† ˈvestiment Obs.
Forms: 3–4 uestiment, 4–6 vestyment (5 -mente), 4–7, 9 vestiment (5 Sc. westiment); also pl. 3 -menz, 4 -mens, 4–5 -mentz.
[a. OF. vestiment (= Pr. vestimen, Sp. and It. vestimento, Pg. vestimenta), or ad. L. vestīmentum clothes, a garment, etc., f. vestīre to clothe, vest v. Cf. vestment n.]
1. A vestment, esp. one worn by an ecclesiastic.
Common from c 1380 to c 1600, freq. in pl.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 418 Ne wite ȝe nout in oure huse of oðer monnes þinges.., ne nout ne underuo ȝe þe chirche uestimenz. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 133 Þo seint thomas hadde is masse i-songue his chesible he gan of weue, Alle is oþur uestimenz on him he let bi-leue. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 9337 Curteynes, or ouþer vestyment, Or any oþer vesselement Þat falleþ to holy cherches seruyse. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 87 He ordeyned þat mynystres of holy cherche schulde nouȝt were holy vestymentis in þe comyn use of every day. c 1400 Plowman's Tale in Pol. Poems (Rolls) I. 332 Now been pristes pokes so wide, That men must enlarge the vestiment. c 1450 Merlin vi. 107 And ther-with thei risen vp, and toke hym by-twene their armes, and ledde hym to the vestymentz rioall. 1523 [Coverdale] Old God & New (1534) L j, This day the preest hath a redde vestiment.., and when he syngeth masse of requiem, he hath on a blacke vestiment. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utopia ii. (1895) 287 Thies priestes,..whiles the armes be fighting together,..knele vpon their knees in their hallowed vestimentes. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 108 Hee creditted Newgate with the same metamorphized costly vestiment. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. §5. 9 Socrates answereth: you haue reason, and it becomes you well, beeing a man so trimme in your vestiments. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry ii. ii. 27 The High Priests Vestiments was linnen Breeches next his flesh. 1850 Browning Christmas Eve ii. 74 Mine's the same right with your poorest and sickliest, Supposing I don the marriage-vestiment [rime Testament]. |
| Comb. 1479–81 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 101 The Vestyment makere. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. 10 Stacyoners, vestyment sewers, and ymagers. |
| transf. and fig. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. xii. 29 All that day she outwore in wandering,..Till that againe the second euening Her couered with her sable vestiment. 1620 E. Blount Horæ Subs. 30 Howsoeuer a man may appeare to himselfe more complete, and full, in the vestiments of Vertue. 1655 T. Vaughan Euphrates 91 With the fire he attracts the Air which is the vestiment or body of the fire. 1656 Heylin Surv. France 51 There we beheld nature in her richest vestiments. |
2. collect. Clothing, garb, vesture.
rare.
| 1637 G. Daniel Genius of Isle 25 The Naiades in Azure vestiment, With Hairs vnbound, the willing Sand shall print. |