▪ I. ˈsandwich, n.1
[The name of the town of Sandwich, Kent.]
† 1. Used attrib. to designate some kind of cord used in the 15–16th c. Obs.
| 1494 in Rogers Agric. & Prices (1882) III. 560/3 Sion... 6 pieces sandwich line {at}/4. 1498 Churchw. Acc. St. Dunstan's Canterb., Sandwyche corde for the clothe afore ye Roode. 1526–7 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 339 Item, paid for a pece of Sandwych lyne for the chirch, iiij d. 1572 in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 164 Sandwiche corde, packthreade, twyne. |
2. Sandwich tern, a black, grey, and white tern,
Sterna sandvicensis, found in Europe and Africa.
| 1785, 1888 [see tern n.1]. 1914 Chambers's Jrnl. May 308/1 These birds are the ring-ouzel..and the sandwich tern. 1934 Discovery Oct. 293/1 Many species like the..Sandwich tern, and puffin are growing scarcer. 1968 [see machine n. 3]. 1971 Country Life 18 Feb. 356/2 Two birds, at least, which breed nowhere else in Spain, have important colonies here: the black-headed gull and the Sandwich tern. |
▪ II. sandwich, n.2 (
ˈsændwɪtʃ)
[Said to be named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), who once spent twenty-four hours at the gaming-table without other refreshment than some slices of cold beef placed between slices of toast. This account of the origin of the word is given by Grosley
Londres (1770) I. 262. Grosley's residence in London was in 1765, and he speaks of the word as having then lately come into use.]
1. An article of food for a light meal or snack, composed of two thin slices of bread,
usu. buttered, with a savoury (
orig. spec. meat,
esp. beef or ham) or other filling. Freq. with specifying word prefixed indicating contents, as
ham sandwich,
egg sandwich,
watercress sandwich,
peanut butter sandwich (see
peanut 3 a)
sandwich, or form, as
club sandwich (see
club n. 20),
Dagwood sandwich,
Denver sandwich,
hero sandwich (see
hero n. 5),
poor boy sandwich (see
poor a. (
n.) 8),
submarine sandwich (see
submarine n.).
Occas. with only one slice of bread, as in
open sandwich or
open-faced sandwich (see
open a. (
adv.) 22 c), or with biscuits, sliced buns, or cake.
| 1762 Gibbon Jrnl. 24 Nov., Misc. Wks. 1796 I. 110 note, I dined at the Cocoa Tree... That respectable body..affords every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty..of the first men in the kingdom,..supping at little tables..upon a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich. 1771 Foote Maid of B. i. Wks. 1799 II. 208 Sir Chr. Not a morsel, Tom, if you would give me the universe! Rack. Pho, man! only a Sandwich or so. 1800–1 Jane Austen Lett. (1884) I. 231 At Oakley Hall..we did a great deal—eat some sandwiches all over mustard [etc.]. 1803 Beddoes Hygëia xi. 21 Our Nimrods..have felt..the propriety of carrying a sandwich into the field. 1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz, Tales iii, The supper consisted of small triangular sandwiches in trays. 1866 Chamb. Encycl. VIII. 468 A..Glasgow confectioner..has the credit of making one hundred different kinds of sandwiches. 1872 Cassell's Househ. Guide III. 224 Egg Sandwiches. 1885 Mabel Collins Prettiest Woman xxvi, He ordered a hasty lunch of claret and sandwiches. 1925 S. Lewis Arrowsmith xxiv. 280 You might bring me a Denver sandwich from the Sunset Trail Lunch. 1932 G. Greene Stamboul Train i. i. 11 Get me a sandwich... I'm so empty I can hear my stomach. 1954 Good Housek. Cookery Bk. (rev. ed.) 443/1 Buns and cakes, provided they are not too sweet may be cut in thin slices and used for sweet sandwiches. 1977 Rolling Stone 16 June 12/1 Our past albums were like Dagwood sandwiches because you had to listen to them 30 or 40 times on very sophisticated equipment to hear everything we'd dub in. 1978 G. Mitchell Mingled with Venom iv. 37 Take Diana the smaller of my two sponge sandwiches. |
| transf. and fig. 1790 T. Wilkinson Mem. III. 154, I will, by way of a sandwich, halt for a few minutes refreshment, and present the reader [etc.]. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair lviii, A pale young man..came walking down the lane en sandwich— having a lady, that is, on each arm. 1866 Cornh. Mag. Oct. 468 A naval potentate..whose talk was a perfect sandwich of oaths and orders. 1884 Edna Lyall We Two iv, The very oddest day, a sort of sandwich of good and bad. |
b. A form of training involving alternate periods of practical and theoretical instruction. Freq.
attrib. or as adj. (
cf. sense 3 below).
| 1913 Fleming & Bailey Engineering as Profession ii. 113 A sandwich arrangement comprising short alternating periods of technical and practical training until the full course in each is completed. 1955 Times 14 July 2/6 This professional training scheme is organized over four or five years on a ‘sandwich’ basis. 1961 Technology Aug. 197 For its support of the sandwich principle Technology has often been taken to task by teachers in the colleges of advanced technology. 1965 Listener 2 Dec. 887/2 An undergraduate comes up in October, spends two terms in the college. In April he begins his first six-month spell in industry... This is the Brunel sandwich evolved over the past eight years. 1972 Guardian 20 June 18/6 The polytechnics..have a special interest in sandwich degree courses.., either the thick sandwich, with one year out of a total of four spent in an industrial job, or the thin sandwich, during which the student spends alternating periods..in college and in industry. 1980 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 157/1 We have a lot to learn and the sandwich graduates may possibly help to bridge that gap. |
c. A laminated board or panel consisting of a layer of light-weight material situated between and bonded to two thin sheets of a strong material, used in light constructions,
esp. in aircraft.
| 1944 Use of Wood for Aircraft in U.K. (U.S. Forest Products Lab. Publ. No. 1540) 21 The fuselage..is composed of a plywood and balsa wood sandwich about 1/2 inch thick. 1946 Rep. & Mem. Aeronaut. Res. Comm. No. 1987. 2 The various kinds of sandwich considered are those in which the faces are of steel or duralumin, and the fillings of onazote, balsa wood or plywood. 1954 D. M. Desoutter All about Aircraft viii. 134/2 Corrugated metal..makes a good filling for sandwiches. In this kind of sandwich two thin sheets are held apart by the corrugated metal between, and they are attached to it by welding or any other means. 1976–7 Sea Spray (N.Z.) Dec./Jan. 86/3 The Adelaide boat, built of foam/glass sandwich in a highly sophisticated layup technique was designed as a good all-rounder. |
d. Used
attrib. in
Chem. to denote (complexes having) a structure in which a metal atom is bonded between two parallel cyclic ligands in different planes, as in ferrocene.
| 1952 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. LXXIV. 4971/2 A projection on the (x, y) plane concomitant with the ‘sandwich’ structures proposed by Wilkinson [et al.]..immediately appeared. 1966 Phillips & Williams Inorg. Chem. II. xxvii. 336 It does not appear that the benzene ring can act as a bridging sandwich-ligand, but two metal atoms can be ‘sandwiched’ between two benzenes. 1973 Nature 2 Nov. 3/1 Wilkinson used the name ‘sandwich compounds’ for the metallocenes. 1974 Ibid. 11 Jan. 85/1 In the so-called ‘sandwich’ molecules (C6H6)2Cr and (C5H5)2Fe, the metal atoms are symmetrically placed between the rings. |
2. Applied to a man carrying two advertisement boards suspended from the shoulders, one in front and the other behind;
= sandwich-man.
| [1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz, Char. ix, So, he stopped the unstamped advertisement—an animated sandwich, composed of a boy between two boards.] 1864 Spectator 24 Dec. 1460 The poor ‘sandwiches’ might justifiably have been kept moving, but to prohibit them altogether is a bit of unreasonable tyranny. 1885 Pall Mall G. 2 Feb. 12/2 We have, and not so very long ago, seen girls employed as ‘sandwiches’. |
3. attrib., as (sense 1 a)
sandwich-bag,
sandwich bar,
sandwich bell,
sandwich bread,
sandwich counter,
sandwich grill,
sandwich loaf (also
ellipt.),
sandwich lunch,
sandwich paper,
sandwich shop,
sandwich spread,
sandwich supper sandwich tray; (sense 1 b)
sandwich course,
sandwich student,
sandwich system,
sandwich training; (sense 2)
sandwich advertisement;
sandwich beam (see
quot.);
sandwich-board, a board carried by a sandwich-man;
sandwich-board man = sense 2; also
fig.;
sandwich-boat, the boat which rows in two divisions of the bumping races at Oxford and Cambridge, occupying the last position in a higher division and the first position in a lower division;
sandwich box, a box or case in which to carry sandwiches;
sandwich boy, (
a)
= sense 2; (
b) a student on a sandwich course;
sandwich cake = layer cake s.v. layer n. 5;
sandwich case = sandwich box above;
sandwich construction, the structure or method of fabrication of sandwich panels;
sandwich flag, a miniature flag that identifies the filling of a sandwich;
sandwich-man = sense 2;
sandwich panel, a panel constructed as a sandwich.
| 1884 Times 27 Oct. 4/2 Yesterday..I met..a procession of..girls,..bearing *sandwich advertisements. |
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. xvi, A closet in which the day boarders hung their bonnets and *sandwich-bags. |
| 1955 H. Smith Making Money in Catering Business vi. 51 (heading) Analysis of operating costs of a small provincial snack and *sandwich bar. 1971 E. Paul Reluctant Cloak & Dagger Man x. 122, I found a sandwich bar, settled on a stool and ordered sandwiches and beer. 1977 Lancashire Life Mar. 101/1, I once met a chap who worked behind the counter of a sandwich bar at a railway station. |
| 1887 Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., *Sandwich beam, a name sometimes given to the flitch girder. |
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 284 Under the *sandwichbell lay on a bier of bread one last, one lonely, last sardine. |
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 572 Some of my other men are only fit to carry *sandwich-boards for Day and Martin's blacking. |
| 1890 W. Booth In Darkest England p. xv, The expense of providing boards for ‘sandwich’ board-men. 1936 W. B. Yeats Lett. on Poetry (1940) 124 When I excluded Wilfred Owen..I did not know I was excluding a revered sandwich-board Man of the revolution. 1961 K. Reisz Technique Film Editing (ed. 9) ii. 199 Sandwich-board man carrying airline advertisement placard. |
| 1884 Oxf. & Camb. Undergrad. Jrnl. 28 Feb. 273/1 Wadham was the *sandwich-boat. |
| 1848 Dickens Dombey xv, *Sandwich-boxes. |
| 1835 Bell's Life in London 11 Oct. 1/1 The *Sandwich boy took the hats and bonnets at the street-door. 1958 Daily Mail 19 Sept. 11/3 The first of the ‘sandwich boys’..have won diplomas in technology. |
| 1971 B. Malamud Tenants 103 A loaf of *sandwich bread on the table. |
| 1911 C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxv. 221 The thin layer of jam or chocolate in a *sandwich cake. 1929 J. B. Priestley Good Companions i. ii. 54 Mrs. Chillingford said this with immense gusto, then went slap into a piece of sandwich cake. 1968 ‘P. Hobson’ Titty's Dead vi. 70 At her elbow stood a pot of strong Indian tea and half a sandwich cake. |
| 1817 J. Mayer Sportsman's Direct. (ed. 2) 203 Do not forget the *sandwich-case and flask of brandy. 1908 Sandwich-case [see patch pocket s.v. patch n.1 8]. 1948 F. Thompson Still glides Stream ii. 40 ‘That fool of a groom’..had carried off with him his mistress's sandwich case. |
| 1944 Use of Wood for Aircraft in U.K. (U.S. Forest Products Lab. Publ. No. 1540) 3 *The sandwich construction so effectively used in the Mosquito fuselage consists of birch plywood faces and a balsa core, affording a relatively thick section of high strength and rigidity, and good sound and thermal insulating qualities. 1946 Rep. & Mem. Aeronaut. Res. Committee No. 1987. 2 Considerable interest has recently been shown in the possibilities of the so-called ‘sandwich’ construction in the design of stressed-skin wings and fuselages. 1963 H. R. Clauser et al. Encycl. Engin. Materials & Processes 587/1 The largest single reason for the use of sandwich construction and its rapid growth to one of the standard structural approaches during the past 10 years is its high strength or stiffness-to-weight ratio. |
| 1913 S. Story Spirit of Paris 1 Cafés..have been elbowed away by vulgar bars and automatic sandwich counters. 1960 R. E. Wolf tr. T. Henrot's Belgium 189 Department stores with low-price sandwich counters. 1978 ‘A. Stuart’ Vicious Circles 3 The sandwich counter of the Bar Roma..Russian salad, prosciutto, baby pizzas. |
| 1955 Times 15 July 9/7 This can be arranged in the ‘*sandwich’ course, which alternates periods of study in college with periods of training in industry. 1957 Technology Apr. 44/4 Up to fifteen of these students will be Vickers undergraduate apprentices using the ‘thick’ sandwich course. 1966 New Scientist 13 Oct. 8/2 Most of the 2000 first-degree students are on sandwich courses which generally last 4½ years. 1972 Accountant 5 Oct. 436/1 The first paper was on sandwich courses. 1980 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 155/1 The apathy of senior management to design was felt in our BA (Hons) 4-year Sandwich course. |
| 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 352 b/3 (heading) *Sandwich flags... Stamped in Gold and Colours, with different names such as—Anchovy..Tongue..Foie Gras. 1950 Vogue Aug. 100/3 Intellectuals..spend very little on..sandwich flags. 1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper viii. 87 Sandwich flags are designed to distinguish party dishes. |
| 1955 *Sandwich grill [see master n.1 31]. |
| 1937 D. L. Sayers Busman's Honeymoon iv. 83 How many loaves would you be wanting?.. A cottage and a *sandwich. And a small brown? 1943 C. Milburn Diary 30 Jan. (1979) 166, I got two sandwich loaves. 1978 F. Weldon Praxis xxii. 194 On the estate bread was a sandwich loaf and the cheese cheddar or processed. |
| 1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase i. 9 She carried..little..beyond a pocket edition of Tristram Shandy, a vest-pocket camera, a small first-aid outfit and a *sandwich lunch. 1959 Economist 3 Jan. 26/2 About 15 per cent of men eat a sandwich lunch. 1973 K. Benton Craig & Jaguar vi. 67 There will be a sandwich lunch for us on the way. |
| 1864 Morn. Star 26 May 4 He encounters a *sandwich man bearing placards. |
| 1946 Rep. & Mem. Aeronaut. Res. Comm. No. 1987. 2 A *sandwich panel is one in which a thick sheet of a relatively weak ‘filling’ is interposed between two thin sheets of a more orthodox structural material, such as steel, duralumin or plywood. 1953 Archit. Rev. CXIV. 132/3 Walls are sandwich panels made up of two asbestos cement sheets with a cellular core. 1963 H. R. Clauser et al. Encycl. Engin. Materials & Processes 586/2 When a sandwich panel is loaded as a beam, the honeycomb and the bond resist the shear loads while the facings resist the moments due to bending forces, and hence carry the beam bending as tensile and compressive loads. |
| 1923 T. S. Eliot Waste Land iii. 14 The river bears no empty bottles, *sandwich papers. 1924 [see carton2 b]. 1970 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Cookie Bird vii. 108 The empty packets of cigarettes, the greasy sandwich paper. |
| 1948 Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 580 Eat shop, *sandwich shop. 1967 A. Bailey in L. Deighton London Dossier 55 Sandwich shops abound to feed the mid-day lunch-hungries. 1978 Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. 11a/2 Business at the sandwich shops and stores on the edge of the campus was brisk. |
| c 1938 Fortnum & Mason Price List 37/2 *Sandwich Spread—per glass 10½d. 1950 A. Wilson Such Darling Dodos 134 Dainty bridge rolls filled with sandwich spread. 1972 R. P. Jhabvala New Dominion i. 69 Your ketchup—and this is something new—sandwich spread—I thought you'd like to try it for your tea. |
| 1963 Times 24 May (London Underground Suppl.) p. xv/4 The quaintly described dip. tech. *sandwich student has his place. 1975 Times 1 Sept. 10/8 The difficulty of finding places for sandwich students. |
| 1802 J. G. Lemaistre Rough Sk. Mod. Paris xxxii. 297 With only a standing or *sandwich supper. 1954 J. Betjeman Few Late Chrysanthemums 26 Settles down to sandwich supper and the television screen. |
| 1919 Proc. Inst. Automobile Engineers XII. 450 This training should be taken along with their apprenticeship... The *sandwich system has been in existence in Glasgow for over 70 years. 1940 Nature 21 Dec. 812/2 Some large firms testify highly to the value of the product of such a ‘sandwich’ system. 1956 Ibid. 3 Mar. 412/1 All its departments have increased their facilities to students,..and in particular the ‘sandwich system’ has been established. 1971 New Scientist 1 Apr. 36/2 Industry is not yet prepared to cooperate sufficiently with educational establishments to make the sandwich system work as it should. |
| 1957 Technology Mar. 10/3 Student apprentices, on completing their first two years *sandwich training, are also transferred to the main works. 1978 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVI. 347/1 The Tech's part-time study, which was a form of sandwich training. |
| 1799 Hull Advertiser 28 Dec. 3/1 Desert sets of dishes, plates, &c., and *Sandwich Trays. |
▸
sandwich cookie n. N. Amer. a sweet snack consisting of two biscuit layers held together by a layer of chocolate, cream, jam, or other filling.
| 1905 Chicago Daily Tribune 19 Mar. iii. 3/7 (advt.) Fig *sandwich cookies... Lemon cream cookies. 1962 N. W. Chamberlain Firm xvii. 360 Sandwich cookies of medium quality, packaged to offer genuine and unusual value to consumers. 2005 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 9 Nov. f2 Fudge-Filled Peanut Butter Cookies... Fans of peanut butter and chocolate combos will love these soft sandwich cookies. |
▸
sandwich generation n. orig. and chiefly
N. Amer. a generation of people who in middle age find themselves responsible not only for bringing up their children but also for the care of their ageing parents.
| 1975 Jrnl. Asian & Afr. Stud. 10 56 Middle aged Japanese today are members of a ‘*sandwich generation’ in that, like people in middlehood anywhere, they are weighed down by the elders from above, pressed against by insurgent youth from below. 1994 Guardian 8 Aug. i. 2/5 These, mainly professional people, are what I would call the sandwich generation—they have responsibilities at both ends... In the past, their aged parents would have died earlier and their kids would not have been in full-time education for so long. 2002 Toronto Sun (Electronic ed.) 12 May 45, For those in the sandwich generation, I recommend Karen Henderson's www.caregiver.on.ca; she addresses everything from dementia to falls to elder abuse. |
▸
sandwich biscuit n. = sandwich cookie n. at Additions.
| 1901 Manitoba Morning Free Press 25 Oct. 5/5 (advt.) Delicious *sandwich biscuits 25c per lb. In four different flavorings: lemon, almond, orange and strawberry. 2007 Grocer (Nexis) 3 Mar. (Focus section) 49 Gluten and wheat-free biscuits including options such as chocolate cream sandwich biscuits with a vanilla filling. |
▪ III. sandwich, v. (
ˈsændwɪtʃ)
[f. sandwich n.2] 1. intr. ? To make a light repast.
| 1815 J. Wilson in Mem. vi. (1879) 133, I called..at Glencorse where I sandwiched for an hour. |
2. trans. To put in or as in a sandwich; chiefly
fig., to insert (something) between two other things of a widely different character; to place (different elements) alternately; rarely, to enclose like a sandwich. Freq.
const. in.
| 1861 Wynter Soc. Bees 204 If capital would only turn its attention to the supplies of animal food..every man might have a slice of good beef sandwiched between his free-trade bread. 1864 Daily Tel. 28 Nov. 4/4 Mr. Disraeli sandwiches between sensible suggestions some of his very worst thoughts. 1881 Times 24 Feb. 8/3 The target was formed of two steel plates, ‘sandwiching’ an inch of deal. 1888 F. Hume Mme. Midas i. v, The wash..being sandwiched in between a bed of white pipe-clay and a top layer of brownish earth. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas 78 (The Song of the Banjo)..I'm sandwiched 'tween the coffee and the pork. 1900 Times 7 July 10/1 To offend the ear still further these calls of screeching boys are sandwiched by ‘Any seat, Sir, but the first four rows’. 1924 H. De Sélincourt Cricket Match iv. 104 He liked to sandwich the weak and the strong, the swift and the slow. 1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier ii. 29 The miner does that journey to and fro, and sandwiched in between..are seven and a half hours of savage work. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 27 June 30 Since the D.H. was sandwiched between them..he was almost pulverised. 1957 Technology Mar. 16/2 Mechanical engineering students at Hendon Technical College sandwich eight weeks of study with eight weeks of factory work. 1977 Time 30 May 40/3 He sits in a rocker sandwiched between speakers blaring the hard rock music of the Grateful Dead. |
| intr. for refl. 1898 Engineering Mag. XVI. 103 The way in which the different functions ‘sandwich’ in with each other. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 18 June 484/2 Tobogganing and their other misdemeanours agreeably sandwich with the humours of the always optimistic Waterall. |
3. intr. To be employed as a sandwich-man.
| 1886 [implied in sandwiching vbl. n.]. |
Hence
ˈsandwiching vbl. n.| 1877 E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 334 In puff paste the butter and the paste are separate and there is no mixing or kneading—only what may be called fine sandwiching. 1886 Gd. Words 247 Election sandwiching is paid for at higher rates than ordinary advertisement sandwiching. 1886 Times 1 Apr. 9/1 The sandwiching of the Budget between the two declarations of policy. |
▸
trans. Sport (
orig. N. Amer.). To block the movement of (an opposing player) by trapping or crushing him or her between oneself and a team-mate. Freq. in
pass.| 1971 N.Y. Times 5 Oct. 52/8 He had been sandwiched by two Dolphin blockers on the play. 1985 Sports Illustr. 1 Apr. 21/1 Keith Lee and..William Bedford, who sandwiched Oklahoma star Wayman Tisdale at the back of the Tiger zone..had each picked up a fourth foul. 2002 Toronto Star (Electronic ed.) 7 Apr. (caption) Montreal forward Shaun Van Allen gets sandwiched between Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Marc Denis and winger Chris Nielsen. |