Cupidn.

c1381 G. Chaucer Parl. Foules 652 I wol noght serve Venus ne Cupyde [rhyme betyde].

c1384 G. Chaucer Hous of Fame i. 137 Hir dowves and dan Cupido, Hir blinde sone.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward IV f. cxciij^v Heated with the darte of Cupido.

1592 R. Dallington tr. F. Colonna Hypnerotomachia f. 97 The violent force of Cupids artillerie.

1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion xi. 174 The Naiades..brayd his verdant locks, Whilst in their crystall eyes he doth for Cupids looke.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) ii. iv. 89 Her Andirons..were two winking Cupids Of Siluer. View more context for this quotation

1713 A. Pope Windsor-Forest 13 In the same Shades the Cupids tun'd his Lyre.

1713 J. Addison in Guardian 9 July 2/1 Venus stood by him..with numberless Cupids on all Sides of her.

1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) v. 33 Is he not a Cupid, Sir?

1858 E. Bulwer-Lytton What will he do with It? (Tauchnitz ed.) III. vi. vi. 165 Evil passions had destroyed the outline of the once beautiful lips, arched as a Cupid's bow.]

1875 T. Seaton Man. Fret Cutting 139 It gives the lip that shape called Cupid's Bow.

1884 E. W. Streeter Precious Stones (ed. 4) 292/3 The brilliant hair-brown needles of Rutile, penetrating the crystal in all directions, impart a curious appearance to the stone, and such specimens are often cut for brooches, under the name of Flèches d'Amour, or ‘Cupid's arrows’, or ‘Venus's Hair-Stone’.

1904 B. von Hutten Pam iv. viii He's a sweetly pretty youth..with a cupid's-bow mouth.

1910 Encycl. Brit. XII. 272/1 This form of the mineral [göthite] has long been known as onegite, and the crystals enclosing it are cut for ornamental purposes under the name of ‘Cupid's darts’ (flèches d'amour).

1910–11 H. Cescinsky Eng. Furnit. 18th Cent. II. 246 Figs. 249 and 250 are instructive in exhibiting the evolution of the true ‘Cupid's bow’ top rail.

1929 J. L. Hodson Grey Dawn i. i Big brown eyes, cupid's bow mouth and broad forehead.

1930 L. H. Bailey & E. Z. Bailey Hortus 127/1 Catananche. Cupids-Dart... Herbaceous annuals and perennials with narrow leaves borne near base of stem and longstalked blue or yellow heads.

1935 E. J. Salisbury Living Garden viii. 127 The dry grassy banks of southern Europe have given us Cupid's Dart (Catananche coerulea)..brought to this country at the end of the sixteenth century.

1938 ‘J. Bell’ Port of London Murders ix. 167 She touched up her mouth, curving the cupid's bow well above the natural contour of her upper lip.

1962 R. Webster Gems I. x. 163 When the enclosed crystals are long hair-like needles of red or golden-coloured rutile the material is called rutilated quartz... Other more popular names such as ‘Venus hair stone’, ‘Cupid's darts’ and ‘Flêches d'amour’ are applied to the material.

1969 Gloss. Terms Dentistry (B.S.I.) 44 ‘Cupid's bow’ operation, a procedure to re-adjust the vermilion border..of the upper lip into the classical Cupid's bow conformation.