Canterbury, n.
(ˈkæntəbərɪ, -bərɪ)
[A city of England famous from ancient times as the see of the Archbishop and Primate of all England. The shrine of Thomas à Becket (St. Thomas of Canterbury) who was murdered in the cathedral 29 Dec., 1170, was in pre-Reformation times a favourite object of pilgrimage; and it was a company of pilgrims to this shrine that Chaucer made the narrators of his ‘Canterbury Tales’, to which some of the attributive uses refer.
c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 16 Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages. And specially from euery shires ende Of Engelond to Caunturbury they wende The hooly blisful martir for to seke That hem hath holpen whan þat they were seeke.]
A. attrib.
1. In phrases referring either (a) to the pilgrims, as Canterbury bells; (b) to the tales told on the way (or Chaucer's work so called), as Canterbury tale or Canterbury story, in later times often taken as a long tedious story, a ‘friar's tale’, a fable, a cock-and-bull story; (c) or applied by the Puritans to the hierarchical position of Canterbury, as Canterbury trick.
| [c 1386 Chaucer Prol. (title) Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury.] ? a 1550 in C. Wordsworth Eccl. Biog. (1818) I. 168 Pilgrimes..with the noise of their piping, and with the sound of their singing, and the jangling of their Canturburie bels. 1575 Turberv. Bk. Falconrie 260 A verie olde womans fable or Cantorburie tale. 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 422 A lewd lying counterfeter of more then Caunterburie tales. 1589 Greene Menaph. Wks. 1881–3 VI. 86 Whosoeuer Samela descanted of that loue, tolde you a Canterbury tale. 1589 Hay any Work 1 There is a canterbury trick once to patch up an acusation with a lye or two. 1662 Fuller Worthies (1811) I. 527 (D.) Since that time Canterbury Tales are parallel to Fabulæ Milesiæ, which are characterized, nec veræ, nec verisimiles. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 132 ¶10 One [Story] of a Quarter of an Hour long..gathers Circumstances every Time he tells it, till it grows into a long Canterbury Tale of two Hours. 1737 in N. & Q. Ser. iii. IX. 414/2 [He] would begin a long Canterbury Story of a duel he had fought. 1763 Colman Deuce is in him ii. i. (D.) What, to come here with a Canterbury tale of a leg and an eye, and Heaven knows what! |
2. Canterbury pace, Canterbury rack, Canterbury rate, Canterbury trot, Canterbury gallop, etc., supposed originally to designate the pace of the mounted pilgrims.
| a 1636 W. Sampson Vow-breaker v. i, Have I practic'd..my smooth Ambles, and Canterbury Paces? 1675 Charac. Fanatic in Harl. Misc. VII. 637 (D.) A Canterbury rack, half pace, half gallop. 1717 E. Ward Wks. II. 6 With whip and spur he might beat-up Into a Canterbury tit-up. 1773 Johnson, Canterbury gallop, the hand gallop of an ambling horse, commonly called a canter; said to be derived from the monks riding to Canterbury on easy ambling horses. 1826 F. Cooper Mohicans ii, The most confirmed gait that he could establish, was a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs. 1830 Galt Laurie T. vi. vii. (1849) 280 On horseback, and off at a Canterbury trot. |
3. Canterbury hoe (see quot. 1954).
| a 1887 Jefferies Field & Hedgerow (1889) 79 A two-spean spud, or Canterbury hoe, with points instead of a broad blade. 1954 A. G. L. Hellyer Encycl. Garden Work & Terms 124/2 What is virtually a modification of the draw hoe, is a type known as the Canterbury hoe in which the blade consists of three fork-like prongs attached to the handle at right angles. |
4. [Name of province in South Island, N.Z.] Canterbury lamb, term used in Great Britain for lamb or mutton imported from New Zealand; in N.Z., for certain grades of such meat. Also absol.
| 1898 N.Z. Farmer, Bee & Poultry Jrnl. July 232/1 Does he mean to say that intrinsically as food..English mutton is worth about three times as much as prime Canterbury frozen? 1903 Cyclopedia N.Z. III. 80 We are basking in prosperity, now that we can turn off a large quantity of ‘Prime Canterbury’ from the plains. 1928 R. G. Stapledon Tour Australia & N.Z. viii. 58 A brief reference to the New Zealand ‘Canterbury lamb’..may not be out of place. 1959 J. Pascoe N.Z. Sheep-Station 3 Every time we buy Canterbury lamb from the butcher we are reminded that the meat we are going to eat has come from a New Zealand sheep-farm. 1966 ‘K. Nicholson’ Hook, Line & Sinker ii. 25 We'll call at the butcher first; Len has saved a nice piece of Canterbury for us. |
B. n.
† 1. [From phrases in A 2.] An easy galloping pace; a hand-gallop; a canter. Obs.
| 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Hee rides altogether upon spurre..who is as familiarly acquainted with a Canterbury, as hee who makes Chaucer his author, is with his tale. 1710 Shaftesbury Charac. i. iii. (1737) III. 25 The common Amble or Canterbury is not..more tiresom to a good Rider, than this See-Saw of Essay-Writers is to an able Reader. 1729 Dennis Pope's Dunc. (N.) The Pegasus of Pope, like a Kentish post-horse, is always on the Canterbury. |
2. A piece of furniture; a stand with light partitions to hold music-portfolios and the like.
| 1803 T. Sheraton Cabinet Dict. 127 Canterbury..has of late years been applied to some pieces of cabinet work, because, as the story goes, the bishop of that see first gave orders for these pieces. One piece is a small music stand... The other piece which receives this epithet, is a supper tray, made to stand by a table at supper. 1849 in Smart Supp. 1857 J. H. Walsh Dom. Econ. 202 Rosewood or mahogany plain Canterbury with drawer. 1880 Argosy XXX. 9 Look in the canterbury and find me that piece by Schubert. 1883 M. E. Braddon Gold. Calf i. 10 In an ancient canterbury under the ancient piano. 1904 A. Bennett Great Man i. 2 The Canterbury with its spiral columns. 1962 Times 17 Nov. 11/7 In England the supper canterbury was essentially a specialized form of dumb waiter. |