▪ I. frontier, n. and a.
(ˈfrɒn-, ˈfrʌntɪə(r))
Forms: 5 frounter(e, -teere, -tier, -tor, fron-, frowntere, 5–6 frontyer, 5–7 fronter, 6 frontour, 6–7 frontire, 6– frontier. Also fronture (obs.).
[a. OF. frontier masc., frontiere fem. (mod.Fr. frontière), f. front front n. Cf. Pr. fronteira forehead, It. frontiera, Sp. frontera, Pg. fronteira frontier.]
A. n.
† 1. a. The front side; the forepart. Obs.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy) 16 Att ffrountor of thees welles clere, Ther whas a scripture commendyng ther lycour. 1538 Leland Itin. I. 107 The fronter of which Ward in the entering is exceeding stronge with Toures and Portecoleces. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. ii. (1895) 116 The forefrontes or frontiers of the ii corners [of the haven]..be very..daungerous. |
† b. The side that fronts in a specified direction. Obs.—1
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. I. 95 The principal wife placeth her court on the West frontier. |
† c. The forehead. Obs. rare—1.
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1877) 67 Their bolstred heir..standeth crested round about their frontiers. |
† 2. = frontlet 4. Obs.
| 1440 in Eng. Ch. Furniture (Peacock 1866) 182 Item syx alter towelles of lynnen cloth the first with a frounter pailed read white and black..the 5th with a frountier of burde Alisander. |
† 3. The front line or foremost part of an army. Hence ‘attack, resistance’ in phr. to make frontier (tr. OF. faire frontière). Obs.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2898 Frykis one the frowntere welle a fyve hundreth. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. ix. (1555) In the frounter [1513 frountell] many manly man With sharpe speres first together ran. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cclv. 378 He sent them into Poicters to kepe the citie, and to make fronter there agaynst the frenchemen. |
4. a. sing. and pl. The part of a country which fronts or faces another country; the marches; the border or extremity conterminous with that of another.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxx. 80 To kepe the frounters of the reame fro perille of enemyes. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iii. xxii. 215 The fronteres of Caleys. 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 48 On y⊇ east partes and frontours of this his realm. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 171 Vpon another frontire lie the Spaniards. 1648 Gage West Ind. xx. 157 After the two daies we drew neer unto the Heathens Frontiers. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 129 ¶8 A Country Church upon the Frontiers of Cornwall. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 126 It might be dangerous to weaken the defence of the frontier. 1838 Lytton Calderon i. 64 He..received an order to join the army on the frontiers. 1853 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. ii. 84 He found a difficulty in defending his frontier towards Persia. 1956 E.-J. Finbert Israel 2 [Israel's] land frontiers are spread over 951 k. (591 miles). 1964 Ann. Reg. 1963 306 A U.N. observer would be sent to the Yemen-Saudi frontier. |
| transf. and fig. 1672–3 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 39 Those Churches which are seated nearer upon the Frontire of Popery. 1738 Tom King's, or Humours Cov. Garden 3 A spacious Plain..Whose large Frontiers with Pallisados bound From Trivia's Filth inshrines the hallow'd Ground. 1768 W. Wilkie Rake & Hermit 65 Faith in the utmost frontier stands. 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxvii. 350 Along this portion of their frontier, the Upper Silurian Rocks [etc.]. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 150 A few seditious persons..had gone very near to the frontier of treason. 1870 Max Müller Sci. Relig. (1873) 391 Even in this more general study of mankind, the frontiers of language and race ought never to disappear. |
b. U.S. ‘That part of a country which forms the border of its settled or inhabited regions: as (before the settlement of the Pacific coast), the western frontier of the United States’ (Cent. Dict.). Also in specific use (see quot. 1894 and D.A.).
| 1676 W. Berkeley Let. 1 Apr. in W.E. Washburn Governor & Rebel (1957) 184 We have now such a strength on the frontiers of al our Plantations that we cannot feare them [sc. the Indians] if they were ten times more in number then they are. 1756 [see frontier B. adj. 1]. 1842 Amer. Pioneer I. 226 Of all the men I ever knew he was the best qualified to live on a frontier where there were savages..to contend with. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Civiliz. Wks. (Bohn) III. 8 'Tis wonderful how soon a piano gets into a log-hut on the frontier. 1894 F. J. Turner Frontier in Amer. Hist. 3 What is the frontier?.. In the census reports it is treated as the margin of that settlement which has a density of two or more to the square mile. |
† 5. a. A fortress on the frontier; a frontier town.
| 1604 Shakes. Ham. (Qo. 2) iv. iv. 16 Goes it against the maine of Poland, sir, Or for some frontire? 1641 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 22 Gorcum, a very strong and considerable frontier. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 222 It [Baldivia] was a fortification and a frontier. 1796 Morse Amer. Georg. I. 721 [Natchitoches in Louisiana] was a frontier on the Spanish settlements. |
† b. A barrier against attack. Obs.
| 1589 P. Ive Fortif. 1 A Forte not placed where it were needefull, might skantly be accompted for frontier. 1648 Gage West Ind. xv. 105 This Province..which is a Frontier against those Heathens. 1664 Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 122 His Navies do carry a moveable Frontire to all the habitable world. 1690 W. Edmundson Jrnl. (1715) 133 Three Hundred Firelocks, as a Frontier, to intercept the English Soldiers. |
† 6. A settler on the frontier; a frontier-man.
| 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative 51 The Frontiers discerning Indians in..the Swamp, fired immediately upon them. |
B. adj.
1. Of or belonging to the frontier of a country; situated on the frontier, bordering; const. to. Also, characteristic of people living at a frontier; pioneering; primitive.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxiii. 135 The erle..departed his people into dyuers garysons, to kepe fronter warre. 1530 Palsgr. 34 The dyuersite of pronuncyacion of the other frontier countreys. 1611 Coryat Crudities 638 This Bommel is the farthest frontier towne westward of Gelderland. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 43 Diuers frontier Cities and Castles. 1647 W. Browne tr. Polexander iii. 87 A desert which is frontire betweene Guinea and Senega. a 1648 Ld. Herbert Life (1886) 240 Held their way towards Bayonne, a city frontier to Spain. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 466 Dreaded through..Gaza's frontier bounds. 1701 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. II. 20 Leaving that most ffronter part..Denuded of..Defence. 1756 G. Washington Lett. Writ. 1889 I. 360 The intent of sending men hither was to protect the frontier inhabitants. 1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie I. xiv. 209 If you come a foot nigher, you shall have frontier punishment. 1840 J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. XXXIV. 489 The comparatively petty interest of some frontier dispute. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos I. xxxiii. 281 A few of the frontier castles had fallen into his hands. 1854 Thoreau Walden 14 It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life. 1902 S. Weyman In Kings' Byways i. 137 In the summer of 1706..one of the Austrian captains sat down before the frontier town of Huymonde, in Spanish Flanders, and prepared to take it. 1958 Spectator 14 Feb. 206/3 The connection in him between his ‘frontier’ mentality and his secret craving for respectability. 1960 Guardian 8 Dec. 8/2, I don't know about university education. In ‘frontier’ societies it is perhaps not a good thing. 1963 A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex 64 In frontier conditions or settled agricultural societies children represent an economic asset. 1968 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 2 Oct. (1970) 714 There..came into being today the North Cascades National Park in the State of Washington—an area that's called the American Alps and is still very much frontier. |
† 2. Fronting; opposite. Obs.
| 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. 106 With readie minds..they breake through the frontier bankes over-against them. |
▪ II. frontier, v.
(ˈfrɒn-, ˈfrʌntɪə(r))
[f. prec. n.]
† 1. intr. To be a frontier, or as a frontier; to border on or upon. Obs.
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 15 The countrey called Suet..frontering vpon the countrie of the Damascenes. 1652–62 Heylin Cosmogr. ii. (1682) 166 As far Westward as the River Tibiscus, where it frontiered on the Jazyges Metanastæ. |
2. trans. a. To look upon the frontier, boundary, or coast of; to face; now rare. † b. To stand in front of; to bar, oppose. Obs.
| 1579 Fenton Guicciard. (1618) 270 They saw the armie so hardie, as to incampe in that valley which was frontired with troublesome mountaines, and in the midst of the enemies countrey. 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie ii. 32 Being that part of the country a frontering the sea. 1589 P. Ive Fortif. 29 So small Forts may well serue to hinder the courses of a small number, but not to frontier a forcible enemie. 1596 Spenser State Irel. (Globe) 621/2 Now that it is noe more a border, nor frontyerd with enemyes. a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 227 The bridge that, bounding Life's domain, frontiers the wold of death. |
Hence † ˈfrontiering ppl. a., occupying the frontier or border; neighbouring.
| 1600 J. Dymmok Ireland (1843) 35 His Lordship..repared the breaches of the castle, and placed such a garrison in the same as might anoy the fronteringe rebells. |