chandelier
(ʃændəˈlɪə(r))
Also 8 -eer.
[mod. a. F. chandelier; see chandler.]
1. An ornamental branched support or frame to hold a number of lights (originally candles), usually hung from the roof or ceiling.
| 1736 Stukeley Palæogr. Sacra 69 (T.) Lamps, branches, or chandeliers (as we now modishly call them). 1745 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 167 Two brass branches or chandeliers..for St. Geos. Church. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) I. 274 This church is illuminated by chandeliers of the most superb workmanship. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxxi, From the oaken roof hung a superb chandelier. |
2. Mil. ‘A wooden frame, which was filled with fascines, to form a traverse in sapping’ (Stocqueler Mil. Encycl.), and cover the sappers.
| 1663 Gerbier Counsel D j a, To blow up Ditches, Estacades, and Chandeliers. 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4082/3 They brought a great number of Chandeliers to cover their Workmen. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. lix. 196 Gabions and fascines and chandeliers for the redoubts. |
3. ? A branched support.
| 1731–7 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Anil, A kind of pretty large Pails, fasten'd to strong Poles, plac'd upon Chandeliers, by Means of which, the Negroes violently and continually raise, beat, and stir the Water. |
4. attrib. and Comb.; chandelier lily (also simply chandelier), a bulbous South African plant of the genus Brunsvigia; chandelier plant, a species of Euphorbia; chandelier tree, Pandanus Candelabrum: from its mode of branching.
| 1818 Latrobe Jrnl. Visit S. Afr. 1815–16 165 We noticed here a gigantic species of a plant, from its singular form..called the chandelier. 1823–33 Lamb Elia, Trag. Shaks. (L.) By chandelier light, and in good company. 1827 T. Phillips Scenes Albany & Cafferland i. 4 We..crossed a tract of land covered with aloes, called likewise the chandelier plant. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 285 The Chandelier Tree of Guinea and St. Thomas's derives its name from this peculiar tendency to branching. 1871 Cape Monthly Mag. III. 122 (Pettman), A grand family of plants—the Amaryllidaceæ—of which our Chandelier lily (Brunsvigia Josephinæ) is an example. |