dominon.
/ˈdɒmɪnəʊ/ 1.
a. A kind of loose cloak, apparently of Venetian origin, chiefly worn at masquerades, with a small mask covering the upper part of the face, by persons not personating a character.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > means of concealment > dress, garb > [noun] > for face or head > worn at masquerade
maskeler1514
masker1519
maska1533
domino1719
loup1834
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > loose clothing > cloak, mantle, or cape > types of > for specific purpose
masque1577
mourning cloak1610
coach-cloak1705
domino1719
rochet1728
watch-cloak1814
opera cloak1836
railway wrapper1846
duster1864
sortie de bal1864
dust-cloak1883
Venetian1891
gas cape1940
1719 Free-thinker No. 138. 2 Thersites..instead of covering Himself with a Domine, dresses..in the Habit of a Running-Foot-man.
1736 N. Bailey et al. Dictionarium Britannicum (ed. 2) Domino,..the habit of a Venetian nobleman, very much in use at our modern masquerades.
1744 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 25 Mar. (1966) II. 322 I went in a Domine to the Ball, a Masque giving oppertunity of talking in a freer manner.
1770 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1988) I. 101 Miss Strange had a White sattin Domino trimed with Blue.
1841 C. J. Lever Charles O'Malley (Rtldg.) 407 The domino which serves for mere concealment, is almost the only dress assumed.
b. Sometimes applied to the half-mask itself.
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1837 S. Smith Ballot in Wks. (Longm.) 778 Why not vote in a domino, taking off the vizor to the returning officer only?]
1860 R. W. Emerson Illusions in Conduct of Life (London ed.) 276 The masquerade is at its height. Nobody drops his domino.
c. figurative.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > means of concealment > [noun]
shadowc1200
blindfolding?c1225
coverturec1374
hiding1382
veilc1384
palliation?c1425
covert1574
panoply1576
hoodwink1577
mask1597
cover1600
screena1616
pretexture1618
purdah1621
subterfuge1621
tecture1624
coverlet1628
domino1836
face shield1842
concealment1847
protective colouring1873
camouflage1885
protective coloration1892
smokescreen1926
cover-up1927
scrim1942
marzipan1945
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > means of concealment > [noun] > mask, cloak, disguise
visor1390
scugc1485
cloak1526
visor1532
vizarda1555
mask1577
superficiesa1592
muffler1605
umbrella1623
misguise1646
travesty1732
iron mask1760
domino1836
vizarding1861
1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. II. 5 Reserve..is a bad domino which only hides what good people have about 'em, without making the bad look better.
1868 R. W. Emerson Quot. & Originality in Lett. & Social Aims (1876) 175 John Wilson—who..writes better under the domino of ‘Christopher North’.
1870 B. Disraeli Lothair (new ed.) lxxvii As for Pantheism, it is Atheism in domino.
2. A person wearing a domino.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > means of concealment > dress, garb > [noun] > for face or head > person wearing
hoodman1565
vizard1652
domino1749
big-head1895
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones V. xiii. vii. 56 Jones..applied to the Domino, begging and intreating her to shew him the Lady. View more context for this quotation
1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life viii Motley company,—dominoes, harlequins, pantaloni, illustrissimi and illustrissime.
3.
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a. One of a number of rectangular pieces (usually 28) of ivory, bone, or wood, having the under side black, and the upper equally divided by a cross line into two squares, each either blank or marked with pips, so as to present all the possible combinations from double blank to double six. (Sometimes the pieces have more pips, and are more in number accordingly.)
b. plural (rarely singular) A game played with these pieces, (usually) by placing corresponding ends in contact as long as this can be done, the player who has the lowest number of pips remaining being the winner.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > table game > dominoes > [noun]
dominos1801
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod iv. ii. §18 Domino..a very childish sport, imported from France a few years back.
1831 B. Disraeli Young Duke III. v. i. 123 The men-servants were initiated in the mysteries of dominoes.
1835 H. W. Longfellow Outre-Mer in Prose Wks. (1886) I. 119 His favorite game of domino.
?1870 F. Hardy & J. R. Ware Mod. Hoyle 92 One of the players draws a domino.
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c. plural. A card game, in which the cards as played out are laid in rows or heaps according to the suits, those of each suit following in their order; the player who first gets rid of all his cards is the winner.
d. interjectionally: (see quots.). Also substantive (see quot. 1874); it is domino (with), it is all up (with), it is the end (of), it is finished (for). slang.
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the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > end or conclusion > the end [interjection]
domino1862
1862 B. Brierley Tales & Sketches Lancs. Life 26 What dost think abeawt Sebastypol bein' takken?.. Aw'll bet thi a quart o'ale ut it's domino wi' it neaw.
1864 J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed.) 123 Domino, a common ejaculation of soldiers and sailors when they receive the last lash of a flogging.
1874 Hotten's Slang Dict. (rev. ed.) 147 A domino means either a blow, or the last of a series of things, whether pleasant or otherwise.
1882 Notes & Queries 25 Mar. 229/2 Probably most Londoners have often heard 'bus conductors cry ‘Domino’ when an omnibus is ‘full in and out’.
1891 J. S. Farmer Slang II. 305/2 Domino, an ejaculation of completion: e.g., for sailors and soldiers at the last lash of a flogging; also, by implication, a knock-down blow, or the last of a series. (From the call at the end of a game of dominoes.)
1894 J. T. Clegg David's Loom xxi. 245 It'll be domino for me neaw.
1898 Daily News 10 Feb. 7/5 The young delinquent sullenly declared that James struck him first, whereupon he ‘gave him domino for himself’.
1911 A. Bennett Hilda Lessways v. ii. 330 I've..paid the cheque! So it's domino, now!
1927 Chambers's Jrnl. 45/1 I thought it was domino with me and my little schemes.
e. plural. The teeth. slang.
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the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > tooth or teeth > [noun]
teetha900
munpinsc1475
gams1508
peg1598
tusk1632
masticator1681
headrail1767
ivory1783
tombstone1809
dominos1828
dental1837
toothy-peg1840
fang1841
cruncher1859
chomper1884
teg1886
Hampstead Heath1887
pearly1914
gnasher1919
tat1919
pearly whites1935
chopper1937
1828 W. T. Moncrieff Tom & Jerry ii. v. 53 Sluice your dominos—vill you?.. Drink, vill you? don't you understand Hinglish?
1857 A. Mathews Tea-table Talk II. 122 The poor destitute gentleman was still diligently seeking his lost dominos.
1913 Pedagogical Seminary XX. 436 To drink is to sluice the dominoes.
f. In full domino paper. Paper printed with a design from a wood-block and coloured, used as wallpaper, etc. (see quots.). (Cf. French domino, papier dominoté.)
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > wallcovering > [noun] > wall-paper > types of
stucco paper1749
caffoy paper1750
flock-paper1750
domino paper1839
wood-hanging1869
Morris1872
velvet-paper1875
flock1881
lincrusta1882
anaglypta1887
screen print1928
scenics1934
1839 [see dominotier n. at Derivatives].
1926 A. V. Sugden & J. L. Edmondson Hist. Eng. Wallpaper 27 In France, ‘domino’ papers are regarded as the real forbears of paper-hangings.
1926 A. V. Sugden & J. L. Edmondson Hist. Eng. Wallpaper 28 ‘Domino’ papers were usually small—161/ 2 in. by 121/ 2 in.—and all the earliest were ‘marbled’.
g. plural. The keys of a piano (see also quot. 1889). slang.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > stringed keyboards > [noun] > pianoforte > keys
piano key1829
sharps and flats1834
natural1880
dominos1889
1889 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang I. 303/1 Domino thumper (theatrical), a pianist.
1891 J. S. Farmer Slang II. 306/1 Dominoes,..the keys of a piano.
1895 J. T. Clegg Wks. I. 169 Aw con play ‘God save the Queen’ wi two fingers, iv aw happen to catch th' reet dominoes to start off.
h. to make (the) domino: to go out at the game of dominoes; also figurative, to anticipate the end; to finish first.
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1890 ‘Berkeley’ Dominoes & Solitaire 11 Sometimes each hand constitutes a game in itself; and when this is so, the player who makes ‘domino’ wins.
1892 C. Santley Student & Singer (ed. 3) ii. 24 I did not notice the bar's rest before the ‘Amen’, and performed a solo, which called forth some witty remark from Benedict about the future career of the singer who made the ‘domino’.
1912 ‘Jar’ Dominoes 3 A player, when he has played all the dominoes from his hand, is said to ‘make domino’.
i. Music. An error in performance (cf. quot. 1892 at sense 3h). colloquial.
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1946 Penguin Music Mag. Dec. 50 One can get away with a ‘domino’ once—even thrice, but then someone starts to say: ‘Poor Blank, he is beginning to slip.’.
j. figurative. Used of a theory that a political event or development in one country, etc., will lead to its occurrence in others; also transferred; more frequently attributive.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > specific political theories or doctrines > [noun] > specific cause and effect theories
domino1954
Falklands effect1982
1954 D. D. Eisenhower in N.Y. Times 8 Apr. 18/1 You had broader considerations that might follow what you might call the ‘falling domino’ principle. You had a row of dominoes set up, and you knocked over the first one, and what would happen to the last one was the certainty that it would go over very quickly.
1965 New Statesman 19 Feb. 277/1 There was as much domino talk (‘With the collapse of South Vietnam, Laos..would speedily be swallowed..’) then as now.
1965 New Statesman 19 Feb. 277/2 Even if..the domino theory works out in practice.
1965 Guardian 16 Dec. 9/7 The domino phenomenon…if one African country pulls out of the Commonwealth then..there is a very real possibility the others will go out in succession like dominoes.
1966 Guardian 6 Sept. 8/4 The departure of Zambia would not be a freak exception, but the fall of the first domino. Tanzania would follow forthwith.
1971 Times 3 May 12/3 There is a ‘domino theory’ about the possible relaxation of drug abuse legislation in Europe and North America... By the ‘domino theory’, once a lead has been given, others may be encouraged.
4. A workman's ticket or ‘check’ given up on entering a factory.
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1884 Leisure Hour Sept. 530/1 Every man is provided with a number stamped on a small block of wood called a domino.
Compounds
C1. attributive, as domino-box.
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1849 E. Bulwer-Lytton Caxtons I. i. iv. 29 A beautiful large domino-box in cut ivory, painted and gilt.
C2.
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domino pool n. a variety of the game of dominoes, in which a stake is placed in the pool (Mod. Hoyle, ?1870, 101).
Derivatives
ˈdominoed adj. wearing a domino.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > means of concealment > dress, garb > [adjective]
in mummery?1592
dominoed1885
1885 B. Harte Maruja iii. 71 Groups of dominoed masqueraders.
1891 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 46.
dominotier n. a maker of domino paper (see sense 3f).
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1839 W. A. Chatto Treat. Wood Engraving ii. 59 In France the same kind of cuts [sc. wood-cuts], probably stencil-coloured, were called ‘dominos’... The word ‘domino’ was subsequently used as a name for coloured or marbled paper generally, and the makers of such paper..were called ‘dominotiers’.
1924 N. McClelland Hist. Wall-papers 20 The industry which gave the Dominotiers their name was the making of ‘domino papers’, which consisted principally of marbleized papers and again of others with little figures and grotesques, crudely printed from wood-blocks and coloured by hand. These ‘dominos’ were made in Rouen and in other cities..of France.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1719