▪ I. fabric, n.
(ˈfæbrɪk, ˈfeɪbrɪk)
Forms: 5–6 fabrike, -yke, 6–7 fabrique, (7 fabriq), 7–8 fabrick(e, 7– fabric.
[a. Fr. fabrique (= Pr. fabriga, It. fabbrica, Sp. fábrica), ad. L. fabrica, f. faber worker in metal, stone, wood, etc. See forge n.]
I. A product of skilled workmanship.
1. An edifice, a building.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 275/1 He had neuer studye in newe fabrykes ne buyldynges. 1538 Leland Itin. II. 68 Gibbes the last Prior..spent a great summe of Mony on that Fabrike. 1666 Evelyn Diary 7 Sept., The august fabriq of Christ Church. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. i. ii. (1743) 326 Fabricks..said to have been built by the Picts. 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour. IV. 84 A vaulted fabric without wood or iron-work, three stories high. 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xvi, Never mortal builder's hand This enduring fabric plann'd. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. vi, The ruinous fabric was very rich in the interior. |
| fig. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 429 You may as well Forbid the Sea for to obey The Moone, As..shake The Fabrick of his Folly. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 91 Men..inspired..to erect the Fabrick of the Church. 1788 Reid Aristotle's Log. ii. §2. 30 Force of genius sufficient to shake the Aristotelian fabric. 1873 Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxviii. 126 The whole fabric of his ambition was tottering. |
† 2. A contrivance; an engine or appliance. Obs.
| 1596 Drayton Leg. iv. 721 When here that fabrique utterly did faile. 1600 Holland Livy xxv. xi. 553 When..[the city of Tarentum] began to be assailed with fabricks. 1603 ― Plutarch's Mor. 1243 What need had he to use any such tragique engine, or fabricke to work such feats. 1657 Reeve God's Plea 40 Tiberius..there invented his detestable Fabricks of lust. |
3. a. ‘Any body formed by the conjunction of dissimilar parts’ (J.); a frame, structure.
| 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Search vii, Lord, dost thou some new fabrick mold Which favour winnes..leaving th' old Unto their Sinnes? 1674 Owen Holy Spirit (1693) 25 This Goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth. 1718 Prior Solomon iii. 268 All the parts of this great fabrick change, Quit their old station, and primeval frame. 1728 Thomson Spring 648 Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. (1856) 476 In this egg-shell fabric the Esquimaux navigator..encounters risks which, etc. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 241 The armour-plates and other necessary portions of the ponderous fabric. |
b. esp. with reference to the animal body.
| 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. ii. 84 The whole Fabrick of Man, Body and Soul, is dissolv'd. 1758 S. Hayward Serm. i. 1 To..examine this outward fabrick the body! a 1848 R. W. Hamilton Rew. & Punishm. i. (1853) 49 The wonderful fabric of the human body. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 228 The solid animal fabric returns to swell the sum of the fluids and gases. |
c. fig.
| a 1637 B. Jonson Eng. Gramm. i. ii, The less [letters] make the Fabrick of Speech. 1669 Penn No Cross xii. §10 Death ends the Proud Man's Fabrick. 1785 Reid Int. Powers Ded., To pick holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty. 1817 J. Scott Paris Revisit. (ed. 4) 380 A substantial fabric of public strength, freedom, and opulence. 1856 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. iii. 77 Questions arising out of it appertaining..to the whole fabric of society. |
4. A manufactured material; now only a ‘textile fabric’, a woven stuff.
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. v. lxx. 318 We are every day making new fabrics. 1791 Robertson India ii. 88 Working up its [silkworm's] productions into..a variety of elegant fabrics. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 10 The fabrics produced..were wanting in most of the qualities essential to good porcelain. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 227 The woollen fabric manufactured in these establishments. 1874 Green Short Hist. v. 218 Up to Edward's time few woollen fabrics seem to have been woven in England. 1883 Stubbs' Mercantile Circular 8 Nov. 982/2 The people in Nagasaki are fast going back to their old practice of spinning this class of fabric for themselves. |
| transf. and fig. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic ii. (1833) 18 The fine nervous fabric which constitutes the retina. 1859 Kingsley Misc. (1860) II. 119 The villain of the piece..being a rough fabric, is easily manufactured with rough tools. |
II. 5. a. The action or process of framing or constructing; erection (of a building); formation (of an animal body or its parts). Now only spec. The construction and maintenance (of a church); = Eccl. Lat. fabrica ecclesiæ.
| 1611 Cotgrave, Fabrique d'vn'Esglise, The fabricke, raparation, or maintenance of a Church. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. v. 72 The..providence of God manifested in the fabrique of the eye-lids. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 17 The..prodigious skilfulness of Nature in the fabrick of so Minute an Animal. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 43 He attributed the Fabrick of the Colosseum to him. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. i. ii, Britains..so expert in the fabrick of those chariots. 1840 Milman Lat. Chr. III. iv. i. 382 The other [third] to the fabric and the poor. |
b. attrib. in fabric-fund, fabric-lands, fabric-roll.
| 1672 J. Cowell Interpr., Fabrick-Lands are Lands given to the rebuilding, repair, or maintenance of Cathedrals, or other Churches. 1726 Dict. Rusticum s.v. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Fabric Lands, property given towards the rebuilding or repairing of cathedrals and churches. 1859 Raine (title), The Fabric Rolls of York Minster (Surtees). 1875 J. T. Fowler Ripon Ch. Accts. (Surtees), Index. Fabric fund of Ripon. |
6. Kind or method of construction or formation. † a. of things in general, buildings, instruments, etc. Also style (of architecture). Obs.
| 1644 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 82 The fabric of the Church is Gothic. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. i. §16 The peculiar and admirable fabrick of the eyes. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 313 If any person..do not know the fabrick or use of any of the Instruments. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts (1684) 6 Architectonical Artists look narrowly upon..the fabrick of the Temple. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iv. iii. §24 The particular Fabricks of the great masses of matter, which make up the..frame of corporeal Beings. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) Add. 4 The Boats are of a miserable Fabrick. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. vi. 190 To be well informed of the fabrick and strength of this fort. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. II. 228 They were exposed upon the waters in a machine of this fabrick. |
b. of manufactured materials. Chiefly of textile articles: Texture. † Also concr. a particular ‘make’ or class (of goods).
| 1758 J. Blake Plan Mar. Syst. 8 Let a particular fabric of paper be made. 1764 Harmer Observ. xvii. ii. 77 We..conjecture, that the tents of the Patriarchs..were of the same fabric. 1879 Calderwood Mind & Br. 55 One who is constantly at work amongst cloths of different fabric. |
c. fig.
| 1752 Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 181 The fabric and constitution of our mind no more depends on our choice than that of our body. 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 57/1 Fools of each fabrick, sharpers of all sorts. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 106 He used almost always the same fabric of verse. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §597 Compounds vary extremely as regards laxity or compactness of fabric. |
7. concr. a. Of a textile article: The woven substance; tissue, fibre. Also fig.
| 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 152 In following that example our bleachers destroyed the fabric of their goods. 1836 J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. ix. (1852) 263 There are minds in whose fabric the ratiocinative faculty preponderates. 1842 J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 228 German wool is of that inferior description which enters into the fabric of low middling cloths. 1877 E. R. Conder Bas. Faith i. 3 Faith in the Unseen and reverence for the Divine—are inwoven in the very fabric of our nature. |
b. Occas. used for: Structural material. Now spec. the basic structure (walls, floor, roof) of a building.
| 1849 Murchison Siluria iii. 42 Lime wherewith to supply the fabric of the thicker shell of other mollusca. 1850 Daubeny Atom. Th. viii. (ed. 2) 245 The chief constituent of the vegetable fabric. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xx. 503 The fabric of the mill appears to have been invariably timber. 1934 Batsford & Fry Cathedrals of England 4 The fabrics..form in the majority of cases a remarkable patchwork of building periods. 1955 Times 3 May 6/4 The skilled staff needed not only to maintain the fabric of the buildings but to care for the precious pictures, furniture, and gardens. Ibid. 9 May 5/2 Much has been done..since a public appeal was opened on behalf of the fabric of Norwich Cathedral, to make this noble building safe. |
III. 8. A building erected for purposes of manufacture; a place where work is carried on; a factory, manufactory. rare.
| 1656–81 Blount Glossogr., Fabric, a shop or work-house wherein any thing is framed. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. ii. xiv. 61 His fabric appeared as a little town, having about four hundred looms. 1777 W. Dalrymple Trav. Sp. & Port. xxxi, The Marquis..has established a fabrick of woollen cloth. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. (1808) I. 33 There is a great fabric of carpets at Axminster. 1844 Fraser's Mag. XXX. 431/1 The first fabric of liqueurs which had any extensive renown was that of Montpellier. |
IV. 9. attrib. and Comb., as fabric glove, fabric hat (sense 4); fabric-faired (sense 3), fabric-printing (sense 4), adjs.
| 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 231/1 Ladies' fabric gloves. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 22 Sept. 13/2 They offer great opportunities for colour schemes, those fabric hats. 1916 To-Day 25 Nov. 92/2 Even his warm winter gloves are made of cotton..‘fabric’ gloves, such as most men wear in the summer. 1934 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVIII. 670 Fabric-faired girder designs are diminishing. 1946 Nature 2 Nov. 614/2 A rotational viscometer for fabric-printing thickeners. 1971 ‘A. Gilbert’ Tenant for Tomb i. 8 She..carried a big old-fashioned tapestry bag and wore fabric gloves. |
▸ fabric softener n. a liquid added when washing clothes to soften and freshen cloth and reduce static; (also) = fabric softener sheet n. at Additions
| 1955 N.Y. Times 16 June 37/5 (advt.) Staley sta-puff *fabric softener qt. bt. 49 ¢. 1976 Business Week (Nexis) 21 June 96 Women rate fabric softeners, the sheet type that go into the clothes dryer, as the most important new consumer product to come on the marketplace last year. 2002 Choice Sept. 42/2 Black or grey marks on your washing..could be caused by..a waxy mixture of fabric softener and detergent. |
▸ fabric softener sheet n. a paper sheet impregnated with fabric softener, designed to be put with clothes into a tumble dryer.
| 1975 Post Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) (Electronic text) 3 Dec. (advt.) *Fabric softener sheets. For use in the dryer. 10-ct. pkg. 59¢. 2004 Times (Nexis) 18 Mar. ii. 13 You can put orange peel, a fabric-softener sheet or bicarbonate of soda in the shoes overnight, which should mean fresher shoes by the following morning. |
▪ II. ˈfabric, v.
In 7–8 fabrick(e.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To construct, fashion, frame, make (a material or immaterial object). Also, to fabric up = fabricate 1 and 1 c.
| 1623 Favine Theat. Hon. x. ii, That [Target] of Achilles, fabrickt by the Armourer Vulcane. 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Cæsar ii. xv. 215 Such as the Papists fabricke up unto themselves in their works of Supererogation. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 74 Matters fram'd and fabric't already to our hands. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 349 The polish'd Glass, whose small Convex..shews..how [Cheese-Inhabitants] Fabrick their Mansions in the harden'd milk. 1738 Common Sense (1739) II. 5 You fabrick Generals as Statuaries do Figures of Wood and Clay. 1921 Public Opinion 14 Oct. 375/1 All these were dreamed and fabricked out for immediate material benefit. 1924 W. A. White Woodrow Wilson xvi. 352 This high dream of peace, that he fabricked upon the anvil of a three years' debate. |
Hence † ˈfabricker, ˈfabricking vbl. n.
| 1698 R. Fergusson View Eccles. 107 The Original Authors and Fabrickers of the Word [trimmer] designed to Describe those..who were neither Loyal Subjects..nor Vigorous Patrons. Ibid. 116 A key of his own Fabricking. |