▪ I. fore-yard1
(ˈfɔəjɑːd)
[f. fore- prefix + yard1.]
The yard or court in front of a building.
| 1388 Wyclif Ezek. x. 4 The halle [v.r. forȝerde; L. atrium]. 1420–30 Lay-Folks' Prayer Bk. (E.E.T.S.) 46 In the forȝerdis of the hous of oure God. 1699 S. Sewall Diary 21 June (1878) I. 498 A Pack of Cards are found strawed over my fore-yard. 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 288 She would not come in, but sat fretting on a Seat in the Fore-yard. 1860 J. White Hist. France (ed. 2) 90 Where gentle lawns sloping downward from the door must be converted into a foreyard. |
▪ II. fore-yard2
(ˈfɔəjɑːd)
[f. fore- prefix + yard2.]
1. Naut. ‘The lowest yard on the fore-mast’ (W. C. Russell).
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. iii. 16 The fore Yard [must be] 19 yards long, and 15 inches diameter or thick. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 145 Her Fore-top-mast broke short, and in its Fall, meeting with the Fore-yard broke it in the Slings. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scot. ix. (1855) 91 At sea, when the bell is struck at noon, the sun is said to be ‘over the fore-yard’. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 6 After toiling on the foreyard in a violent night-squall. |
† 2. pl. = antennæ. Obs.
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 937 The fore-yards are thin, black and short. |