1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 826/1 Switch-box, an enclosure housing one or more switches operated by means of an external handle.

1978 W. F. Buckley Stained Glass xxii. 217 Blackford walked to the switch box.

1889 W. H. Preece & J. Maier Telephone xiv. 230 The testing of the switch-cords is a matter that must not be overlooked.

1876 W. H. Preece & J. Sivewright Telegraphy 107 The switch-handle itself is in connection with the back contact of the key k.

1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Switch-lever, the handle and bar by which the switch is moved.

1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 9 Mar. 573/2 A workman had fixed a brass socket (to hold the switch plug).

1858 E. Bulwer-Lytton What will he do with It? iii. xvi In his hand he carried a supple switch-stick.

1815 W. Scott Guy Mannering II. 317 Slapping his boots with his switch-whip.

1837 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 52/2 The switch bars corresponding with the straight line.

1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 826/1 Switch-base, the insulating base on which a switch is mounted.

1967 M. Chandler Ceramics in Mod. World iv. 114 For telegraph or telephone insulation, as for domestic switch-bases, fuse-holders, bulb-sockets, and so on, almost any kind of insulating material will work.

1921 A. M. Foster Auction Bridge 121 A switch bid will be regarded by the partner as an encouragement.

1909 Installation News 3 119/2 The switch blades are fitted with sparking contacts.

1932 L. Hughes Negro Mother 13 'Cause I carries a switch-blade And I swing it a-hummin', And if I don't get you goin', I'll cut you down comin'.

1950 H. Patterson & E. Conrad Scottsboro Boy ii. ii. 96 He put the shears in his pocket and went to his cell. I had a switch-blade knife. I went looking for him.

1957 New Yorker 5 Oct. 64/1 A fist fight between two champions, but there are emotional complications, and the switch-blade knives are put to work.

1975 P. Theroux Great Railway Bazaar xxx. 342 I would have plotted myself into danger; Sadik would have had a switchblade and gold teeth.

1845 W. T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas 132 They circled about among the switch-cane and priscimmon bushes a long time.

1954 W. Faulkner in Holiday XV. 36/3 The Natchez doctor was clearing the land fast now, plowing under the..switch cane of the creek and river bottoms.

1889 W. H. Preece & J. Maier Telephone xiv. 230 No switch-clerk is permitted to have charge of more than fifty renters.

1973 ‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xxi. 85 KK hovered in his office, too, doing a quick switch deal in forward dollars.

1967 Economist 14 Jan. 143/1 When the Russians don't wish to take up a consignment of Moroccan oranges to which they are committed under a bilateral trade agreement, they go to a specialist known as a switch dealer in one of Europe's financial centres, and he arranges a resale to someone else, at a discount. That, in a nutshell, is the mysterious art of switch trading.

1957 Economist 21 Dec. 1082/1 Commodity shunting in general virtually stops when the margin between transferable sterling and official sterling is a little less than three per cent. But ‘switch’ dealings in platinum are possible at a narrower margin.

1964 Times Rev. Industry Sept. 17/1 All purchases of foreign exchange for investment in non-Sterling Areas are subject to control... Direct investment projects..may be financed..either by borrowing abroad or by using the non-sterling currency proceeds of the sale of foreign securities..; i.e., so-called ‘switch dollars’.

1978 J. Paxton Dict. European Econ. Community (rev. ed.) 236 Switch dollar market. Investment in foreign securities by United Kingdom residents is not normally allowed.., but existing holdings may be realised and the proceeds switched into (i.e. used to buy) other securities, or sold..to other United Kingdom residents who wish to purchase foreign securities. For convenience, such funds, whatever the currency, are expressed in terms of United States dollars called Switch, security or investment dollars.

1896 Nebraska St. Jrnl. 15 Feb. 8/4 He was struck by the footboard of an approaching switch engine.

1906 Westm. Gaz. 24 Dec. 8/1 To regulate the seniority list of the switch engineers.

1901 Westm. Gaz. 31 Oct. 8/1 6,000 horse-power in boilers, engines, dynamos, and switch gear.

1930 Times 29 Mar. 19/4 Out metal is now being adopted as a substitute for non-magnetic iron in many instances, such as in the large casings for metal-clad switchgear.

1958 Optima Sept. 130/2 The electrical industry uses platinum for switchgear contacts in such equipment as traffic lights, telephone exchanges, radio stations and generating stations.

1978 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts 126 609/2 Continued improvements in control circuitry and microprocessors are likely to..further increase the utilization of transformers, switchgear and circuits.

1941 Mather & de Winton in Ann. Bot. 5 310 The more rigorous the selection of illegitimacy to outbreeding conditions the more efficient it is as an in-breeding mechanism when the switching genes are changed.]

1942 Nature 14 Nov. 564/1 Mather and de Winton have recently spoken of such genes as ‘switch genes’.

1968 R. D. Martin tr. W. Wickler Mimicry in Plants & Animals vii. 82 Polymorphisms is sometimes controlled by single genes, sometimes by groups of genes, and..switch genes (as explained for Papilio dardanus) may also play a part.

1943 K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xi. 120 Some of them would be asking for letters at the switch-girl's desk.

1969 Southerly 29 93 The tea-lady panders to the biological necessities of life, the switchgirl makes communication easier.

1840 J. Buel Farmer's Compan. (ed. 2) 232 The quack, switch, or witch grass, a variety of the fiorin.

1948 L. Durocher Dodgers & Me vii. 49 Cullenbine, a switch hitter, and Steve Rachunok..were two athletes we had picked up..from Detroit.

1956 H. Kurnitz Invasion of Privacy iii. 25 A free-swinging round-house slap..landed high on his cheek... ‘What do you know!’ he said softly. ‘A southpaw!’ ‘Wrong,’ said the girl. ‘A switch-hitter.’

1960 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 534/1 Switch-hitter, a bisexual person.

1972 Pussycat 33 lix. 8/1 The buddy would shove cock to me. I can still remember the first switch-hitter.

1938 Philadelphia Rec. 5 Feb. 15/6 A signed contract has been received from Emmett Mueller, switch-hitting rookie whom the Phils rescued from the Cardinal chain gang this winter.

1952 Sun (Baltimore) 25 Feb. (B ed.) 14/6 He also picked up a switch-hitting style from baseball. Gordie is the only player..who has mastered the art of switching hands on his stick, so that he can shoot from either his right or left side without warning.

1970 N.Y. Times 16 Aug. ii. 1/1 Chock full of scenes of what people apparently want to see today..lesbianism, switch-hitting, group gropes.

1922 Telegr. & Teleph. Jrnl. 8 82/2 If a subscriber leaves his receiver off the switchhook..the switching equipment is automatically released after a certain interval.

1975 D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xxii. 4 In the common-battery [telephone] set..a circuit closure, activated by the switch hook, serves to alert the central office.

1880 H. C. St. John Wild Coasts Nipon 276 A stag with switch horns.

1907 Spectator 5 Jan. 11/1 The ‘hummel’ stag—that ungainly beast with no horns at all—is a better fighter than the ‘switch-horn’.

1955 Time 6 June 27/3 They manufacture pistols, carry switchknives and use them.

1957 P. G. Wodehouse Over Seventy xv. 144 At Eightieth Street he produced a switch-knife... ‘This is a stick-up’, he announced.

1898 H. E. Hamblen Gen. Manager's Story ii. 12 An old man..who was trimming switch lamps.

1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Switch-lantern, a lantern on the lever of a railway-switch, to indicate the condition of the switch either by its position or by the display of a colored light.

1892 Harper's Mag. Dec. 80 He saw the station agent running down the tracks with the red switch-light.

1929 W. Faulkner Sartoris iv. 350 Along the tracks green switch-lights were steady in the dusk.

1960 Listener 18 Aug. 250/2 When a hungry young boomer came in and demanded..‘a couple of switch lights in the fog’..what he really wanted was..two fried eggs with the grease poured over them.

1941 Ann. Bot. 5 308 The switch mechanism at the S,s locus offers the possibility of a very different adjustment to changed breeding conditions.

1953 J. S. Huxley Evol. in Action i. 29 Some genetic differences act as a switch mechanism, turning on a whole battery of further processes.

1894 F. W. Oliver et al. tr. A. Kerner von Marilaun Nat. Hist. Plants I. 330 Another group of plants known by the name of ‘switch’ plants..are characterized by their rod-shaped stems and branches... The Spartium belongs to those switch-plants which are not entirely leafless.

1797 J. Curr Coal Viewer 26 The mode of turning out to the right hand, and passing, which is done..without a switch rail, as is required in common waggon ways.

1967 W. Jacobsen in Hymes & Bittle Stud. in Southwestern Ethnolinguistics 238 This paper discusses a device for pronominal references, denominated ‘switch-reference’, which is found, with considerable differences of detail, in three languages of the Hokan-Coahuiltecan group.

1972 D. Hymes in M. E. Smith Stud. in Linguistics in Honor G. L. Trager 105 The use of separate forms of third person to keep track of discourse is best treated under the general heading of ‘switch reference’... It may be preferable to abandon use of the term ‘fourth person’ altogether, speaking simply of ‘inclusive’, ‘obviative’.., and ‘switch reference’.

1978 Language 54 220 The presence of switch-reference morphemes..also appears to be an areal feature in parts of California.

1885 List of Subscribers Exchange Syst. (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 8 Each subscriber is furnished with a set of instruments..which is connected with a wire communicating with the Exchange or Switch Room nearest his address.

1901 Westm. Gaz. 7 Dec. 7/3 The switch-room system is making its debut in London. This is known as the central battery system.

1930 Amer. Speech 6 128 To switch a customer is to quote to him a low price on an article to inspire him, and then to direct his interest to another article.]

1965 E. Gundrey Foot in Door xxxviii. 219 It should..be made illegal to ‘switch-sell’.

1971 H. Wilson Labour Govt. xix. 361 Mr Kosygin..was escorted throughout the day by..the Secretary of State, who had been told about the American exercise in switch-selling the night before and had been asked to watch out for any signs of reaction.

1960 Guardian 30 Nov. 2/7 The practice of switch selling of sewing and other machines..from misleading advertisements.

1965 E. Gundrey Foot in Door ii. 20 The fast-talking, switch-selling, hard-pressing salesman.

1838 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 358 Railway Switch Signal.

1791 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina 196 [The tail] not small and slender as in the switch snake.

1864 A. H. R. Grisebach Flora Brit. W. Indian Islands 787/2 Switch Sorrel, Dodonæa viscosa.

1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Switch-stand (Railway) a fulcrum and locking-device for the levers whereby switch-rails are moved.

1921 A. M. Foster Auction Bridge 124 No tricks need be lost in the switch suit.

a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 876/2 The ‘switch’ tables, of which there are twelve in the Cincinnati [telephone] Exchange.

1689 London Gaz. No. 2473/4 A sand grey Mare,..with a switch Tail.

1776 Pennsylvania Evening Post 4 June 280/2 A bright bay horse,..three white feet, a switch tail, shod all round.

1852 R. S. Surtees Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour i. iii. 11 He had a famous switch tail, reaching nearly to his hocks.

1871 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. May 280 A bare~backed, switch-tail horse.

1809 W. Irving Knickerbocker's Hist. N.Y. v. ii. 290 A raw-boned, switch-tailed charger.

1836 Southern Lit. Messenger 2 156 Mounted on his little switch tailed grey.

1853 Putnam's Monthly Mag. July 34/2 We went roaring, rushing, screaming, up the valley of the Susquehanna, occasionally passing a switch-tender with his white lights.

1870 E. E. Hale Ten Times One i. (Cent. Dict.) Her husband, who is now switch-tender, lost his arm in the great smash-up.

1897 R. Kipling in Scribner's Mag. Aug. 146/1 They were at the far north end of the yard, now, under a switch-tower, and looking down on the four-track way of the main traffic.

1901 Munsey's Mag. 25 699/1 The locomotive..stopping only once to allow McCann to drop another set of running orders at a switch tower on the next division.

1974 Harper's Mag. Dec. 54 What Intertel does is.. advise on geopolitical ‘switch-trading opportunities’.

1888 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman 1 Nov. 6/6 In the switch yards of the Chicago & Alton..nearly all the men reported for duty this morning.

1943 J. S. Huxley TVA 85 The transformers and switchyard..are not applied to a predetermined structure, they are part of it.

1956 H. Gold Man who was not with It x. 78 I was at the switchyards, still running, and then I was clambering in the coupling of a moving freight.

1969 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 16 Oct. 40/7 Work is to begin immediately on placing the..generators at the underground powerhouse..and the switchyard and central control building on the surface.

1971 Sci. Amer. June 60 Near the end of its trip the electron beam passes through a ‘beam switchyard’ before reaching the target areas.

1977 Electronic News 6 June (Suppl.) 54/2 The report expects a large number of transaction switches to be installed by 1984 to support the on-line payments network.

1981 A. Bequai Cashless Society iii. 32 A regional or national POS system would consist of multiple switches, each switch servicing a designated locality.

1984 Supermarket News 2 July 1 Publix is the first supermarket company to own not only the in-store terminals but also the crucial switch that channels the messages..to the appropriate banks.

1988 Financial Times 21 Apr. 9/5 By the time Switch comes into operation in October, several other banks and building societies may have joined the club.

1811 W. Nicol Planter's Kal. (1812) 460 Switch and clip thorn and other deciduous hedges.

1812 J. Sinclair Acct. Syst. Husb. Scotl. i. 44 Hedges..ought to be cut into the shape of what is called a hog-main, i.e. brought to a point along the top, and preserved in that form by yearly switching.

1826 W. Scott Jrnl. 29 Oct. (1939) 258 Elms cruelly cropd, pollarded, and switchd.

1843 A. Hepburn in Zoologist 1 297 [Hedges] are commonly pruned or switched every year.

1836 T. Hook Gilbert Gurney I. v. 225 He was killed, switching a rasper.