area
(ˈɛəriːə)
Pl. areas, rarely areæ.
[a. L. ārea a vacant piece of level ground in a town.]
1. A vacant piece of ground, a level space not built over or otherwise occupied; a clear or open space within a building, such as the unseated part of a church, the arena of an amphitheatre, etc.
| 1538 Leland Itin. IV. 60 In the west Part of this Street is a large Area invironed with meetly good Buildinges. 1651 Wotton. Reliq. 45 (R.) A floor or area of goodly length. 1726 Cavallier Mem. i. 107 The Gun-powder being..spread over Floors and Areas made for that purpose. 1740 Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 301 The area or platform of the old stage. 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) IV. lii. 88 That the communion table should be removed from the middle of the area. 1869 Lubbock Preh. Times viii. 273 With a level area at the summit. 1884 Daily News 10 Mar. 4/2 (Theat. Advt.) Comfortable area seats at sixpence. |
2. a. An enclosed court,
spec. a sunken court, shut off from the pavement by railings, and approached by a flight of steps, which gives access to the basement of dwelling-houses.
dry area: a covered channel round the external walls of a building to prevent damp.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Add. xi. 24 The Temple was the area and court of Religion. 1694 Lond. Gaz. mmmxii/4 The Dining-Room Floor..hath..a pleasant Airy 30 foot long. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 454 ¶6 One of the Windows which opened to the Area below. 1810 Wellington in Gurwood Disp. VI. 9 To go, like gentlemen, out of the hall door..and not out of the back door, or by the area. 1839 Dickens O. Twist (1850) 45/2 Pulling the caps from the heads of small boys and tossing them down areas. |
b. Often
attrib., as in
area-bell,
area-door,
area-gate,
area-head,
area-railing,
area-step, etc.
area-sneak: a thief who steals into kitchens through area-gates left open; so
area-sneaking,
area-sneak v.;
area-way = area 2; also
U.S., an area serving as a passage-way.
| 1836 Dickens Sketches v. (1850) 16/2 [I] rang the area-bell. |
| 1864 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. v. 34 A piece of fat black water-pipe which trailed itself over the area-door. 1913 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. i. iv. 62 The area door slammed. |
| 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxxv, Area-gates is left open. 1917 T. S. Eliot Prufrock 31, I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids Sprouting despondently at area gates. |
| 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge viii, To retail at the area-head above pennyworths of broth. |
| 1836 ― in Bell's Life in London 17 Jan. 1/1 The hungry wayfarer..plods wearily by the area railings. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. vi. (C. D. ed.) 42 With spears in their hands like lacquered area railings. 1946 R. Campbell Talking Bronco 18 Like a cane That's rattled down an area-railing. |
| 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Area sneak, or Area slum, the practice of slipping unperceived down the areas of private houses, and robbing the lower apartments of plate or other articles. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. lix, Why wasn't I a thief, swindler, housebreaker, area-sneak? 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour Extra vol. (1862) 311/2 Most of the lodgers were out prowling over the various districts of the metropolis, some picking pockets, others area-sneaking. 1869 Eng. Mech. 14 May 181/1 Would infallibly become pickpockets or area-sneaks. 1906 Daily Chron. 14 May 6/3 To prevent burglary and area-sneaking. |
| 1834 Dickens Sk. Boz (1836) I. 147 The area and the area-steps..were..clean and bright. |
| 1899 M. P. Breen Thirty Years N.Y. Politics 731 Surplus rain..made its way into area-ways. 1907 Chicago Even. Post 4 May 3 The building is connected with the main hospital by a covered areaway. 1931 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) iii. 56 Then Louie gets the back door open and takes it on the lam through an areaway. |
3. The amount of surface contained within given limits; superficial extent. (Formerly used also of cubic content.)
area of planetary motion: the space contained by any arc of the orbit and the two radii which intercept it.
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. iv, The area of a triangle, is that space, which is contayned within the sydes of a triangle. 1635 N. Carpenter Geogr. Del. i. viii. 201 The Areæ or spaces comprehended of Solide figures. 1685 Boyle Free Enq. 312 So the Bigness or Area of the Pupil varies. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 179 ¶6 The Area of my Green-House is a Hundred Paces long, Fifty broad. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., A line, or radius, drawn from the centre of the sun to the centre of the planet, always sweeps or describes elliptic Areas proportional to the times. 1831 Brewster Optics v. 46 Increasing the size of the lens or the area of its surface. ― Newton (1855) II. xiv. 11 Newton regarded the areas of curves as generated by drawing the ordinate into the abscissa. 1833 Sir J. Herschel Astron. v. 201 The equable description of areas by the earth about the sun. |
4. a. A particular extent of surface,
esp. of the earth's surface; a space, region, tract. Also in many specific uses: (i) with
adjs., as
depressed area,
derestricted area, etc.; (ii) with
ns., as
defence area,
sterling area, etc.: see under the first elements. Also
attrib. and
Comb., as
area board (
board n. 8 b);
area bombardment,
bombing, the bombing of an extended area rather than of a strictly limited target; similarly
area shoot (see
quot. 1925).
| 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xx. (1852) 480 The East Indian archipelago..is in most parts an area of elevation. 1854 Latham in Lect. Educ. R. Instit. 95 The area over which a language is spoken. 1879 George Progr. & Pov. ii. ii. 107 There are still in India great areas uncultivated. 1920 Act 10 & 11 Geo. V, c. 50. §7 Where a district is co-extensive with an area, the district committee shall perform the functions of the area board as well as of the district committee. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 8 An area shoot, a widespread bombardment over a whole district to make it untenable by the enemy. 1941 Western Evening Herald (Plymouth) 11 June 3/4 The city is divided into areas, each under the control of an area commander. 1942 Aeronautics Oct. 33/3 Area bombing was probably the correct type of bombing to adopt against the German ships in Brest. 1944 Hansard Lords 5th Ser. CXXX. 739 Do the Government understand the full force of what area bombardment is doing and is destroying now? Ibid. 741 The first outstanding raid of area bombing was..in the spring of 1942. 1962 BBC Handbk. 37 There are regional and area news bulletins..and other events which are carried locally. Ibid. 70 Most VHF transmitters cover an area smaller than a BBC region and can be used for what is called area broadcasting. |
b. Biol. A limited part of the surface of any organism, distinguished by colour, texture, etc., from that which surrounds it.
| 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 232 The part which is bent against the ventral valve is called the area. 1857 Berkeley Crypt. Bot. §395 Anastomosing so as to form little areæ. 1880 Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v., The germinative area..an opaque spot in which the embryo appears. |
5. fig. Of extent conceived by the mind: Surface (
obs.); scope, range, extent.
| 1627 G. Watts Bacon's Adv. Learn. (1640) Pref. 29 The minds of men are after such strange waies besieged, that for to admit the true beams of things, a sincere and polisht Area is wanting. 1852 D. Mitchell Dream Life 163 The whole area of life. 1872 Liddon Elem. Relig. i. 26 The exact area and import of these truths. 1955 D. Davie Articulate Energy vii. 87 The images serve to indicate roughly the area of experience that the poet is dealing with. 1957 G. Faber Jowett v. 85 The feeling which dictated his unequivocal choice of words..was strongly rooted in a still hateful area of memory. |
† 6. A bed or border in a garden. (So in L.)
Obs.| 1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus i. 95 The area or decussated plot might be a perfect square. 1669 J. Rose Eng. Viney. Vind. (1675) 25 That when the ridges come to be levell'd, the top of your sets may be even with the area. |
7. A bald place on the head; a disease of the hair which causes it to fall off and leave bald patches. (So in L.)
| 1706 in Phillips. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Area is a general kind of depilation. 1880 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |
8. Special
Comb. area code N. Amer., a dialling code identifying an area or region within a national telephone system, and used in conjunction with a local number.
| [1951 Pop. Mechanics Nov. 130/2 Each area..has been given a three-digit number. These are the national-area codes you will someday dial before spinning out the local number you want in a distant city.] 1961 N.Y. Times 1 June 37/8 On Oct. 1, customers calling the city from the suburban counties will first dial the New York *area code, 212, then the local number. 1965 ‘E. McBain’ He who Hesitates ii. 42 He sat in the booth..and dialled the area code for Carey, and then the number, Carey 7-3341, and waited while the phone rang on the other end. 1985 N.Y. Times 14 Dec. 13/2 By dialling 1, 0, a three-digit access code and the area code and number, a caller can use any of eight different long distance companies and have the charge for the call tacked onto the telephone bill. |
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Add:
[1.] b. With defining word, as
dining area,
reception area, etc.: a part of a room, building, etc., set aside or used for a specific function.
| 1950 Western Folklore IX. 160 The following words and phrases were gathered from an employee of the atomic project [at Los Alamos, New Mexico]..Tech area. The research area. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 45 (Advt.), Kitchen has built-in appliances and eating area. 1979 N. Hynd False Flags xv. 131 They entered a small cubicle converted into a work area. There was an old desk..with a disorder of papers. 1986 C. Phillips State of Independence 60 He..looked off towards an open door, which Bertram knew led to a kitchen area. |
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area bishop n. Christian Church a bishop with authority over one of the parts of a subdivided diocese, as delegated by the diocesan bishop;
cf. suffragan n. 2.
| 1925 Helena (Montana) Independent 18 Jan. 20/1 Mrs. H. Lester Smith, wife of the *area bishop, will give an illustrated lecture on India and Japan. 1970 Church Times 6 Feb. 1/5 A proposal to administer the diocese of Oxford as four separate areas each the full responsibility of a bishop is made in a report by a working party... The area bishops would each be assisted by an archdeacon. 1993 Catholic Directory 115 Archdiocese of Westminster... In 1976 the diocese was divided into five Pastoral Areas, each with its own Area Bishop. 2001 Times 8 June 9/7 The Church's 113 bishops are made up of 44 diocesan bishops, 36 area bishops, 30 suffragans and three ‘flying bishops’ who care for the opponents of women priests. |
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area dean n. Christian Church (chiefly
Anglican Church) a dean with authority over one of the parts of a subdivided rural deanery; (now)
= dean n.1 5.
| 1950 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Amer. 12 Nov. 45/1 He..served as *area dean..before his death Tuesday. 1972 Times 4 July 19/4 Under reorganization of the Hull Deanery, the Bishop of Hull..also to be Rural Dean of Hull, and the following to be area Deans: [etc.]. 2005 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 14 July 6 The Rev Stewart Jones..is currently priest-in-charge of All Saints, Canterbury, as well as diocesan missioner, area dean and a provincial canon of Canterbury Cathedral. |