▪ I. tress, n.
(trɛs)
Forms: pl. 3 tressene, 4– tresses, (5 -is, trissis); sing. 4–6 tresse, (6 Sc. tres), 6– tress. See also trace n.3
[a. F. tresse, in OF. tresce a plait or braid of hair (12th c. in Littré, etc.) = Pr. tressa, treza, It. treccia, beside the vb. F. tresser, OF. trecier, It. trecciare ‘to plaite, to tie..vp in tresses, as womens haires are’ (Florio). In Sc. and some Eng. dialects this appears also in the forms trais(s and trace: see trace n.3, v.3 The OF., Pr., and It. ns. point to a late L. or Romanic tricia, trecia, which appears in med.L.: see Du Cange.
For the derivation, Diez favours a form *trichea (or *trichia) f. Gr. τρίχα threefold, taking the primary sense to be ‘a triple plait’. Hatz.-Darm. take tresse as vbl. n. from the vb. tresser.]
1. A plait or braid of the hair of the head, usually of a woman: cf. trace n.3 1.
| 13.. Seuyn Sag. (W.) 478 With both honden here yaulew here Out of the tresses sche hit tere. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 191 Hir yelow heer was broyded in a tresse Bihynde hir bak, a yerde longe I gesse. a 1400–50 Alexander 3450 Hire hede vn-helid was on hiȝe & hild all in trissis. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 502/1 Tresse, of heere, trica. 1530 Palsgr. 282/2 Tresse of heer, tresse. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 136 b, Certain women, whereof one had her tresses crossed in such sort vpon her head, that they made the likenesse of two hearts bound together. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 19 Her yellow golden heare Was trimly woven and in tresses wrought. 1613 R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (ed. 3), Tresses, lockes of hayre broyded vp. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Lady Rich 1 Apr., Their beautiful hair [was] divided into many tresses, hanging on their shoulders. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. I. ii. 92 Their black hair..was bound in tresses around their heads. 1793 Earl Macartney Jrnl. Emb. China 4 Aug., [Their hair] is platted in a tress, and falls down the back. |
b. (By extension) A long lock of hair (esp. that of a woman), without any sense of its being plaited or braided; mostly in pl. tresses. (The usual current sense.)
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 325/82 Heo drovȝ of hire tressene and caste a-wei. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame i. 230 A queynt array As she had ben an hunteresse With wynde blowynge vpon hir tresse. c 1450 Merlin xviii. 298 She was all discheuelee in her heer, and Taurus hir heilde be the tresses and drough hir after his horse. 1595 Weever Epigr. iv. xxii. (1599) E vj, Rose-checkt Adonis with his amber tresses. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Tresses, said of the Hair, when it hangs down in dishevell'd Locks. 1717 Pope Sappho to Phaon 85 Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bind, That fly disorder'd with the wanton wind. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. i. vi. 75 Her long dishevelled tresses hanging to the ground. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxvi. 47 What shall a weak tress do, when powers so mighty resist not? |
c. transf. and fig. (and in fig. context). Applied to long leafy shoots or tendrils, rays of the sun, etc.
| 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. i, In Aquary, Cinthia the clere Rynsid hir tressis. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handicrafts 139 Somtimes the Plane, somtimes the Vine they shear, Choosing their fairest tresses. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 145 My sonnes..will by the tresses snatch The fittest time. 1641 J. Trappe Theol. Theol. v. 205 The radiant tresses of the sun. 1810 T. L. Peacock Genius of Thames 65 The weeping willow droops to lave Its leafy tresses in the wave. 1875 Tristram Moab ii. 29 Luxuriant tresses of maiden-hair fern. |
d. (Our) Lady's tresses: see lady's traces.
† 2. A flat plait or braid (of interwoven threads, fibres, hairs, rushes, straw, etc.) Cf. trace n.3 2, 3. Obs.
| 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xxxvi. 38 b/2 Saynt Anthonye made a tresse for to make a lytyll basket. 1542 Inv. Roy. Wardrobe (1815) 82 Ane cott of variand taffatie with ane small walting tres of gold [cf. 1539, p. 32 trais of gold]. 1550 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IX. 455 Item, xvj elnis tressis put on the saittis of the saidis chiris. |
† 3. Her. = tressure 2. Cf. trace n.1 10. Obs. rare.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. Hist. Scot. 358/2 They beare in their armes the Lion and Lillyes, wyth the tresse in fourme and fashion as the King of Scotlande beareth hys. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as tress-lifting, tress-like, tress-shorn, tress-topped adjs.
| 1819 Keats Lamia i. 207 Down through *tress-lifting waves the Nereids fair Wind into Thetis' bower. |
| 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal xv. 277 Th'orphane..Whose *tresse-like haire, and eyes still dropping pearle. 1845 Kitto Cycl. Bibl. Lit. s.v. Babylon, It bears spreading and ever-green branches,..adorned with long tress-like tendrils. |
| 1866 J. B. Rose tr. Ovid's Met. viii. 234 And matrons Eveninan, *tresses-shorn. |
| 1871 Browning Balaust. 1323 Past the pines *Tress-topped. |
Hence ˈtressful a., full of or fully furnished with tresses; ˈtressless a., having no tresses; ˈtresslet, a little tress.
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Magnif. 734 Pharo's faire daughter..Was queintly dressing of her *Tress-full head Which round about her to the ground did spread. |
| 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xx. iii. (1873) IX. 51 The Bernburg Officers, tragically *tressless in their hats. |
| 1882 J. Walker Scotch Poems 136 A glossy *tresslet of her lint-white hair. |
▪ II. tress, v. Now rare exc. in pa. pple.
Also 4 tresce.
[ME. a. F. tresser, OF. trecier (12th c. in Littré) = Pr. tressar, trezar, It. trecciare to arrange in a tress, braid, plait; goes with tress n.
The OF. form trecier indicates a late L. type *triciāre, f. tricia, trecia (or *trichia): see tress n.]
1. trans. To arrange (hair) in tresses.
| ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 569 And with a riche golde treasour Her hedde was tressed queintly. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 255 And hou hir yelwe her was tresced And hire atire so wel adresced. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 502/1 Tressyn heere, trico. 1623 tr. Favine's Theat. Hon. ii. iv. 78 The Sicambrians were observed by their yellow haire, tressed and knit in cordons. 1827 Roberts Voy. Centr. Amer. 29 The hair was worn long and tressed behind with a cord. 1867 Morn. Star 19 Sept., Neither sex wears any covering on the head, preferring to tress..that with which nature has provided them. |
b. To arrange or dispose (threads, etc.) in braids.
| 1862 [see tressing below]. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 24 May 1/3 The tiny fingers threw the bobbins swiftly from side to side, moved the pins on the pricked paper pattern, tressed the lace that had to be finished before eventide. |
2. intr. Of the hair: To fall in tresses; to admit of being arranged in tresses.
| 1867 Morn. Star 19 Sept., The hair of the Abyssinians is..sufficiently long to tress well. |
Hence ˈtressing vbl. n.
| c 1425 St. Mary of Oignies i. i. in Anglia VIII. 135/34 Tressynge & tiftynge of here. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 4542, Skilful tressing, and most careful workmanship and finish, in which the exhibitor endeavoured not to be surpassed by any of his fellow competitors. |
▪ III. tress
obs. form of trace n.2, trest n.2