▪ I. indenture, n.
(ɪnˈdɛntjʊə(r))
Forms: 4–6 endentur(e, 5 -or, -our, 7 -er; 5–6 indentour, 6 -er, 5– indenture.
[In form (ME. endenture) a. OF. endenteure (later -ure) indentation, furnishing with teeth, f. L. type *indentātūra, f. *indentāt-, ppl. stem of *indentā-re indent v.1: cf. L. dentāt-us dentate, and see -ure. But in sense, representing also indent v.2]
I. Senses derived from indent v.1
1. The action of indenting or notching a thing on the edge; an angular notch, indentation, or incision in the edge or border of anything.
| 1671 Grew Anat. Pl. i. §45 The Lobes of the Seed, have both a little Indenture. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 239 Which counterchanging of the ridges make the indentures on the sides. 1692 Ray Dissol. World ii. iv. (1732) 138 Some serrate with small teeth others with great indentures. 1723 Chambers tr. Le Clerc's Treat. Archit. I. 96 A little Indenture or Retreat, BC, not exceeding a Minute in depth. 1763 Winthrop in Phil. Trans. LIX. 506 The Sun's limb, undulating..made it somewhat difficult to judge when the indenture, formed by the Planet upon it, intirely ceased. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxvi, This noble lake..spreads its base around the indentures and promontories of a fair and fertile land. 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., Cameo 11 Till lips and teeth bite in their sharp indenture. 1883 Holder in Harper's Mag. Jan. 181/1 Those who..linger along the indentures of rocky shores on summer nights. |
† b. Jointing by means of notches or indentations: cf. indenting vbl. n.1 2. Obs.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 313 Þenne cleme hit [the ark] with clay comly with-inne & all þe endentur dryuen daube with⁓outen. |
2. A deed between two or more parties with mutual covenants, executed in two or more copies, all having their tops or edges correspondingly indented or serrated for identification and security. Hence, A deed or sealed agreement or contract between two or more parties, without special reference to its form.
Originally both copies were written on one piece of parchment or paper, and then cut asunder in a serrated or sinuous line, so that when brought together again at any time, the two edges exactly tallied and showed that they were parts of one and the same original document: hence the expression ‘pair of indentures’. Occasionally a word, sentence, or figure was engrossed on the space where they were divided, as in the space between a bank cheque and its counterfoil.
(The earliest sense, and app. of Eng. or Anglo-Fr. origin.)
| [1304 Rolls of Parlt. I. 164/2 Et fiat Indentura inter ipsum & Coronatorem. 1339 Ibid. II. 107/2 Sous certeynes Condicions comprises es Endentures sur ceo faites, et enseales.] 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 513 The barownys thus acordyt ar, and that Ilk nycht writyn war Thair Endenturis, and aythis maid. Ibid. 565 Bot the Endentur till him gaf he, That soune schawyt the Iniquite. 1423 Sir T. Rokeby in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 97 Als it, be hys endenture made, betwix the forsayd noble kyng and the forsayd Thomas Rokeby, pleinli appiers. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. cxlviii, 127 The fourme of accord..was in a payr of Endentures and they put her seales vnto that one part, and they that comen in the kynges name putt her seales to that other part of endentures. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 441 [He] concludyd a peace atwene the Kynge & the Scottis, & causyd to be delyuered vnto theym the Chartyr or Endenture called Ragman, with many other thynges. 1534 More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. Wks. 1228/2 You deuyse as it were indentures betwene God and you, what thing you will doe for him, and what thing you wyll not doe. 1592 West 1st Pt. Symbol. §101. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 80 And our Indentures Tripartite are drawne: Which being sealed enterchangeably..Tomorrow, Cousin Percy, you and I, And my good Lord of Worcester, will set forth. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 164 One part of which indentures remaineth in the custodie of the English ambassadors, and the other part in the hands of the commissioners of Prussia. 1628 Coke On Litt. i. 229 a, If a deed beginneth, Hæc Indentura, &c. and in troth the Parchment or Paper is not indented, this is no indenture, because words cannot make it indented..It may be an Indenture without words, but not by words without indenting. 1706 [see indented1 3]. 1767 [see indent v.1 2]. 1844 Williams Real Prop. (1877) 150 Deeds are divided into two kinds, Deeds poll and Indentures. 1845 Act 8 & 9 Vict. c. 106 §5 A deed executed after the said first day of October 1845, purporting to be an indenture, shall have the effect of an indenture, although not actually indented. |
b. spec. The contract by which an apprentice is bound to the master who undertakes to teach him a trade; also the contract by which a person binds himself to service in the colonies, etc.
to take up one's indentures, to receive the indenture back from the master in evidence of the completion of apprenticeship or service.
| 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 16 He to haue his indentour of his prentished y⊇ whiche I hadde in kepyng. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 18 The same indentures of apprentisehode, shall comprehende like couenauntes. a 1635 Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 14 Fortune calling to mind, that the time of her servitude was expired, gave up her Indentures. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman i. (1841) I. 8 An apprentice who has served faithfully and diligently, ought to claim it as a debt to his indentures. Ibid. xii. (1841) I. 87 They who contract matrimony should forfeit their indentures. 1822 J. Flint Lett. Amer. 98 The indenture of the boy expires when he is twenty-one years of age. 1822 Scott Nigel xxxv, I have broke my indenture, and I think of running my country. 1862 Lond. Rev. 23 Aug. 165 By the terms of the indenture, the Coolie agrees to serve the planter for three years, receiving the same rate of wages as is paid to the unindentured labourer. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ix. xi, He is now out of his Apprentice⁓ship; entitled to take up his Indentures. |
c. An official or formal list, inventory, certificate, etc., prepared (orig. in duplicate) for purposes of control, as a voucher, etc., and properly authenticated.
| [1300 Indenture in Nat. MSS. Scot. II. No. 10 Indentura de nominibus equitum et peditum commorancium in municione castri de Edenborghe a .xxvij.o die Nouembris anno regni Regis Edwardi .xxix.o.] |
| 1420 E.E. Wills (1882) 45 Thys endenture makyth mencion of þe goodes þat I..ȝyve to sertayn personis. 1497 in Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 82 The said Retorne must accord with the Indentures of Shipping of the same. 1570–4 Bp. Cox Injunctions, Whether your Ministers kepe their Registers of Maryages buryalles and christenynges well and orderly, and to present the copie of them once a yere by indenture, to the Ordinarie or his officers. 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xiv. (1739) 77 The names of the persons elected..shall be returned by Indenture between the Sheriff and the Elizors. 1707 Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. xvi. 225 (List Officers Navy) Surveyor..whose Office is..to..estimate the Value of Repairs by Indenture. 1846 MacCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 319 The election of scholars [at Eton] takes place every year..The usual number admitted on what is termed the indenture [i.e. between King's Coll. and Eton], at each election, is twenty-four. [This ceased in 1871.] 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xix. 362 The persons arrested are to be delivered to the ordinaries by indenture to be made within ten days of the arrest. |
d. fig. Contract, mutual engagement.
| 1540 Morysine Vives' Introd. Wysd. G vij, We haue by indenture of Jesu..that they shall lacke nothinge whiche seke..the kyngdome of God. 1589 Nashe Almond for Parrat 3 My soule being the cittie, whereof the deuill is made free by endenture. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 20 This zelous kisse, As seale to this indenture of my loue. 1624 Quarles Div. Poems, Job (1717) 210 My heart hath past Indentures with mine eye, Not to behold a Maid. a 1677 Manton Serm. Ps. cxix. cxxxiii. Wks. 1872 VIII. 251 God's covenant..this mutual and interchangeable indenture. |
† 3. A zigzag line; a zigzag course; a doubling.
| 1598 I. M. Seruingmans Comf. (1868) 138 He turned his Cattle from Plough to Pasture, making Indentures all along the ditches. [1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 743 He must not run directly forward, but winde to and fro, crooking like an Indenture.] 1611 Cotgr., Bricoller,..to reele, stagger, or make indentures, in going. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 146 He makes Indentures on each side of the way wheresoever he goes. 1781 W. Blane Ess. Hunting (1788) 45 It must never be expected that the indentures of the Hare can be well covered, or her doubles struck off. |
II. Senses derived from indent v.2
† 4. An inlaying or embossing. Obs.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 7 Her eye is indented all over with a pure Emerauld-green, and all latticed or chequered with dimples..which makes the Indentures look more pleasantly. |
5. A hollow or depression in a surface; = indentation n. 4.
| 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §245 Little indentures upon the surface of the courses. 1822 New Monthly Mag. VI. 334 Furrows..left by the indentures of vessels' bottoms. 1872 Le Fanu In a Glass Darkly I. 201 He pointed to a deep indenture, as if caused by a heavy pressure. |
III. 6. attrib. and Comb. (from I.), as † indenture English, the language of legal deeds; indenture-fashion, indenture-wise adv.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 111 As if a wise man would take Halles Cronicle, where moch good matter is quite marde with Indenture Englishe, and first change strange and inkhorne tearmes into proper and commonlie vsed wordes. 1598 Florio, Filicare, to notch about the edges, as ferne is, or indenter wise. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 542 Their Crisses or Daggers are two foote long waved Indenture fashion, and poysoned. |
▪ II. inˈdenture, v.
[f. indenture n., in several unconnected senses, related to both verbs indent.]
I. From indenture n. 2 (indent v.1).
† 1. intr. To enter into an indenture; to covenant. Obs.
| 1658 R. Franck North. Mem. (1821) 79 Hee's but slipt to the bottom to recruit himself and indenture with stones to oblige their protection. |
2. trans. To bind by indentures, esp. as an apprentice or servant.
| 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke I iij b, A good Christian will not, cannot atturn and indenture his conscience over; to be Represented by others. 1808 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXVI. 111 Men..too deficient in skill, or industry, or character, to be employed or indentured by the profession. 1834 H. Martineau Moral ii. 77 The plan of indenturing servants to colonial settlers. 1884 Daily News 13 Oct. 4/8 Mr. Cole..was indentured as a clerk or writer to Mr., afterwards Sir Francis, Palgrave. |
II. From indenture n. 3.
† 3. intr. To move in a zigzag line; to zigzag. Obs.
| 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Wine-soaker 102 Indenturing along in some blinde alley, hee terribly affrights the passenger if hee meete any: for hee coasts here and there, as if it were Saint Anthonies fire, or some ignis fatuus. 1635 Heywood Hierarch. 134 (L.) They took Their staves in hand, and at the good man strook: But, by indenturing, still the good man 'scap'd. |
III. From indenture n. 5. (indent v.2)
4. trans. To make an indentation in; to indent, furrow.
| c 1770 Woty Autumnal Song (T.), Age may creep on, and indenture the brow. 1854 Dobell Balder v. 32 Immemorial plains Indentured where the furrows fill with flowers As with a Tyrian rain. |
Hence inˈdenturing vbl. n.
| a 1632 T. Taylor God's Judgem. ii. vii. (1642) 108 Two Gallants..overtaken with Wine..loath..to take the benefit of a light, because their indenturing should not be observed. 1898 in Westm. Gaz. 7 Jan. 3/1 The Imperial sanction had been given to the indenturing of the Bechuana rebels. |