rush-bottomadj.n.
/ˈrʌʃˌbɒtəm/, U.S. /ˈrəʃˌbɑdəm/ A. adj. (attributive).
Of a chair: having a seat made of rush. Also of the seat of a chair: made of rush.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > seat > chair > [adjective] > types of chair
caned1696
rush-bottomed1696
rush-bottom1729
roundabout chair1741
leather-bottomed1783
stick-back1783
poker-backed1830
flag-bottomed1840
claw-footed1858
seatless1871
cane-bottomed1877
cane-seated1881
sag-seated1890
sit-up1891
slat-back1891
sag-bottomed1893
spindle-back1896
shield-back1897
Carver1902
basket-bodied1903
panel-back1904
Cromwellian1905
hooped-back1906
saddle-backed1910
hard-arsed1933
sling-back1948
X-frame1955
hard-arse1964
1729 in F. W. Steer Farm & Cottage Inventories Mid-Essex (1950) 264 In the parlor..six black rush bottom chairs.
1743–4 in F. W. Steer Farm & Cottage Inventories Mid-Essex 1635–1749 (1969) 270 An ironing board, eight rush bottom chairs.
1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. I. iii. iii. 150 The young ladies seated themselves demurely in their rush-bottom chairs.
1851 F. Summerly Hand-bk. Westm. Abbey (new ed.) 87 You may chance to meet with a dilapidated rush-bottom seat, used by students of the picturesque, here.
1902 House Beautiful Feb. 194/2 The chairs are exceptional, with rush bottom seats.
1960 J. Stroud Shorn Lamb iii. 27 Facing the magistrates..was a single rush-bottom chair.
2006 Times (Nexis) 13 May 14 It's hard to fault its postcard prettiness, with its many restaurants curved round the harbour, with cobalt blue-painted rush-bottom chairs.
B. n.
1. A chair seat made of rush. Also: a chair having such a seat.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > seat > chair > [noun] > other chairs
farthingale chair1552
side chair1582
high chair1609
scroll chair1614
Turkey chair1683
curule chair1695
reading chair1745
rush-bottom1754
conversation-chair1793
Windsor tub1800
Trafalgar chair1808
beehive-chair1816
nursing chair1826
Hitchcockc1828
toilet seat1829
kangaroo1834
prie-dieu1838
tub-chair1839
barrel-chair1850
Cromwell chair1868
office chair1874
swivel-chair1885
steamer-chair1886
suggan chair1888
lawn chair1895
saddle seat1895
Bombay chair1896
veranda-chair1902
X chair1904
Yorkshire chair1906
three legs and a swinger1916
saddlebag1919
riempie stool1933
gaspipe chair1934
slipper chair1938
Eames chair1946
contour chair1948
sling-back1948
sling chair1957
booster chair1960
booster seat1967
beanbag1969
sack chair1970
papasan1980
Muskoka chair1987
1754 Hist. Lucy Wellers I. viii. 79 A few white chairs with rush bottoms.
1787 A. Young Jrnl. 17 June in Trav. France (1792) i. 24 Oak chairs with rush bottoms.
1866 D. G. Rossetti Let. 20 May (1965) II. 598 If there is anything besides rush-bottoms and ascetic glasses on which I should be glad to offer a fundamental remark..it is this.
1923 W. Deeping Secret Sanctuary xiii. 138 He made a move to sit down, and she saw him take one of the straight-backed rush-bottoms.
1980 Winterthur Portfolio 15 42/1 The vast majority of the chairs that Fussell listed in his ledger..were turned, and had rush bottoms.
2. An area of bottomland characterized by an abundance of rushes.
ΚΠ
1831 J. M. Peck Guide for Emigrants ii. 105 In all the rush bottoms they [sc. cattle] fatten during the severe weather on rushes.
1879 A. Brunson Western Pioneer II. 145 Here we pitched our tents and waited till men could go by land to the Falls,..and then go to the rush bottoms and gather up the cattle.
1907 Quarterly (Oregon Hist. Soc.) Sept. 283 Thousands of cattle were driven across the Missouri and up into Harrison and Monona counties, in Iowa, to winter on the ‘rush bottoms’.
1987 R. E. Bennett Mormons at Missouri 66 Their great herds of cattle could graze on either side of the river on the peavines and rush bottoms that provided excellent feed even during winter months.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1729