▪ I. booth, n.
(buːð)
Forms: 2–5 boþe, 3–6 bothe, 6–7 boothe, 6– booth. Also north. 5–6 buth(e, 6 bouthe, bowthe, Sc. boithe, 6– Sc. buith.
[ME. bōþe, bōthe, prob. a. ODa. *bóð (mod.Da. and Sw. bod booth, stall, shop = OIcel. b{uacu}ð fem. dwelling, f. East Norse bóa = Icel. b{uacu}a to dwell. Cf. MHG. buode ‘hut, tent’, mod.G. bude ‘booth, stall’: perh. also from East Norse. Some think the Teutonic word to be adopted from Slavonic: cf. Boh. bouda, Pol. buda, which are at least cognate.]
1. a. A temporary dwelling covered with boughs of trees or other slight materials. arch. in gen. sense.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 185 Ðar haueð elch patriarche, and prophete, and apostles..maked faier bode [for boðe] inne to wunien. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 441 He bowed vnder his lyttel boþe. a 1536 Tindale Brief Declar. Sacr. Wks. 1848 I. 376 He had made booths, or houses of boughs for his beasts. 1580 Baret Alv. B 930 A Boothe or place couered where men sitte to talke for recreation. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. ii. 179 Every bush is something's booth. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 40 At the North end they led into Booths, and Summer-houses. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 178 We cut down branches of trees, and built us two large booths. 1871 MacDuff Mem. Patmos xiii. 174 Temporary booths, made of intertwisted palm, olive..and willows from the brook. |
b. esp. A temporary structure covered with canvas, or the like; a tent. Now chiefly as in 2.
| 1535 Coverdale 2 Kings vii. 10 We came to the tentes of the Sirians, and beholde, there is no man there..but..the bothes as they stonde. 1674 Scheffer's Lapland xiv. 71 That certain boothes and sheds be provided. 1762 Goldsm. Nash 30 Obliged to assemble in a booth to drink tea and chocolate. 1775 R. Chandler Trav. Asia M. (1825) I. 137 A wild country covered..with the black booths of the Turcomans. 1838 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1871) I. 109. |
c. polling-booth: a temporary structure for voting purposes at a parliamentary or other election.
| 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire 1854 II. 111 The booths are erected at the joint expense of the candidates..the cost of a booth erected for a county election shall not exceed 45l. |
2. spec. a. A covered stall at a market; a tent at a fair, or the like, for the sale of wares or refreshments, exhibition of the feats of jugglers, etc. See also toll-booth.
| c 1200 Ormin 15573 Ne birrþ ȝuw nohht min Faderr hus Till chepinngboþe turrnenn. c 1300 K. Alis. 3457 They..brenten townes, and bothes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 46 Boþe, chapmannys schoppe. 1483 Cath. Angl. 49 A Buthe, emptorium. 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 1015 Ane laidlie lurdan loun, Cumde to break buithis. 1580 Baret Alv. B 1038 A bouthe or tente that any occupier maketh in a faire or other places. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 271 A denne of Theeves ? a Bowthe of brothells? c 1610 Sir J. Melville Mem. (1735) 227 Unruly Servants broke up the Merchants' Booths. 1723 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 13 To pay at going into a booth to see a show. 1808 Jamieson s.v., The Luckenbooths of Edinburgh, wooden shops [which formerly stood in the High Street]. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 350 The booths where goods were exposed to sale projected far into the streets. |
b. = telephone booth.
| 1930 Bell System Techn. Jrnl. IX. i. 12 A form of booth furnished by the telephone companies, provided with a seat and with lighting. 1952 A. Baron With Hope, Farewell 95 He stood in the booth, fumbling with his notebook to find the telephone number. |
3. Comb., as booth-cloth, booth-keeper, † booth-mail (= boothage).
| 1552 Huloet, Boothclothes, wherwith boothes or tentes ben couered. c 1570 Ld. Sempill 3 Taverners, To pay my buith-mail and my stand. 1838 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1871) I. 109 Booth-keepers knocking down the temporary structures. |
▪ II. booth, v. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To provide or shelter with a booth.
| 1594 Zepheria xxxi. in Arb. Garner V. 81 She booths her fair with shade of broad-branched trees. |