.
1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 159 *Window-Oysters (Placunidæ).
1819Keats Eve of St. Mark 49 With forehead 'gainst the *window⁓pane. 1873T. Gill Catal. Fishes E. Coast N. Amer. 17 Lophopsetta maculata... Spotted turbot; window-pane (New Jersey); sand flounder (New York). 1876Bridges Growth of Love xlv, And hope behind the dusty window⁓pane Watches the days go by. 1923J. Manchon Le Slang 338 Window-pane,..un monocle. [1935: see winder n.5] 1966Wodehouse Plum Pie ix. 249 Freddie no longer wore the monocle... His father-in-law had happened to ask him one day would he please remove that damned window-pane from his eye. 1966Guardian 28 Sept. 3/3 Trends towards large windowpane checks. 1969‘O. Bleeck’ Brass Go-Between (1970) v. 60, I had the chance to admire his fawn trousers with their burnt orange windowpanes. 1973Country Life 10 May 1330/1 Window pane checked Voile shirt {pstlg}10.50. 1978L. Block Burglar in Closet i. 4 My suit was a tropical worsted, a windowpane check in light and dark gray.
c1735in J. D. Leader Rec. Sheffield (1897) 362 Paid Mr. John Smith for the presents of knives, &c., made to the *window peeper, 10s. 6d. 1828Craven Gloss.
1863Mrs. Gaskell Let. 5 Dec. (1966) 720, I have been waiting..for my cousin Mr Holland to bring me in his list of subscriptions to Mr Parkes' ‘booklet’ on *window-plants. 1895C. Collins (title) Greenhouse and window plants. [1951Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) III. 1290/2 Some species..normally grow buried in the soil with only the upper surface of the leaves exposed; this upper surface is translucent..: such plants are known as ‘windowed plants’.] 1971Stand. Encycl. S. Afr. III. 652/2 The amazingly adapted ‘window-plant’,..almost entirely embedded in the ground, only the transparent apical part of the corpusculum being exposed to the air, allowing light to enter the body of the leaf.
1688Holme Armoury iii. 450/1 *Window Posts, Prick Posts, the sides of the Window. 1745Wesley Wks. (1872) VIII. 211 They..broke the window-posts, and threw them into the house.
1850T. Inkersley Inq. Styles Archit. France 338 Below the *window⁓screen extends a suite of projecting canopies. 1890C. H. Moore Gothic Archit. ix. 304 Chartres [cathedral]..singularly fortunate in retaining its magnificent jewel-like window-screens. 1892Vermont Agric. Rep. XII. 135 Mills manufacturing..furniture and window screens. 1907St. Nicholas May 614/1 We tried to buy wire netting—the sort we use for window screens at home. 1942W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 158 Walks out of the cell toting the door over his head like it was a gauze window-screen.
1778F. Burney Evelina (1791) II. xxxi. 194 Looking on the *window-seat, she presently found the books. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. iii, We were sitting in the window-seat. 1926Kipling Debits & Credits 410 They entered the little train... ‘Isn't it lucky we've got window-seats?’ 1967O. Hesky Time for Treason x. 77 He took a window-seat in the special bus. 1967E. Hunt Danger Game viii. 142 In the plane Elaine was annoyed to find Mrs. Delf had the window seat allotted her. 1981G. Markstein Ultimate Issue 289 The train came into the station, and Verago took a window seat.
1632Lithgow Trav. x. 443 This palatiat cloyster is quadrangled foure stories high, the vppermost whereof, is *window-set in the blew tecture.
1861P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 1860, 271 Family Placunidæ. (*Window-Shells.)
1922S. Lewis Babbitt ix. 122 They ate chocolates, went to the motion-pictures, went *window-shopping. 1936B. & S. Spewack Boy meets Girl ii. iii. 70 Is it true, Mrs. Seabrook, that you and Larry have been window shopping? 1945G. Endore Methinks the Lady ii. 27 Sometimes I went window-shopping with that apartment in mind. 1951Landfall V. 167 ‘Maybe we could window-shop then?’ Wally said. ‘Care for a diamond necklace like that one?’ 1957Times 12 Nov. (Canada Suppl.) p. xv/3 At weekends carloads of three-generation family groups visit suburban areas to ‘window-shop’ for somewhere to live. 1973R. Busby Pattern of Violence vi. 96 The office girls came out..and..joined the phalanxes on the pavements to window-shop outside the big stores.
1934Webster, *Window-shopper. 1951H. MacInnes Neither Five nor Three xxv. 341 A pavement filled with window-shoppers. 1972P. Marks Collector's Choice i. 23 Behind a window..stood a Boudin drawing... The window-shopper smiled.
1955D. Davie Brides of Reason 32 And at our back His eye augments our *window-shopping greed. 1956D. M. Davin Sullen Bell xi. 72 The old, innocent pleasure of window-shopping in Regent Street. 1978Lancashire Life Nov. 140/2 (Advt.), Window-shopping may be fun. But instead of admiring from the outside we'd like to welcome you inside.
1649J. Ellistone tr. Behmen's Epist. xxxv. 213 My Wife need not cause any *Window-shuts to be made. 1694Merton Reg. II. 610 Quod Ly window-Shuts de opere tabulato in istis sociorum cameris, ubi deerunt, fabricentur. 1729Swift Direct. Serv. viii. (1745) 78 When you bar the Window-shuts of your Lady's Bed-chamber. 1796Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 237 Placing a piece of paper round the hole in the window-shut.
1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 171 A masterly piece of the sufferings of Christ..on two *window-shutters, done by Holbein. 1871tr. Schellen's Spectrum Anal. §18. 60 If a ray of sun-shine be allowed to pass through a small hole in a window-shutter of a darkened room.
1633G. Herbert Temple, Dulnesse v, Where are my lines then? my approaches? views? Where are my *window-songs?
1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall I. Stud. Salamanca 259 Flowers standing on the *window-stone.
a1700Evelyn Diary 27 Oct. 1664, Laying it on the *window-stool, he with his own hands design'd to me the plot for the future building of White-hall. 1867Le Fanu Tenants of Malory lxii, Cleve went on knocking and ringing, and the head of the Rev. Isaac Dixie appeared high in the air over the window⁓stool.
1797T. Bewick Brit. Birds I. 255 The Martin. Martlet, Martinet, or *Window-swallow.
1936Kipling Something of Myself v. 143, I..was elected to the Athenaeum... I managed to be taken to a delightful *window-table [for lunch]. 1957M. Kennedy Heroes of Clone i. v. 46 She and Roy shared a window table. Mundy sat..at the other end of the dining-room. 1979Tucson Mag. Apr. 78/2 Ask for a window table or one on the patio.
a1735Arbuthnot Misc. Wks. (1751) II. 160 Considering..that they are excused the Charges of House-Rent, House-keeping, and the *Window-Tax. 1850H. Martineau Hist. Peace iv. xi. II. 147 The window-tax is a duty upon fresh air, sunshine, and health.
1910Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 512/1 Mr. W. W. Sawyer..was originally a *window-trimmer in the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, and Portland. 1980Washington Post 1 Feb. b4/3 Mr. Van Der Linden began working for Woodward & Lothrop in 1926 as a window trimmer.
1926Publishers' Weekly 22 May 1676/1 *Window-trimming. 1984N.Y. Times 21 Mar. d21/3 They even have an Association of Legal Administrators, which is not just window trimming but evidence of the increasing importance of business managers.
1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 49/9 (Advt.). 65 Austin..new tires, *window washers. 1970Wall St. Jrnl. 15 June 7/1 Mr. Welk arrived at his office building early and encountered a window-washer. 1977New Yorker 27 June 84/2 One of the cops..had been sent out on a window-washer's platform to talk him into coming down.
1910W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) xi. 291 To coal and iron mines,..to dishwashing, clothes-washing, and *window-washing..would our gilded youths be drafted off.
1950S. F. Page Body Engin. iii. 59 Window pillars and *window winders should not be permitted to obstruct the view. 1971Sunday Times (Johannesburg) (Business Sect.) 28 Mar. 4/6 The faults usually consisted of..faulty window winders, loose door handles and sticky locks. 1976Derbyshire Times (Peak ed.) 3 Sept. 20/6 They'll be even more irritated by low-geared window winders.
1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. (1594) 487 When [women] make great *window-works before their dugs. 1619Purchas Microcosmus viii. 89 Nor will I speake of..the Chrystalline, Glassie, and Waterie Humors; the Optike and Mouing Nerues;..with other these curious Window-workes.
1348Cal. Inquis. Post Mortem Edw. III IX. 44 [A custom called] ‘Buchellyeld’ [and] ‘*Wyndowe⁓yeld’.
Senses 3 f, g in Dict. become 3 g, h. Add: [c indigo][3.] f.[/c] A facet of a transparent gemstone through which its interior can be seen, esp. a small one cut on a rough stone. Also used of similar facets cut through the opaque layer of an overlay paperweight.
1920Connoisseur LVIII. 226/1 One particularly beautiful kind of paperweight..consists of..a bouquet of exquisite floral designs, which, after being inserted into a bulb of clear glass, the whole has been coated with opaque white glass, and this in turn has been coated with turquoise blue glass, through which six circular windows have been cut.., through which the bouquet is seen. 1942P. Grodzinski Diamond & Gem Stone Industrial Production xi. 169 Two plane surfaces and two facets (windows) are cut on the diamond. 1967Wodehouse Company for Henry iii. 45 Clichy double overlay weight,..the sides cut with five circular windows and the top flattened by a large window, star-cut base. 1973‘K. Royce’ Spider Underground v. 84 One of the sapphires had a slight window on one side which reduced its value, but the emeralds and rubies were clear. 1976W. Greatorex Crossover 110 He twirled the stone [sc. a diamond] till she had a good ‘window’ in focus... ‘See how clear it is?’
▸ Computing. In form Windows. A proprietary name for: (originally) a window-based graphical user interface; (later also) an operating system first popularized for personal computers.
1983Business Wire (Nexis) 10 Nov. Hyperion, one of the leading compatible portable business computers, announced its intention to endorse Microsoft Windows, a highly sophisticated operating software environment for personal computers. 1991Fortune 25 Feb. 12/3 Bill Gates is surprised at the torrid sales of the Windows..operating environment. 2000Guardian (Electronic ed.) 30 Nov. If possible, buy a Windows 98SE/Me PC that is also offered with Windows 2000 and preferably Unix (eg Linux). 2004PC Mag. 19 Oct. 40/4 Ghost 9.0 gets the nod thanks to its ability to put a Windows preboot environment on startup disk so that you get the same networking and hardware support on the emergency disk that you get inside Windows.
▪ II. † ˈwindow, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To furnish with windows (see windowed 1) or window-like openings.
a1639Wotton Panegyr. K. Charles in Reliq. (1651) 133 If Nature her self (the first Architectress) had (to use an expression of Vitruvius) windowed your brest. 1728Pope Dunc. ii. 43 She form'd this image of well-body'd air; With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head.
2. To place in a window.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. xiv. 72 Would'st thou be window'd in great Rome, and see Thy Master thus..?
▪ III. window
obs. or dial. var. winnow. |