▪ I. arch, n.
(ɑːtʃ)
Also 4–6 arche.
[a. OF. arche:—L. arca chest, coffer; also, through some confusion, used in OF. for arc:—L. arc-um bow (see arc n.).]
I. = L. arcus.
† 1. Any part of a curve; = arc n. 1, 2. Obs.
| c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. vii. 21 The arch of the day..from the sonne arisyng til hit go to reste. 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Def., The compassed line..is called an arche lyne, or a bowe lyne. Ibid. i. iv, Draw an arch of a circle. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 62 An Arch of the Horizon. 1677 Sir M. Hales Prim. Orig. Man. i. vi. 119 The convex Superficies of the highest Arch of being. 1790 Wildbore in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 544 The arch-line of this sector. 1831 Brewster Optics x. 93 The arch of vibration was more rapidly diminished in the sun's light. |
2. A curved structure of firm material, either capable of bearing weight or merely ornamental.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden I. 215 An arche of marbel..þe arche of Augustus Cesar his victories. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxiii. 25 Ane Arche of fayre werk and of fyne. 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. x, The arche of a brydge or of a house or window. a 1637 B. Jonson To Sir E. Sackville (R.) 'Tis the last keystone That makes the arch. 1751 J. Brown Shaftesb. Charac. 74 The very key-stone of this visionary arch, which he hath..thrown over the depths of error. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. xcii., For this the conqueror rears The arch of triumph! |
3. a. transf. Anything having the form of the curves or structures, described in the prec. 1 and 2.
| c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon ix. 125 The circled arches of thy brows. 1676 Moxon Print Lett. 7 The Arches upon the feet of Letter A is the Footing of that Letter. 1702 Addison Medals ii. 112 His head is encompassed with..an arch of glory. 1854 Owen in Orr's Circ. Sc. I. 168 The neural arch is formed by a pair of bones, called ‘neurapophyses’. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Arch..1. A portion of a lode left standing when the rest is extracted. 2. The roof of a reverberatory furnace. |
b. esp. The rainbow.
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 71 The Queene o'th Skie, Whose watry Arch, and messenger, am I. 1728 Thomson Spring 215 Behold th' amusive arch before him fly. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. I. x. 123 God's arch, the arch of the rainbow. |
4. a. Curvature in the shape of an arch.
| 1855 Tennyson Maud i. xvi, The delicate Arab arch of her feet. 1880 C. & F. Darwin Movem. Plants 89 The fact of so many organs..being all arched whilst they break through the ground, shows..the importance of the arch to seedling plants. |
b. Anat. One of the arches formed by the tarsal and metatarsal bones of the foot; fallen arch, one that has flattened. Also attrib., as arch support, a device worn in the shoe to provide support for the arch of the foot.
| 1858 G. M. Humphry Treat. Human Skeleton 492 The plantar arch. The foot is..made in the shape of an arch. The summit of the arch is at the top of the astragalus. The hinder limb of the arch is formed..by the os calcis; and the anterior limb is formed by the other tarsal and the metatarsal bones. Ibid. 495 The arch yields..at the joint between the astragalus and the navicular bone, the person becomes ‘flat-footed’. Ibid., The well-formed foot presents other arches besides the one chief plantar arch which we have been considering. 1875 St. George's Hosp. Rep. VII. 211 Cases in which the tarsal arch has given way, but has not been obliterated. 1939 M. L. Spring Rice Working-Class Wives v. 109 She has had varicose veins..for which the doctor has advised elastic stockings and arch supports. 1945 B. MacDonald Egg & I (1947) i. 16 She toed out and had trouble with her arches. |
5. An arched roof, a vault; fig. the heavens.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 120 Who, like an arch, reuerb'rate The voyce againe. 1611 ― Cymb. i. vi. 33 Hath Nature giuen them eyes To see this vaulted Arch? 1738 Glover Leonidas i. 149 The arch of heav'n resounded. 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xvii, While the deep arch with sullen roar Return'd their surly jar. |
6. Court of Arches, or briefly Arches: the ecclesiastical court of appeal for the province of Canterbury, formerly held at the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (or ‘of the Arches’), so named from the arches that supported its steeple.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 415 Seyn Mary chyrche of þe arches. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. iii. 61 Vokettus of þe Arches. 1553–87 Foxe A. & M. III. 140 Cited to appear in the Arches at Bow Church. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 64 The court of arches..whereof the judge is called the dean of the arches. 1863 Cox Inst. Eng. Govt. ii. xi. 569. |
7. Chiefly pl. Collectors' name for certain species of moths: see quots.
| 1766 M. Harris Aurelian 64 Red Arches. This Moth is generally taken by beating the boughs of the oak..the latter end of June. 1832 J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 169 The Rufous Arch (S[emasia] rufana, Stephens). 1869 E. Newman Brit. Moths 407 The Gray Arches (Aplecta nebulosa)... The costal margin of the fore wings is very slightly arched, the margin very slightly scalloped. Ibid. 408 The Silvery Arches (Aplecta tincta)... The fore wings are slightly arched beyond the middle of the costal margin. 1921 Conquest Sept. 496/2 The Dark Arches (Xylophasia monoglypha). |
II. (= L. arca, OF. airche, arche.) Archives.
| 1600 Holland Livy ix. xlvi. 349 The civile law..was laid up..in their Arches [penetralibus]. 1651 W. G. Cowel's Inst. 179 Enrolled in the Arches and Treasuries of the Court. |
III. attrib. and Comb., arch-board, ‘the part of the stern over the counter, immediately under the knuckles of the stern-timbers’ (Adm. Smyth); arch-brick, arch-stone, a wedge-shaped brick or stone used in the construction of arches; arch-brow, an arched brow; arch-buttress = arc-boutant; arch-head, a curved head or terminal piece; arch-roof, a vaulted roof; archways = archwise; arch-work, structure consisting of arches. Also arch-like, arch-moulding, arch-order; and archway, -wise, q.v.
| 1883 J. Kelly in Harper's Mag. Aug. 449/2 A fan-tail over⁓hang, which ends in a moulded arch-board. 1742 Richardson Pamela IV. 241 Your Ladyship's fine Arch-Brow. 1760 Fitzgerald in Phil. Trans. LI. 827 The arch-head of the lever. 1879 G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 127 The arch mouldings are filled with the most exquisite foliage. Ibid. 284 The tracery of a window is always viewed as an arch-order. 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 150 A Vault or arch-roofe set vpon three pillers. 1828 Hutton Course Math. II. 138 The voussoirs or arch-stones..have their faces always perpendicular to the respective points of the curve upon which they stand. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 272 The sods..should be laid down archways. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 333 A verie goodly stone bridge of arch-worke. 1742 Young Nt. Th. vii. 1234 An archlike strong foundation. |
▪ II. arch, v.1
(ɑːtʃ)
[a. OF. arche-r (13th c.); cf. mod.F. arquer.]
1. To furnish with an arch or vault.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy v. 1577 By the sydes..the strete was archet full abilly. 1463 Bury Wills (1850) 37 That the Rysbygate [be]..archyd and enbatelyd. 1530 Palsgr. 435/2, I arche a buyldyng with arches, Je arche. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 72 Dinocrates began to Arche the Temple..with Load stone. 1695 Blackmore Pr. Arth. iv. 84 And Arch'd the Chambers of the Vaulted Sky. 1881 Daily News 28 Sept. 5/4 The gateway..was arched with black. |
2. To form into an arch or vault, to curve. a. trans. and refl.
| 1625 Bacon Gardens, Ess. (Arb.) 561 Fine Deuices, of Arching Water without Spilling. 1713 Guardian No. 10 ¶3 He may arch his eyebrows. 1858 Kingsley Lett. I. 21 It arched itself into one vast dome of red-hot iron. 1875 Buckland Log-Bk. 77 Arched like the back of a frightened Cat. |
b. absol. and intr.
| 1732 Pope Ess. Man iii. 102 Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand. 1818 Keats Endym. iii. 221 His snow-white brows went arching up. 1875 B. Taylor Faust xvi. I. 157 Arches not there the sky above us? |
3. with over. (In prec. senses and const.)
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §202 The sound..archeth over the wall. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. iii. 98 Arched over with an exterior Crust of Earth. 1797 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XXII. 282 Hope arches her glistering rainbow over every scene of storm. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xv. (1866) 256 Because the Infinite above is arching over the soul. |
† 4. (esp. with together.) To put together like the stones of an arch, so that all mutually support each other. to arch up: to support on the same principle. Obs.
| 1581 [see arched]. 1649 Selden Laws of Eng. i. xliii. (1739) 70 The Saxon Commonwealth was a building..arched together both for Peace and War. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 227 Mutually arching up one another. 1662 ― Worthies (1840) III. 173 How the statesmen in that age were arched together in affinity. |
5. trans. To overarch; to span.
| 1795 Southey Joan of Arc ii. 21 The vine that arch'd His evening seat. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. §4. 249 The blue blocks that arch the source of the Arveiron. |
▪ III. arch, v.2
(ɑːtʃ)
[Back-formation f. archer, archery.]
intr. To practise archery. So ˈarching vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1648 A. Ross Myst. Poet. (ed. 2) viii. 179 Apollo's Musick, and skill in arching, were more pleasing to him. 1871 W. Cory Let. 25 Aug. in Extr. Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 275 We arch—we don't often hit the target..but we know how to bend a bow. 1950 C. Fry Venus Obs. 39 All the arching duchesses. |
▪ IV. arch, a.
(ɑːtʃ)
[arch- prefix used as a separate word: see next.]
A. adj.
1. Chief, principal, prime, pre-eminent. (Now rarely used without the hyphen.)
| 1547 Life Abp. Canterb. Pref. D viij b, The fauour off any thoughe neuer so arch a Prelate. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iv. iii. 2 The most arch deed of pittious massacre. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 102 An Heretique, an Arch-one. 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 88 We cannot helpe it though we can, which is the Arch infirmity in all morality. 1649 Prynne Vind. Lib. Eng. 45 And proclaim them the Archest Impostors under Heaven. 1678 [See 2]. 1834 Lytton Pompeii (1877) 231 Thou mayest have need of thy archest magic to protect thyself. |
2. [Arising from prec. sense, in connexion with wag, knave, rogue, hence with fellow, face, look, reply, etc.] Clever, cunning, crafty, roguish, waggish. Now usually of women and children, and esp. of their facial expression: Slily saucy, pleasantly mischievous.
| 1662 More Antid. Ath. i. viii. (1712) 151 That arch wag..ridiculed that solid argument. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 147 Greath. Above all that Christian met..By-ends was the arch one. Hon. By-ends; What was he? Greath. A very arch Fellow, a downright Hypocrite. 1710 Tatler No. 193 ¶1 So arch a leer. 1775 Wesley Wks. (1872) IV. 41 Some arch boys gave him such a mouthful of dirt. 1810 Crabbe Borough xv, Arch was her look and she had pleasant ways. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxiii. 324 Her arch ways, and her frank bearing. 1877 M. Arnold Poems I. 27 The archest chin Mockery ever ambush'd in. |
† b. Const. at, upon. Obs.
| 1670 Eachard Contempt Clergy, Lads that are arch knaves at the nominative case. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 432 ¶5 A Templar, who was very arch upon Parsons. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 135 ‘Sir Simon..you are very arch upon us.’ |
† B. absol. quasi-n. A chief (one). Obs.
| 1605 Heywood If you know not Wks. (1874) 239 Poole that Arch, for truth and honesty. 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. i. 61 The Noble Duke my Master, My worthy Arch and Patron. |
▪ V. arch
Sc. var. argh a. Obs. timid, pusillanimous.