▪ I. body, n.
(ˈbɒdɪ)
Forms: 1 bodiᵹ, 3 bodiȝ, 3–4 bodi, bode, 3–7 bodie, 4–6 bodye, 6 bodey, 3– body.
[OE. bodiᵹ neut., elsewhere in Teut. only in OHG. potah, botah, MHG. botich, -ech, potih str. masc. ‘body’; cf. mod.Bav. dial. bottech the ‘body’ of a chemise, Grimm. The word has died out of Ger., its place being taken by leib, orig. ‘life’, and körper from Lat.: but, in Eng., body remains as a great and important word.
Since Ger. botah, potah, with final h, is not the exact phonetic equivalent of OE. bodiᵹ, there is ground for supposing that the word has been adopted in both from some foreign source. E. Müller connects botah with botahha fem., mod.G. bottich masc. ‘cask, tub, vat’, identified by Wackernagel with med.L. butica = Gr. ἀποθήκη. But there does not appear to be any clear way of connecting the two words. (Fick's conjectural derivation from bhadh ‘to bind’ is out of the question. Gaelic bodhaig is from Eng.)]
I. The material frame of man (and animals).
1. a. The physical or material frame or structure of man or of any animal: the whole material organism viewed as an organic entity. (In Biol. sometimes also used of plants.)
| c 890 K. ælfred Bæda iii. xiv. (Bosw.) Wæs Oswine se cyning on bodiᵹe heah. c 1200 Ormin 4773 Hiss bodiȝ..All samenn, brest, and wambe, and þes, and cnes, and fet, and shannkess, etc. a 1300 Cursor M. 869 Our bodis ar now al bare. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. lxxviii. 64 He shold come fyght with hym body for body. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clv. 186 To fight body to body, or power to power. 1557 F. Seager Sch. Vertue 676 in Babees Bk. (1868) 347 Thy bodie vprighte, Thy fete iuste to-gether. 1665–9 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xi. (1675) 174 A Lark..lighted among some clods of Earth..of the colour of her Body. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 208 ¶10 A body languishing with disease. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §870 The common Oyster..always appears inclined to adapt its shell to the form of the body. 1881 Huxley in Nature XXIV. 346 The body is a machine of the nature of an army, not of that of a watch, or of a hydraulic apparatus. Of this army each cell is a soldier, each organ a brigade. |
| 1875 Dawson Dawn of Life viii. 214 Their bodies like those of plants..show tendencies to spiral modes of growth. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 222 The individual cells of which the body of the plant is made up. |
(In early use almost always applied to that of man: hence)
b. often contrasted with the
soul.
| a 1240 Lofsong in Cott. Hom. 205 Þauh þet werc nere i þe bodie þe wil was in þe heorte. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. i. (1495) 345 The body meuyth as the soule woll. c 1450 Lonelich Grail xlii. 112 Bothe body & sowle distroyed ȝe be. 1651 Let. in Proc. Parliament No. 81. 1241 A great comfort to the godly, both to their soules and bodies. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 268 All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 377 The foul adulteries That saturate soul with body. Mod. ‘A hard struggle to keep body and soul together.’ |
c. The corporeal or material nature or state of man, the material body and its properties.
| c 1200 Ormin 15124 To clennsenn þeȝȝre bodiȝ swa Off all þe bodiȝ sinne. 1382 Wyclif 2 Cor. xii. 2 Wher in body, wher out of body, I woot not, God woot. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 4 This Phœa was a woman robber..and naught of her body. 1611 Bible 2 Cor. xii. 2 Whether in the body, I cannot tell, whether out of the body, I cannot tell. 1816 Scott Old Mort. vi, While we are yet in the body. 1869 Goulburn Purs. Holiness ix. 78 By ‘the body’ is to be understood the mass of matter which we carry about with us, with all the various animal properties that belong to it. |
d. (Usu. hyperbolic.) Phr.
over my (etc.) dead body.
| 1833 Seba Smith Life & Writings J. Downing (1834) 137 You don't go through this door to-night, without you pass over the dead body of Jack Downing. 1936 H. Brighouse New Leisure in Best One-Act Plays 1936 81 Elsie Dixon doing confidential secretary! Over my dead body. 1963 Times 27 May 6/2 If the number of distinguished gentlemen who cry ‘Over my dead body’ really mean what they say, this will be a fairly lethal summer in Whitehall. |
2. Short (or euphemistic) for ‘dead body’, corpse.
| c 1280 Fall & Pass. 76 in E.E.P. (1862) 14 Iosep of arimathie..nem þat swet bodi adun, an biriid hir in a fair plas. a 1300 Cursor M. 14309 And quar haf yee his bode laid? c 1400 Destr. Troy 7150 Þai..brent vp the bodies vnto bare askis. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xiii. 24 The lyon stode by the body [1382 Wyclif careyn, 1388 deed bodi]. 1595 Shakes. John v. vii. 99 At Worster must his bodie be interr'd. 1619 Crooke Body of Man 19 Choose a bodie that is sound and vntainted, and either hanged, smothered, or drowned. 1835 Hood Dead Robbery ii, To steal a body. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. i. 5 In the ghastly pit long since a body was found. |
3. Applied symbolically or mystically to the bread in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
| [1357 Seven Sacr. in Lay-Folks Mass-Bk. 118 The sacrement of the auter, cristes owen bodi in likeness of brede.] 1382 Wyclif Matt. xxvi. 26 Take ȝee, and ete; this is my bodi. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Exhort., The holy communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ. 1562 39 Articles xxviii, The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 82 He caried the Lords body in a wicker basket. c 1880 J. Candlish Sacraments 98 All who believe in Him receive that one body that was broken for all. |
† 4. Used in oaths and forcible ejaculations, as
body of me!,
body of our Lord!,
God's body!,
by cocks body!, etc.
Obs. Cf. bodikin.
| c 1530 Redforde Play Wit & Sc. (1848) 7 Oh the bodye of me! What kaytyves be those. 1573 New Custom ii. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley III. 32 Body of our Lord, is he come into the Country? 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. i. 29 Gods body! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, v. ii. 22 Body a me: where is it? 1695 Congreve Love for L. ii. v. 35 Body o' me, I have a Shoulder of an Egyptian King, that I purloin'd from one of the Pyramids. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth (1860) 9 ‘Body of me’ exclaimed Simon, ‘I should know that voice!’ |
II. The main portion; the trunk.
5. a. The main portion of the animal frame, to which the extremities, etc. are attached; the trunk. Opposed to the members or limbs; also to the head,
esp. as the seat of intelligence and guidance.
| a 800 Epinal & Erf. Gloss. 947 (O.E. Texts) Spina, bodei. ― Corpus Gl. 1891 Spina, bodeᵹ. c 1000 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 265 Truncus, bodiᵹ. c 1000 ælfric Minster Hom. 203 a in Sax. Leechd. III. 355 He næfdon þæt heafod to þam bodiᵹe. 1382 Wyclif Ephes. iv. 16 Crist the heed; of whom al the body sett to-gidere, and boundyn to gidere by ech ioynture of vndirseruyng. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 26 When the Fox hath once got in his Nose, Hee'le soone finde meanes to make the Body follow. c 1600 C'tess Southampton in Shaks. C. Praise 40 All heade and veri litel body. 1840 Thirlwall Greece VII. lv. 86 A body without a head, unable either to act or to deliberate. 1867 F. Francis Angling x. (1880) 364 Body, orange-yellow, merging into..burnt sienna at the shoulder. |
b. The main stem, trunk, stock, of a plant or tree.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §133 Cut the boughe on bothe sydes a fote or two foote from the bodye of the tree. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. ii. (1623) E j, Boughes hanging out alone from the bodies. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 183 Cucumers..With crooked Bodies, and with Bellies deep. |
† c. The wood under the bark. L.
corpus.
Obs.| 1603 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 167 The black rinde of a certaine tree..betweene the bodie and the barke. |
d. fig. In biblical or theol. language,
the body of Christ: the Church of which Christ is the head.
| c 1200 Ormin 1555 Swa þatt teȝȝ shulen alle ben An bodiȝ and an sawle And Jesu Crist himm sellf shall ben Uppo þatt bodiȝ hæfedd. 1382 Wyclif Ephes. iv. 12 And he ȝaf summe sotheli apostlis, summe forsoth prophetis..into the work of mynisterie, into edificacioun of Cristis body. 1535 Coverdale Col. i. 18 And he is the heade of the body, namely, of the congregacion. 1611 Bible 1 Cor. xii. 27 Now yee are the body of Christ, and members in particular. |
6. The part of a dress which covers the body, as distinct from the arms; also the part of a woman's dress above the waist, as distinguished from the loose skirt.
a pair of bodies: see
bodice.
| 1585 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1860) II. 114 One petticote of house-wyfe clothe..An upper bodye of durance. 1611 in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 92 That none should wear..any body or sleeves of wire, whalebone or with any other stiffing. 1696 J. F. Merchant's Wareho. 38 Cut of Ell 1/8 off of one of the half bredths..which take for the body of your Shifts. 1698 R. Lassels Voy. Italy II. 288 Twelve breast and back pieces (like womens close bodies). 1868 Queen Victoria Life in Highlands 124, I and the girls [were] in royal Stewart skirts and shawls over black velvet bodies. |
7. a. The main, central, or principal part, as distinguished from parts subordinate or less important; the part round which the others are grouped, or to which they are attached as appendages, etc.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 402 Nim þonne þæt sæd sete on þæs sules bodiᵹ. 1595 Shakes. John iv. ii. 112 Neuer such a powre..Was leuied in the body of a land. 1670 Cotton Espernon i. i. 35 The body of the Emblem was a figure of the Duke himself. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xx. 355 He got into the body of the tree. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 234 The body of all true religion consists.. in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world. 1863 H. Cox Instit. ii. x. 562 Crimes committed at sea, or on the coast out of the body of any County. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. ix. 173 The body of the blade. |
b. The foundation of a felt or silk hat. Also
Comb. body-maker.
| 1845 Dodd Brit. Manuf. V. 159 The ‘body’, or ‘foundation’, of a good beaver hat is..made of eight parts rabbits' fur [etc.]. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 519/2 A silk hat consists of a light stiff body covered with a plush of silk. 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 74 Silk Hat Making: Body Maker. Finisher. Shaper. 1906 Watson Smith Chem. Hat Manuf. 65 The stiffening and proofing of hat forms or ‘bodies’. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §409 Body-maker [of hats]. |
8. spec. a. The middle aisle, or the whole nave, of a church.
b. In
Fortification (see
quot. 1862).
c. The shaft of a pillar.
d. The resonance box of a musical instrument.
e. In
Anat. The main portion of a bone,
esp. of one of the vertebræ.
f. The main portion of a document, as distinguished from the introduction or preamble, and
esp. from an appendix, a codicil, or other supplementary matter.
| 1418 E.E. Wills (1882) 30 To the werkis of the body of the Parisshe Chirche. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Rubric, The Table..shall stand in the body of the church. 1559 Abp. Hethe in Strype Ann. Ref. I. ii. App. vi. 7 The body of this acte touchinge the supremacy. 1580 Baret Alv. B 871 The bodie of a pillour, betweene the chapitre and the base. 1661 Bramhall Just Vind. iv. 80 The incroachments..mentioned in the body of that law. 1712 Prideaux Direct. Ch.-wardens (ed. 4) 24 In the City of London..the Parishioners repair the Chancel as well as the Body of the Church. 1736 King in Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 179 The tracts..may be printed by way of appendix. This will be indeed less trouble than the interweaving them in the body of the history. 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 17 In every vertebra, there are distinguished a body, seven processes, four notches, and a hole. 1862 Trollope Orley F. i. (ed. 4) 2 The body of the will was in the handwriting of the widow, as was also the codicil. 1862 F. Griffiths Artil. Man. (ed. 9) 262 The Body of the place, (or Enceinte) consists of the work next to, and surrounding the town, in the form of a polygon, whether regular, or irregular. 1878 H. H. Gibbs Ombre Pref. 7 Bringing the supplementary Chapter into the body of the Book. |
g. (
a) The part of a vehicle fitted to receive the load; (
b) used for the corresponding part in a motor-car and in an aeroplane; (
c)
attrib. and
Comb.| (a) 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §5 The bodye of the wayne of oke. 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) VI. 68 There I do find a great many ladies sitting in the body of a coach. 1761, 1794 [see carriage 28]. 1881 J. W. Burgess Coach-building 42 The body is a species of box, fitted with doors and windows, and lined and wadded for the purpose of comfort. 1897 J. Philipson Coachbuilding 2 The body is the most essential part of the carriage. |
| (b) 1896 Horseless Age May 20 Width of body [of motorcar] 32 inches; length of body 8 feet 6 inches. 1906 Motors 52 The Tonneau body was till lately most popular. 1909 A. Berget Conquest of Air 166 The body..is the space designed to carry the motor, propeller, and the aviator. 1920 Jones & Frier Aeroplane Design 109 The main function of the body or fuselage is to provide accommodation for cargo, pilot, passengers, flying instruments, and a reliable bearing for the power unit. |
| (c) 1611 [see body-maker, sense 29 below]. 1802 Sporting Mag. XIX. 205/1 In the first shop [of a coach manufactory] the body-makers are employed. 1846 Dodd Brit. Manuf. VI. 113 ‘Body⁓makers’ [are] employed principally on delicate framework and panelling. 1884 [see body 29]. 1891 Daily News 29 Dec. 6/4 The body-making and harness departments. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 19 Mar. 4/1 A large number of chassis..fitted with every class of bodywork. 1909 Ibid. 17 June 4/1 The body-painting, smithy, and upholstery shops. 1914 C. W. Terry Motor Body-building 58 Materials used by body-builders. 1920 Jones & Frier Aeroplane Design 99 The outer, inner, and body struts. 1963 Times 14 May 7/3 The bodywork is virtually as good as new after years of operation. 1967 Autocar 28 Dec. 2/1 The Hillman Super Minx, with which the previous Vogue had shared a common body-shell. |
h. Naut. The hull of a ship; the section of this as viewed from different positions.
| 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 22 The whole Bodies of their Ships under Water. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) D ij b, The fore-body of the ship, i.e. before the midship-frame. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 99 The figure of a ship, abstractedly considered, is supposed to be divided into different parts,..to each of which is given the appellation of Body. Hence we have the terms Fore Body, After Body, Cant Bodies, and Square Body. Thus the Fore Body is the figure, or imaginary figure, of that part of the ship afore the midships or dead-flat, as seen from ahead... The Square Body comprehends all the timbers whose areas or planes are perpendicular to the keel and square with the middle line of the ship; which is all that portion of a ship between the cant bodies. |
9. The main portion of a collection or company; the majority; the larger part, the bulk of anything.
| 1599 Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 287 The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turkes (1621) 1359 The bodie of the Turkes armie followed bihinde. 1678 N. Wanley Wonders v. ii. §64. 471/2 The main body of the Empire. 1732 Neal Hist. Purit. I. 19 The Body of the inferiour Clergy were disguised Papists. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 166 The great body of the people leaned to the royalists. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 66 Under Henry [VIII] the body of the people were prosperous. |
† 10. The vessel in which a substance to be distilled is placed; a retort. (There appears to have been a reference here to
spirit.) ?
Obs.| 1559 Morwyng Evonym. 1 Moist thinges put into a body (for so do they cal the bigger vessel from whence the vapour is lifted up) by the force of heate are extenuated into a vapour. 1594 Platt Jewell-ho. ii. 3 Put them into your pot, or body. 1641 French Distill. i. (1651) 28 Put this bread into a Glass-body, and distill it in Balneo. 1721–1800 Bailey, Body (in Chymistry) is the Vessel which holds the Matter in distilling the Spirits of Vegetables. |
11. Type-founding. The breadth of the shank of the type, which is the same throughout the fount, while the thickness varies with the letter (
e.g. I and W); hence, size of type.
| 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. ii. 11 The several bodies to which printing letters are cast..are nineteen in number. |
III. Personal being, individual.
12. a. The material being of man, as the sign and tangible part of his individuality, taken for the whole; the person. Chiefly in legal phrases.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 208 She hath her owne body feigned, For fere as though she wolde flee Out of her londe. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Matrimony, With this Ring I thee wed..with my body I thee worship. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turkes (1621) 870 An armie..consisting of most choice bodies. 1652 Proc. Parliament No. 135. 2100 A Warrant in the nature of a Habeas Corpus..to bring without delay the body of the same prisoner. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4695/3 A barbarous Murder was committed on the Body of Mr. Henry Widdrington. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., A man is said to be bound or held in Body and goods; that is, he is liable to remain in prison; in default of payment. 1822 Scott Nigel xxvii, Two pages of the body. |
b. heir of the body: an heir who is a direct descendant.
| a 1626 Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law 51 The heires males of his body. 1732 Neal Hist. Purit. (1822) I. 12 An act of Parliament for settling the crown upon the heirs of her body. 1768 Blackstone Comm. II. 114 As the word heirs is necessary to create a fee, so, in farther imitation of the strictness of the feodal donation, the word body, or some other words of procreation, are necessary to make it a fee-tail. 1788 J. Powell Devises (1827) II. 469 You here find a child described as an heir of the body. |
13. A human being of either sex, an individual. Formerly, as still dialectally, and in the combinations any-, every-, no-, some-body, etc., exactly equivalent to the current ‘person’; but now only as a term of familiarity, with a tinge of compassion, and generally with adjectives implying this.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 489 The beste bodi of the world in bendes was ibrouȝt. c 1340 Cursor M. 3360 (Fairf.) A better body drank neyuer wine. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 258 Ac blame þow neuere body and þow be blame-worthy. 1475 Caxton Jason 90 Euery noble body ought soner chese deth thene to do..thing that sholde be ayenst their honour. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xiii[i]. 1 The foolish bodyes saye in their hertes: Tush, there is no God. 1539 Bury Wills 137, I will that my executors gyve..in breade to iiij poore bodies j d. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iv. 105 'Tis a great charge to come vnder one bodies hand. 1653 Walton Angler 56 It shall be given away to some poor body. 1693 Locke Educ. §143. iv, One angry body discomposes the whole Company. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 201 The countess was a good sort of a body. 1777 Sheridan Trip Scarb. iii. iv. Wks. 505 What do you din a body's ears for? 1833 H. Martineau Loom and Lugg. i. ii. 17 His wife was a more tidy body. |
IV. A corporate body, aggregate of individuals, collective mass.
14. a. Law. An artificial ‘person’ created by legal authority for certain ends; a corporation; commonly a corporation aggregate, but also applied to a corporation sole (
cf. quots. 1641, 1642). Always with defining
adj. body corporate,
body politic.
| 1461 Act 1 Edw. IV, i. §4 Any Fraternitie, Guild, Companie, or Fellowship, or other bodie corporate. 1528 Perkins Prof. Bk. i. §64 (1642) 30 A bodie politique, as a Maior and Comminaltie. 1641 Termes de la Ley, Bodies Politique are Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deanes, Parsons of Churches, and such like, which have succession in one person onely. 1642 Milton Argt. conc. Militia 27 The King is a body politick, for that a body politique never dieth. 1768 Blackstone Comm. I. 467 These artificial persons are called bodies politic, bodies corporate, or corporations. 1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 46/2 For the purpose of maintaining and perpetuating the uninterrupted enjoyment of certain powers, rights, property, or privileges, it has been found convenient to create a sort of artificial person, or body-politic, not liable to the ordinary casualties which affect the transmission of private rights, but capable, by its constitution, of independently continuing its own existence. This artificial person is in our law called an incorporation, corporation, or body-corporate. |
b. body politic has also the wider sense of ‘organized society’.
| 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 185 To knit themselves together in a spiritual outward society or body politic. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. i. vi. (1852) 82 With mutual consent they became a body-politick, and framed a body of necessary laws and orders. 1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. viii. 77 Associations and bodies politic within the church. |
c. spec. the body politic: the nation in its corporate character; the state. (
Orig. there appears to have been, in this use of
body, a reference to the
headship of the sovereign.)
| 1532–3 Act 24 Henry VIII, xii, This Realm of England is an Empire..governed by one supreme Head and King..unto whom a Body politick, compact of all Sorts and Degrees of People..been bounden and owen to bear a natural and humble Obedience. 1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. (Pref.) v. §2 A law is the deed of the whole body politic. 1636 Healey Epictetus' Man. xxxi. 40 But what place shall I hold then..in the body politicke? 1782 V. Knox Ess. (1819) I. xii. 69 All conduct extensively injurious to individuals, is injurious to the body politic. 1874 Reynolds John Bapt. ii. 116 Radical changes in the body-politic. |
d. (
Cf. L.
totum corpus reipublicæ.)
| 1570 Act 13 Eliz. xviii. Pream., Beneficial Causes..to insue to the Body of this Common Wealth. 1625 Burges Pers. Tithes 20 The Lawes..enacted by the King and the whole Body of the Kingdome. |
15. A number of persons taken collectively, usually as united and organized in a common cause or for common action, as for deliberation, government, business; a society, association, league, fraternity.
| 1689 Burnet Tracts I. 71 There are three different Bodies or Leagues. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. ix. 271 The Governor..had not time to form a defensive body. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 165 It is seldom that a man inrolls himself in a proscribed body from any but conscientious motives. 1852 Bright Let. in Speeches (1876) 552 Grants of public money to any public body. 1866 Liddon Bampt. Lect. i. (1875) 10 That little Body the disciples of Christ, and nucleus of His future Church. 1880 Chr. Leader 588/3 A preacher of the U.P. body. |
16. An organized collection of fighting men acting together; a force. (The most general term that can be so applied.)
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 66, I thinke we are a Body strong enough (Euen as we are) to equall with the King. 1651 Proc. Parliament No. 84. 1278 Leaving moving bodies behind to prevent their designes. 1693 Mem. Ct. Teckely ii. 151 Some pierced even to the Body of Reserve. 1769 Robertson Chas. V, V. iv. 390 Escorted by a body of horse. 1839 Thirlwall Greece III. 117 The Athenians..sent a body of troops to garrison it. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 4 The bodies now designated as the first six regiments of dragoon guards, etc. |
17. (more loosely) An assemblage of units characterized by some common attribute, and thus regarded as a whole; a collective mass:
a. of persons.
| 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Descr. Germ. vi. 269 The Semnones..by their great body, they take themselues to be the head of the Sueuians. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 10 A whole Body (consisting of number of Persons). 1677 C. Hatton in Corr. (1878) 152 The clergy did not goe in a body. 1755 Johnson in Boswell (1831) I. 275 We might go and drink tea with Mr. Wise in a body. 1832 H. Martineau Life in Wilds viii. 100 All formed in a body to go and meet the new arrivals. |
b. of things.
| 1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. xiv. §4 The entire body of the Scripture. 1796 Burke Let. noble Ld. Wks. 1842 II. 259 Since the total body of my services..have obtained the acceptance of my sovereign. 1874 Mahaffy Soc. Life Greece x. 309 This large and respectable body of opinion. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. x. 181 The High-German body of dialects. |
18. A comprehensive and systematic collection of the details of any subject; an arranged whole of information;
hence, a pandect (
cf. L.
corpus juris); a text-book.
| [1593: cf. sense 17 b.] 1647 Cowley Mistr., The Soul iii, If she do near thy Body prize Her Bodies of Philosophies. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 169 Whether they comment upon the bodie of Justinian. 1659 Milton Hirelings 92 Som wholesom bodie of divinitie as they call it. 1699 Bentley Phal. 361 A Body of Laws. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 121 ¶8, I could wish our Royal Society would compile a Body of Natural History. 1830 Herschel Nat. Phil. iii. vi. (1851) 352 Digests and bodies of science. 1860 Abp. Thomson Laws Th. Introd. 10 Science is a body of principles and deductions, Art is a body of precepts. |
V. Transferred from the material part of man to matter generally as opposed to the immaterial.
19. A separate portion of matter, large or small, a material thing; something that has physical existence and extension in space:
a. in common language and
Physics.
heavenly bodies: (in modern use) the masses of matter that exist away from the earth, the sun, moon, planets, comets, meteors, stars, etc.;
orig. a phrase of the astro-alchemists, applied to the seven ‘bodies celestial’: see 22 a.
| c 1380 Wyclif De Dot. Eccl. Sel. Wks. III. 437 Þe bemes of þe sonne..þat shyneþ freliche in bodyes. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. 15 To knowe the altitude of the sonne or of othre celestial bodies. a 1568 Coverdale Hope Faithf. xiv. (1574) 91 A wal is a body. 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. 19 A bodie is a masse or lump, which, as much as lieth in it, resisteth touching, and occupieth a place. 1642 Rogers Naaman 348 Cannot the Lord..restraine the influence of the upper bodies from the lower at his pleasure? 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. Pref., The onely Principles of Bodies, are Magnitude, Figure, Site, Motion, and Rest. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 207 ¶9 All attraction is increased by the approach of the attracting body. 1754 Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. iv. 159 The Magnitudes and Distances of the heavenly Bodies. 1841 Liebig's Lett. Chem. vi, The ultimate particles of bodies, or atoms, must occupy a certain space. |
b. viewed metaphysically.
| 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 102 A body is that, which having no dependance upon our thought, is coincident or coextended with some part of space. 1785 Reid Int. Powers 186 What we call a body, is only a bundle of sensations. 1846 Mill Logic i. iii. §7 A body..may be defined, the external cause to which we ascribe our sensations. |
c. spec. In
Physiol. often forming the base of nomenclature, as
pituitary body,
pacchionian body.
| 1866 Huxley Phys. (1869) 143 Nothing certain is known of the functions of any of these bodies [the ductless glands]. Ibid. The spheroidal bodies called corpuscles of the spleen,..consist of a solid aggregation of minute bodies. |
† 20. Geom. A figure of three dimensions; a solid.
regular body: one of the five Regular Solids.
Obs. in modern Geometry.
| 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 3 A thicke Magnitude we call a Solide, or a Body. 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. def. xvi. 3 A superficies being moued maketh a solide or bodie. 1635 J. Babington Geometry 42 The cube..is accounted one of the five regular bodies. 1796 Hutton Math. Dict. I. 215 The five Regular Bodies..These bodies were called platonic, because they were said to have been invented, or first treated of, by Plato. a 1864 tr. Weisbach (W.) The path of a moving point is a line, that of a geometric body is another body. |
21. a. A compact quantity or mass; amount; bulk; quantity.
| 1650 Fuller Pisgah 388 Ezekiels Temple had not the same body with Solomons, but greater. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 38 A proportionable Body to the..weight it is to bear. 1772 Town & Country Mag. 161 A large body of land, extending thirty miles up the Coofaw river. 1828 Hutton Course Math. II. 139 Body is the mass, or quantity of matter, in any material substance. 1849 Murchison Siluria vi. (1867) 108 Another body of igneous rock lies subjacent. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. ii. ii. §1 (1864) 224 A large body of light. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 40 A body of cold air. |
b. spec. A mass or deposit of metalliferous ore.
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 11/4 The opening of an entirely new body carrying on an average 3 per cent. copper and 15 ounces of silver to the ton. 1929 Times 25 Jan. 12/3 A number of areas [in Great Britain] are worth prospecting in the hope of discovering new ore bodies. |
22. A distinct form or kind of matter:
† a. Alchemy and
Astrol. The
seven bodies terrestrial: the seven ancient metals answering to the seven ‘heavenly bodies’ (the sun, moon, and five old planets).
Obs.| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 267 The foure spirites and the bodies seuene. The bodies seuene eek loo hem here anoon, Sol gold is, and luna siluer, we threpe, Mars yren, Mercurie quik siluer we clepe, Saturnus leed, and Iupiter is tyn, And venus copir, by my fader kyn. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 84 The bodies, whiche I speke of here, Of the planettes ben begonne. |
b. Chem. and
Min. Any kind of ‘substance’, simple or compound, solid, liquid, or gaseous.
simple bodies: the chemical elements;
compound bodies: the substances formed by their combination.
| 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. i. 13 Niter, and other Aromaticall bodies. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 12 A gummous body and dissoluble in water. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth (1723) 7 The said Metallick and Mineral Bodies. 1724 Watts Logic 16 They supposed the heavens to be a quintessence, or a fifth sort of body. 1831 Brewster Optics xxiii. 204 Crystallised bodies, such as nitre and arragonite. 1841 Liebig's Lett. Chem. iv. (1844) 63 The employment of symbols enables the chemist to express..the constitution of every compound body. |
c. The paste or clay (of a particular kind) used in the manufacture of porcelain.
| 1774 J. Wedgwood Let. 21 July (1965) 163 At one time the body is white and fine as it should be, the next we make..is a Cinamon color. 1839 Mortar body [see mortar n.1 5 b]. 1893 E. A. Barber Pott. & Porc. U.S. 127 The proportion of phosphate of lime..being..a very much smaller percentage than in the English bone body. 1902 A. Bennett Anna of Five Towns viii. 169 The four sorts of clay used in a common ‘body’—ball clay, China clay, flint clay and stone clay. |
23. abstractly (in
Metaphysics, formerly also in
Physics). That which has sensible qualities, or is perceptible by the senses; matter; ‘substance’.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 413 Spirit. The Opposite to which..is Body. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 49 He that will undertake to prove that there is something else in the World besides Body, must first determine what Body is, for otherwise he will go about to prove that there is something besides He-knows-not-what. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxiii. (1695) 164 The primary Ideas we have peculiar to Body, as contradistinguished to Spirit, are the Cohesion of solid, and consequently separable parts, and a power of communicating Motion by impulse. 1762 Kames Elem. Crit. (1833) 475 Every substratum of tangible qualities is called body. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, &c. 288 Body in the abstract..must be inert. 1870 Bowen Logic iii. 55 We cannot think of body without extension. |
† 24. Substance, as opposed to representation, shadow, etc.; reality.
Obs. or
arch.| 1382 Wyclif Col. ii. 17 Whiche ben schadowe of thingis to come; forsoth the body is of Christ. c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 552 Parfourned hath the sonne his Ark diurne No lenger may the body of hym soiurne On thorisonte. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 26 To shew Vertue her owne Feature..and the verie Age and Bodie of the Time, his forme and pressure. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 327 Men suffer themselves to be enchanted with the shadow and appearance of a thing whose real body does not so much as affect them. |
25. ‘Substance’ or substantial quality, as opposed to insubstantiality, thinness, weakness, flimsiness, or transparency: said of colours, wine, paper, textile fabrics, etc.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 371 In Greece there are no wines that have bodies enough to bear the sea for long voyages. 1735 Dict. Polygraph. s.v., To bear a body, a term us'd of painting colours..capable of being ground so fine, and mixing with the oil so intirely, as to seem only a very thick oil of the same colour. 1784 J. Barry Lect. Art vi. (1848) 216 Those colours without body which are more immediately considered as transparent. 1851 H. Mayo Philos. Living i. 66 The vintages, differ in fulness of body and lusciousness. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 10 Less liable to be affected by damp than colouring with more body or substance. 1862 Times 12 Aug., Staffordshire cannot produce fine-grained iron equal to theirs in body, i.e. in its power of standing the fire. |
| fig. 1824–8 Landor Imag. Conv. (1846) 80, I hate both poetry and wine without body. 1884 Spectator 4 Oct. 1304/1 Metaphor and language..meant to conceal the want of body in the thought and emotion beneath. |
26. Main substance; fundamental constituent.
| 1787 Winter Syst. Husb. 109 Every soil must contain as sufficient a body for those manures to act upon. 1875 Fortnum Maiolica i. 3 The characteristics of the soft wares are a paste or body which may be scratched with a knife. |
† 27. Metaph. An entity, a thing which has real existence; an agent or cause of phenomena.
Obs.| 1587 Golding De Mornay ii. 21 To drawe some peculiar good..out of another bodies workes..as out of Poyson, health..from the night, rest. 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 326/1 The Soul is a Body, because it maketh us to be living Creatures. Ibid. 326/2 Night and Day are Bodies. Voice is a Body, for it maketh that which is heard; in a word, whatsoever is, is a Body and a Subject. |
VI. Comb. and
attrib. 28. simple attrib. Of body, physical, material.
| c 1200 [see 1 c]. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 112 A fresh train of hangers on in the body kind. |
29. General combinations:
a. objective with
pres. pple.,
vbl. n., or agent-noun, as
body-bending,
body-breaking,
body-curer,
body-killing,
body-maker,
body-making,
body-wearing;
b. attributive: (
a) pertaining to the human body, as
body-armour,
body-being,
body-blow (also
fig.),
body-build,
body-ease,
body-garment,
body-medicine,
body-odour,
body-play,
body-plague,
body-sin,
body-swing,
body-weight; (
b) reserved for personal attendance or use, as
body-carriage,
body-chariot,
body-coach,
body-coachman,
body-physician,
body-servant,
body-slave,
body-valet, also
body-guard; (
c) in various senses of body, as
body-bolt,
body-girth,
body-lining,
body-scent,
body-wall;
body-wise adv.| 1828–41 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 322 A breastplate and back-piece, etc...formed..the *body-armour. |
| a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. iv. 105 If all *body-being in the world were destroyed. |
| 1792 Sporting Mag. I. 43/2 After sparring some time..Stanyard put in a *body blow. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown ii, That body-blow left Joe's head unguarded. 1908 Daily Chron. 24 Aug. 5/5 Its latest action is a body-blow to the growers. 1950 Dempsey Champ. Fighting 39 Face-punches and body-blows. 1958 Times 22 Apr. 6/7 It is a body blow. I am carrying the can for somebody else. |
| 1886 Ripon Chron. 4 Sept. 3/5 The *body bolt of the phaeton suddenly gave way, and the occupants were thrown out. |
| 1533 Frith Answ. More (1829) 443 They believe not in his *body-breaking and blood-shedding. |
| 1923 C. B. Davenport (title) *Body-build and its inheritance. 1961 Lancet 12 Aug. 341/2 On admission her weight was 129 lb., which was proportional to her height and body-build. |
| 1766 Entick London IV. 54 Wheels of *body carriages. |
| 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4052/1 Her Majesty's *Body Chariot. |
| 1702 Ibid. No. 3862/1 Then Her Majesty, habited in Purple..in her *Body Coach drawn by 8 Horses. |
| 1735 Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 135 Were his majesty inclined to-morrow to declare his *body-coachman his first minister. |
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. i. 100 Soule-Curer, and *Body-Curer. |
| 1546 Bale Eng. Votaries ii. (1550) iv b, Fournished the Clery there with such possessions and *body-ease. |
| 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit. i. 14 Dressed in arts and institutions as well as in *body-garments. |
| 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 135 Wrapped round her very tight, like a *body-girt to a horse. |
| 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. iv. 14 Your jerkin..and the *body-lining to it. |
| 1611 Rich Honest. Age (1844) 37 Then haue we those that be called *Body-makers. 1884 Birmingham Daily Post 24 Jan. 3/3 Coachmakers—Wanted, an experienced Bodymaker, for first-class work. |
| 1544 Latimer Wks. 1845 II. 481 The popish consecration, which hath been called Gods *body-making. |
| 1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise iv. 69 Do you ever ask yourself about *Body-Odour? |
| 1881 Gentl. Mag. CCL. 163 Ready equally for mind-play or *body-play. |
| 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. i. vii. §8 Few retrievers can hit off the *body-scent of a dead cock. |
| 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy (ed. 2) II. v. 34 Besides what he gained..as a *body-servant. |
| a 1240 Ureisun in Lamb. Hom. 189 Wasche mine fif wittes of alle *bodi sunnen. |
| 1896 Daily News 13 Mar. 8/4 The form of the men at the slow stroke was admirable, *body-swing and feather alike being capital. 1950 W. Hammond Cricketers' School v. 54 Thus gaining the sort of body-swing that won Maurice Tate his wickets. |
| 1847 Ld. Lindsay Chr. Art I. 25 The *body-wall bulging out and lopping over. |
| 1873 C. H. Ralfe Physiol. Chem. 81 Men excrete little more urea in proportion to their *body weight than women. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 23 Aug. 4/2 He [sc. the batsman] throws his body-weight on the left, the forward foot. 1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1380/1 No patient was preselected on the basis of serum-lipid level or body-weight. |
| 1884 Homiletic Monthly Apr. 409 If..man were *body-wise related by descent to the brute creation. |
30. Special comb.:
body-bag, a bag to sleep in;
body belt, a belt worn close to the body;
body-box, a brood-box, brood-chamber;
body-builder, (
a) one who practises body-building to develop muscular fitness; (
b) a manufacturer of vehicle bodies;
body-building, the feeding and strengthening of the human frame by diet and exercise; also
attrib. or adj.;
body carpet,
carpeting, carpeting manufactured in strips that are joined together to form the required size; also
body ellipt.;
body-cavity Zool., the cœlom;
body cell Biol., a somatic cell;
body-centred a., applied to a type of crystal structure in which an atom or ion occurs at each corner and in the centre of a cubic unit cell;
body-chamber, the outer and largest chamber of a shell occupied by the body of the animal;
body-check, a movement in lacrosse (see
quot. 1892); also, a similar movement in ice-hockey; hence as
v.; so
ˈbody-ˌchecking vbl. n.;
body clock, the biological clock of the human body;
cf. biological clock s.v. biological a.;
body-cloth, a cloth, or rug, to cover horses or other animals;
body-clothes,
-clothing, clothes for the body;
body-coat, a coat fitting more or less closely to the body,
† a dress-coat;
body-colour, a colour that has consistency, or body, in distinction from a tint or wash (
cf. 25); a colour rendered opaque by the addition of white;
body count: in the war in Vietnam, the count of enemy soldiers killed by
U.S. and allied troops in combat (see
quot. 1968); also
transf.;
body drop, a throw in ju-jitsu;
body-face = body-type;
body-hoop, a hoop securing the arris pieces of a made mast;
body-horse (still
dial.), a shaft-horse;
body-image Psychol., the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body;
body language Psychol., the gestures and movements by which a person unconsciously or indirectly conveys meaning; also
transf.;
body-lifter = body-snatcher;
body-line bowling, fast bowling delivered persistently on the leg side so as to be likely to strike the batsman's body; also in other collocations;
body-louse, a species of louse,
Pediculus corporis, which infests the body of the uncleanly;
body-mark,
stroke Printing, the stem or ‘thick-stroke’ of the face of a type-letter;
body-mind Philos. (see
quots.);
body-plan, in
Shipbuilding, an end elevation of a ship, showing the breadth, contour of the sides, timbers, etc.;
body-popping vbl. n. orig. U.S., a style of (street-)dancing popular among teenagers,
esp. in urban areas, and characterized by robotic, jerking movements; hence as
ppl. a. and
body-pop v. intr.,
body-popper;
body-rope Naut. (see
quots.);
body scanner [
scanner 3 a], a scanning X-ray machine which with the aid of a computer can produce tomograms of the whole body;
body-schema = body-image;
body-snatcher, one who secretly disinters dead bodies in churchyards for the purpose of dissection, a ‘resurrectionist’; so
body-snatching,
-stealing;
body-soul, body and soul regarded as a unified whole; also
attrib. or adj.;
† body-stead, the nave of a church;
† body-spirit = esprit de corps;
body stocking (see
quot. 1968);
body strike [
strike n.]: see
quot. 1957;
body-tube, the main tube forming the body of an organ-pipe;
body-type, the type used for printing the text of a book;
body-urge, sexual passion;
body-wall Zool., the general envelope of an animal body; the cell-wall of a lower organism;
body-whorl, the last and largest whorl of a shell, containing the body of the mollusc;
bodywork (see sense 8 b (c)).
| 1885 Harper's Mag. Apr. 820/1 A fur over-coat and *body-bag. |
| 1911 Alfred Weeks's Sales Catal. All Wool *Body Belts..to clear 63/4d. 1962 T. C. H. Jacobs Red Net xviii. 178 A wide body-belt which Carlo had worn next to his skin... Two rows of tiny pockets ran its entire length. |
| 1881 T. W. Cowan Bee-keeper's Guide Bk. 37 A second hive, having eight frames the same size as those used in the *body-box, is provided for use on the top of the other. 1895 Modern Bee-Keeping (ed. 8) 22 The body-box or brood-chamber. |
| 1890 Boston Herald 21 Dec. 18/5 Prof. Robert J. Roberts, the noted *body builder now connected with the gymnasium of the Young Men's Christian Association of this city. 1928 Daily Express 5 Oct. 2/1 In Paris body-builders are making use of a new base material with which the car is covered. 1970 Times 4 Mar. 13/5 A girl torn between a brainy weed and a manic body-builder. 1983 Truck & Bus Transportation Oct. 48/2 The Interbus is bound to intensify competition among bus bodybuilders. 1986 Strength Athlete June/July 32/2 Back in the old days, people may have flocked to see the ‘freaks’—nowadays, bodybuilders are regarded as exemplary fitness aficionados to be emulated. |
| 1904 Daily Chron. 4 May 4/3 Proteid, or the *body-building element. 1904 E. Sandow (title) Body Building, or Man in the Making. 1962 Times 14 Nov. 3/7 The swimming club has 45 minutes on body-building. |
| 1946 Carpet Rev. Oct. 15/2 A large quantity of special heavy Wilton *body carpet..was also made by the firm for the cabin class. 1947 Ibid. May 23/1 As for piece goods, there is quite a demand for 3/4 stair and runners, but one often sells body goods to fill the want, as stair carpets are in short supply. A good deal of plain body is sold. 1947 J. F. C. Brinton Carpets v. 37 Originally, carpeting was only made in body or filling 27 in. wide, and border 22½ or 18 in. wide. 1957 Times 14 Oct. 13/5 For close-carpeting it is more economical to buy ‘body’ carpeting for alcoves, fireplaces and other odd corners. 1963 Which? Mar. 71/1 This..carpet..is made on a broad loom (6 ft. wide or more) instead of the usual ‘body’ carpet which is in rolls 18–54 in. wide. |
| 1875 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. 100 The *body-cavity [in Hydra]. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life Introd. p. xxix, The cavity, or series of cavities, known as body cavities or coelome. 1927 Haldane & Huxley Anim. Biol. i. 10 The stomach and intestine lie in a space, the general body-cavity or coelom. |
| 1896 E. B. Wilson Cell in Devel. & Inherit. ix. 329 Whether these variations first arise in the idioplasm of the germ-cells..or whether they may arise in the *body-cells and then be reflected back upon the idioplasm. 1926 J. S. Huxley Essays Pop. Sci. i. 7 The nucleus of an ordinary body-cell. |
| 1921 Physical Rev. XVII. 574 The calculated spacings are those of a *body centered cubic lattice, the side of the cube being 2·895 Å., and the distance between nearest atoms 2·508 Å. 1925 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXII. 502 There are only two polymorphous phases..a cubic body-centred modification..and a cubic face-centred modification. 1944 Electronic Engin. XVII. 142 In the case of iron the atoms form a regular cubic pattern known as ‘body-centred’ in which, if we consider an elemental cube of the crystal or unit cell, there will be an atom at each corner of the cube and another at the centre. |
| 1854 Woodward Mollusca (1856) 79 The *body-chamber is always very capacious. |
| 1892 Lacrosse: Laws 6 *Body-check is the placing one's body in the way of an approaching opponent, so that the latter is simply impeded. No checker shall use force in the body-check. 1901 Encycl. Sport I. 608/1 When a player is dodging, no notice should be taken of his crosse, the Checker simply taking care to place his body in the way of the dodger. This is known as the body check, and no force may be imparted to it, or it becomes a charge, which is forbidden. Body checking is of most use out of the field. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 17 Dec. 12/2 It might be a hint to Forster to body check more efficiently [in lacrosse]. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 126 Bodychecks and unpermitted blows occurred [in ice-hockey]. |
| 1936 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Mar. 227/2 It [ice hockey] offers to the eye the clash of bodies (for all the rules about *body-checking). 1960 Times 29 Nov. 17/5 Oxford and Cambridge completed their lacrosse programmes for the term... Cambridge started slowly. Their defence was open, there was little body-checking. |
| 1968 G. Household Dance of Dwarfs 163 How long did this take from the time the beast looked over the neck and saw me?.. One's own *body clock is speeded up so fast that it is impossible to tell. 1986 Today 8 Dec. 3 (caption) He admitted to photographers: My body clock is still on 4 am and I haven't had a chance to shave yet. |
| 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2021/4 Occasioned by the hindermost Buckles of a *Body-Cloth. |
| 1706 Ibid. No. 4212/4 A white Streak down the Side, occasioned by *Body-Clothes. |
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) II. i. ix. 46 They cover their cows with *body-cloths. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth v, God-a-mercy, wench, it were hard to deny thee time to busk thy body-clothes. |
| 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. II. xvi. 168 Blankets were served out as the material for *body-clothing. |
| 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. Introd. 62 His ring, his seal, his *body-coat, his perfume-box, his upper and under mantle. |
| 1784 J. Barry Lect. Art vi. (1848) 215 Employing stiff *body colour on a white ground. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Painting 107 The difficulty of calculating when ‘wet’ the difference of tone the body-colour will assume when dry. |
| 1968 Economist 29 June 25/2 The Americans have largely abandoned the ‘*body count’ system, according to which a Vietcong was supposed to be reported dead only if his body was actually seen and counted. 1970 N.Y. Times 11 Sept. 40 State and Federal aid programs that are based on live body counts will provide less support to the cities and increase their support to the suburbs. 1984 Listener 22 Mar. 6/1 Since then, according to the body-count kept by the American Embassy, the rate of killings has dropped to around 100 a month. |
| 1948 G. Koizumi Twelve Judo Throws 26 *Body-drop (Taiotoshi)..is one of the hand throws. 1960 Oxf. Mail 10 Mar. 8/3 Buley scored a point with a body drop throw, but Garnett scored points with hip and body drop throws. |
| 1898 J. Southward Mod. Printing I. 134 *Body or text faces. |
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 201 A belfry for the *bodyfaunt. |
| 1597 Bacon Coulers Good & Evill x. (Arb.) 154 The *body-horse in the Cart, that draweth more then the forehorse. |
| 1934 P. Schilder in Proc. Assoc. Res. Nerv. Ment. Dis. XIII. 466 (title) Localization of the *body image. 1935 ― Image & Appearance of Human Body 11 The body schema is the tri-dimensional image everybody has about himself. We may call it ‘body-image’. 1950 Lancet 25 Feb. 335/1 The expression body-image..refers to the mental idea which an individual possesses as to his own body and its physical and æsthetic attributes. |
| [1941 D. Efron Gesture & Environment i. 5 The bodily language of the Mediterranean is a ‘swinging, and dancing of gestures’.] 1966 Psychol. Abstr. XL. 1252/2 Langage corporel et théorie de l'information (*Body-language and information theory). 1967 P. L. Wachtel in Psychotherapy IV. iii. 97 (heading) An approach to the study of body language in Psychotherapy. 1970 [see kinesics]. 1972 T. McHugh Time of Buffalo xiii. 152 Buffalo also express themselves in ‘body language’, assuming certain positions or moving in a particular way. 1983 Chem. Engin. 7 Feb. 90 Various types of ‘body language’—such as shuffling feet, yawns, glances at watches..and so on—may signal that it's time to call for a break. |
| 1832 Southey in Q. Rev. XLVII. 517 Not coming from a professional *body-lifter. 1861 Ramsay Remin. Ser. ii. 133. |
| 1933 Times 19 Jan. 12/6 The Australian Cricket Board of Control has sent the following telegram to the M.C.C.: ‘*Body-line bowling has assumed such proportions as to menace the best interests of the game, making the protection of his body by a batsman his main consideration [etc.].’ 1955 I. Peebles Ashes 1954–55 ix. 93 Voce did so [sc. took ten wickets], aided by a wet wicket, and Larwood by a bodyline field. |
| 1575 J. Still Gamm. Gurton ii. iv, She went as brag as it had ben a *bodelouce. a 1652 Brome Crt. Beggar Epil., As briske as a Body-lowse in a new Pasture. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. vi. i. 294 The Body (or Clothes) Louse..was for a long time confounded with the former [the Head Louse]. |
| 1896 De Vinne Moxon's Mech. Exerc., Printing 414 Stem is the thick-stroke of a letter, sometimes called by type-founders the *body-mark. |
| 1877 G. H. Lewes Physical Basis of Mind iii. iii. 350 We know ourselves as *Body-Mind; we do not know ourselves as Body and Mind, if by that be meant two coexistent independent Existents. 1945 Mind LIV. 58 The defenders of this view have recently been making quite a point of speaking not of ‘a mind’ and ‘a body’ but of a ‘body-mind’, seeking to emphasize by the hyphen in this compound word the monistic identity or inseparableness of the mental and bodily components. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 137 The plan of projection, commonly called the *body plan, which exhibits the outline of the principal timbers, and the greatest heights and breadths of the same. |
| 1984 Times 13 July 10/8 Dwellers on Planet Rock..are often to be seen on pavements, *body-popping. 1986 J. Savarin Naja ii. 35 The black disc-jockey body-popped with unbelievable athleticism. |
| 1984 N.Y. Times 15 Apr. x. 51/2 The girls wanted to go back to Covent Garden to watch the punks and *body-poppers. |
| 1984 Financial Times 26 Mar. 11 A mute, *body-popping robot. |
| 1984 Dance Theatre Jrnl. May 14/3 It's a very strong statement from the streets..that whole movement—breaking, *body-popping. 1985 Times 2 Feb. 9/4 The mechanical movements of body popping can be traced to mime and to robotic disco dancing. |
| 1883 Man. Seamanship Boys' Training Ships 41 The ropes [for royals] are of two sizes only—viz., head rope from earring to earring, and a *body rope on the foot and leeches. Ibid. 46 The largest or body rope..and the head rope. |
| 1975 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 1 May 1/7 The *body scanner is a refinement of a similar scanner for the brain and skull in use since 1972... The $575,000 body scanner will start clinical trials shortly in a hospital just outside London. 1978 Lancashire Life Mar. 115/2 The Pat Seed Appeal Fund for a body-scanner for the Christie Hospital in Manchester (itself a world leader in the treatment of cancer). 1983 Daily Tel. 29 Nov. 18/4 There are now plenty of consultants who are disappointed with the usefulness of the body scanner. |
| 1935 *Body-schema [see body-image]. 1942 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 280 The notion of the ‘body schema’ (or ‘body image’) has come to enjoy something of a vogue in contemporary neuropsychiatry. 1962 Hoenig & Hamilton tr. Jaspers' Gen. Psychopathol. i. 89 The car I drive, if I am a good driver, becomes part of my body-schema or image and is like an extended body which I invest fully with my own senses. |
| 1834 Sir F. B. Head Bubbles of Brunnen 126 Any one of our *body-snatchers would have rubbed his rough hands. |
| 1863 Reader 22 Aug., At that time (1827–28)..*‘body-snatching’ became a trade. |
| a 1897 W. Wallace Lect. (1898) 152 As if we were to say of a human being (and it is what perhaps we dare say of the fewest), that he or she was *body-soul: the body the transparent and perfect temple of the spirit. 1956 E. L. Mascall Christ. Theol. & Nat. Sci. vii. 271 The doctrine that the human soul..is only one part of the twofold body-soul unity of the man. 1958 D. M. Baillie Out of Nazareth ii. i. 150 Man is a body-soul organism. |
| 1623 Resol. Ch. Cartmell in Sat. Rev. (1884) 5 July 14 The *bodystead of the Church shall be decentlye repaired. |
| 1794 W. Taylor in Month. Rev. XIII. 39 He endeavoured to inspire the senate with a *body-spirit. |
| 1880 S. Warren Grave Doings in Casquet Lit. (1877) V. 185/1 My..exploit in the way of *body-stealing. |
| 1965 Vogue 15 Apr. 93 New *body stocking..body-coloured, body-shaped Lycra, just about invisible. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 66 Body-stocking, covering for the entire body from neck to feet, sometimes with sleeves; they are the same as a dancer's leotard... They are worn as a single undergarment in place of brassière, pants and stockings. Nowadays body-stockings are often flesh coloured and only opaque over the actual body, to give an impression of nudity under a transparent dress. 1969 P. Roth Portnoy's Complaint 203 Walking into a restaurant with a long-legged kurveh on his arm! An easy lay in a body stocking! |
| 1937 Belschner & Seddon Stud. Sheep Blowfly Problem in Dept. Agric. N.S. Wales Sci. Bulletin No. 54 (title) Observations on Fleece Rot and *Body Strike in Sheep. Ibid. 24 Body strike follows the development in the fleece of the condition known as fleece rot. 1957 New Biol. XXII. 94 Strike starting on some other part of the body [of sheep] such as the shoulder or over the back, is referred to as body strike. 1959 S. J. Baker Drum 110 Flystrike, infestation of sheep by blowflies... Also, body-strike. |
| 1898 J. Southward Mod. Printing I. 140 The thick lines..are called the *body strokes. |
| 1854 Bushnan in Circ. Sc. (1865) I. 283/2 The air..passes out in undulating movements from the *body-tube. |
| 1898 J. Southward 134 *Body or text types, used for plain paragraph matter. 1961 T. Landau Encycl. Librarianship (ed. 2) 43/2 Body type, type suitable for reading matter (8–14 point) as in the text of a book, as distinguished from display type, used in headings, display lines in advertisements, etc. |
| 1930 *Body-urge [see it pron. 1 f]. 1932 S. Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm xvii. 237 Teck's a good kid..but he's got no body-urge. |
| 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 357 The *body wall [in Vertebrata]. 1898 A. Sedgwick Zool. I. 549 The soft part of the body-wall [in Polyzoa], which consists of ectoderm and mesoderm. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 13/2 A special series of muscles in the body-wall. 1959 E. F. Linssen Beetles i. 14 Another characteristic feature of insects is the hard, horny body-wall consisting of plates..composed mostly of chitin. |
| 1854 Woodward Mollusca (1856) 101 The last turn of the shell, or *body-whorl, is usually very capacious. |
Add:
[VI.] [30.] body-bag, (
b)
orig. U.S., a strong bag in which a corpse is placed and transported (from the scene of an accident, etc.).
| 1954 Amer. Speech XXIX. 273 *Body-bag, a canvas bag for removing bodies of persons killed in fires. 1967 N.Y. Times 11 Oct. 35/3 The bodies were found beneath the approximate center of the dam... They were placed in ‘body bags’ and taken to Jackson, the state capital, for an autopsy. 1976 N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone x. 245 Maybe I just scooped up too many guys and dumped them in body bags. 1984 J. Didion Democracy iv. iii. 224 Before he zipped the body bag closed the Tamil doctor went through the pockets of Jack Lovett's seersucker jacket. |
body wave Hairdressing, a soft, light wave designed to give the hair ‘body’ or substance; the curling process which imparts this.
| 1966 J. S. Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing 22/2 *Body wave, a curling process that is claimed to put ‘body’ into the hair and make it more suitable for bouffant styles. 1972 Village Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 12/2 (Advt.), Body waves—manicures. 1986 City Limits 12 June 78 Cuts are just {pstlg}13.50 and bodywaves {pstlg}9.95. |
Add:
[VI.] [30.] body double, a stand-in for a film actor during nude scenes or action sequences.
| 1981 Washington Post 22 June c1/4 She is too innocent, too sweet... She won't do the nude scenes, so we have to use a *body double. It is frustrating. 1983 People 26 Dec. 98/2 The footwork was done not by star Jennifer Beals, but by her body double, Jahan, 25. 1992 N.Y. Times 19 Jan. ii. 13/2 ‘Usually they'll put out a call for measurements,’ says Shelley Michelle, who was Julia Roberts's body double in..‘Pretty Woman’. |
body piercing, the piercing of parts of the body other than the ear, in order to insert rods, rings, and other objects either as a form of adornment or to enhance sexual pleasure; so
body-piercer, a person who practises body piercing.
| 1977 E. J. Trimmer et al. Visual Dict. Sex (1978) 60/2 Infibulation is a form of *body-piercing that is found among a few primitive communities, and is usually intended to restrict sexual intercourse. Ibid. 60/3 Among Western *body-piercers, another form of infibulation is practised, in which partners put a padlock through the foreskin or the labia, and keep the keys with each other's consent, thus allowing for a variety of dominance situations. 1992 Guardian 4 Dec. ii. 9/1 According to body piercer Teena Maree, ‘The number and variety of people coming to be pierced has increased outrageously in the past year or so.’ 1993 Independent 16 July 18/1 When the teen pin-up Howard Donald from the band Take That..appears in prepubescent magazines such as Smash Hits or Fast Forward with a couple of inches of steel through his left nipple, you know that body piercing has become about as risqué as growing your hair long or having a tattoo on your buttock. |
bodysuit, any (
usu. close-fitting) garment which more or less covers the body,
esp. a woman's one-piece stretch garment resembling a leotard.
| 1969 Good Housekeeping (N.Y.) July 130/1 The latest designs are the new improved bra slip and the never-before *body suit. Ibid., Body suits cling softly, to give a sleek, all-in-one look, control the figure gently. 1970 Britannica Bk. of Year (U.S.) 344/1 Warner's, the ‘grandaddy of the bodysuit family’, brought out ‘You-Curve’, a bodysuit in stretch tricot net. 1975 C. Calasibetta Fairchild's Dict. Fashion 45/1 Body suit, one-piece fitted garment without legs having a snap crotch. 1982 Washington Post 13 May c17/4 Before he changes into his tight red Spandex bodysuit with the plunging neckline, there is the quick hint of a tattoo lurking beneath the rolled-up sleeve on his right arm. 1990 Observer 25 Mar. 33/4 Bodysuits..are usually made of skin-tight lycra and increasingly worn by girls as outerwear. |
▸ As a characteristic of a person's hair: thickness, fullness, volume; the appearance of this.
| 1948 Chicago Daily Tribune 25 June a2 (advt.) Retains hair's loose, natural beauty—adds body to hair of fine texture. 1966 J. S. Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing 22/2 Body wave, a curling process that is claimed to put ‘body’ into the hair and make it more suitable for bouffant styles. 1997 Shetland Times 21 Nov. (Suppl.) 4/2 An intensive conditioning treatment..to deposit moisture deep into the hair shaft leaving hair with maximum body and shine. |
▸ Chiefly
Brit. A woman's or girl's close-fitting one-piece garment for the upper body, resembling a leotard, made of a soft stretchable fabric, and fastening at the crotch.
Outside the United Kingdom, generally called a
bodysuit (though that term also applies more widely).
| 1986 Daily Tel. 21 Apr. 11/1 The Body is quite simply a sweater or a T-shirt that follows the body-line and is anchored between your legs by a couple of buttons or poppers. 1994 Guardian 24 Sept. (Weekend Suppl.) 42/1 Karan is perhaps most famous for inventing the body, the leotard-like, three-stud crotch snapper designed to be worn under everything thus removing the tyranny of bunched shirts shoved into skirts. 2000 M. Barrowcliffe Girlfriend 44 xii. 328 That's what made me wonder what Alice would look like in a knee-length shiny plastic boots and one of those see-through bodies. |
▸
orig. N. Amer.to know where the bodies are buried: to have personal knowledge of the secrets or confidential affairs of an organization or individual.
| 1940 H. J. Mankiewicz & O. Welles Citizen Kane (film script) 199 If you're smart, you'll talk to Raymond. That's the butler. You can learn a lot from him. He knows where the bodies are buried. 1976 R. J. Huckshorn Party Leadership in States iv. 75, I was the governor's finance chairman and I know where the bodies are buried. 2006 Scotsman (Nexis) 11 July 35 Finance directors, perhaps on the theory that they know where the bodies are buried, last 4.8 years. |
▸
body dysmorphic disorder n. Psychiatry a disorder in which a person becomes excessively preoccupied with an imagined or slight defect in his or her appearance, typically causing some impairment of social and occupational functioning and resulting in repeated visits to plastic surgeons and dermatologists;
cf. dysmorphophobia n.; abbreviated
BDD.
| 1987 Diagnostic & Statist. Man. Mental Disorders (Amer. Psychiatric Assoc.) (rev. ed.) 255 The first disorder in this category is *Body Dysmorphic Disorder (previously called Dysmorphophobia). 1993 Times (Nexis) 21 Dec. Andrew has a complaint known as body dysmorphic disorder... Sufferers' fears may focus on facial characteristics, such as wrinkles, spots, scars and the size of the nose, or on other parts of the body, such as genitals, breasts, buttocks, hands or feet. 2000 Independent 1 June i. 8/5 A report today in the Psychiatric Bulletin says that one-third of patients suffering from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) had tried to alter their appearance drastically by doing operations at home. |
▸
body fascism n. preoccupation with, or prejudice or discrimination based on, body shape and appearance; the promotion of an unrealistic body image;
cf. lookism n.| 1980 Times 10 July 2/8 Most descriptions of Anna Ford have been what she is wearing or how she is looking. Miss Ford described such stereotyping as ‘*body fascism’. 1994 N.Y. Times 29 May 6/4 The night life columnist for The Village Voice, who is accustomed to the ‘body fascism’ of the gay club scene, discovered that straight clubs are not so different anymore. 2003 Independent 13 Jan. i. 13/2 It gives their obsessions a respectable face, another excuse to push their body fascism into every cell of our lives and those of our children. |
▸
body fascist n. a person who is preoccupied with, or discriminates on the basis of, body shape or appearance; (in early use) a person preoccupied with health issues;
cf. lookist n.| 1978 Business Week 22 May 10/1 Psychotherapy-as-recreation..has contributed in no small way to the kindred plagues of jogging and vegetarianism that are now so thoroughly disrupting wholesome social intercourse across our land. An acquaintance aptly dismisses such folk as ‘*body fascists’. 1982 Times 1 Oct. 22/8 She said that what was needed was more ‘attractive women candidates’. Feminists hissed... ‘And handsome men candidates’ she added desperately. That only made it worse. The dame was a closet body fascist. 2002 Big Issue 25 Feb. 10/3 She doesn't eat sugar and does yoga at dawn, but not to lose weight. Earl Dittman hears how Gwyneth Paltrow is fighting the body fascists. |
▸
body mass index n. chiefly
Med. (originally) any of several formulae relating body weight and height (or length), usually in humans; (now)
spec. weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres, used
esp. as an indicator of obesity or general nutritional status; also called
Quetelet index; abbreviated
BMI.
| [1940 W. H. Sheldon Varieties Human Physique 266 This is simply one variation of the ‘ponderal index’, or index of bodily mass.] 1959 Psychol. Rep. 5 495 No significant correlation..existed between weight and the ‘*body mass index’ (BMI). 1975 Jrnl. Chronic Dis. 28 113 Table 4 shows a significant quadratic relationship for both relative weight and body mass index with total mortality. 1989 Acta Endocrinologica 121 456 However, ‘adapted body mass index’ (aBMI = gram body weight/(mm radial length)2) decreased in each of the IGF-I infused animals, whereas it increased in each of the control dogs. 1992 Internat. Jrnl. Food Sci. & Nutrition 43 19/2 Six of the subjects were undernourished labourers..with body mass indices.. |
▸
body scrub n. (a) a grainy cosmetic preparation applied to the body in order to cleanse and exfoliate the skin;
(b) a type of beauty treatment in which the body is cleansed and exfoliated,
esp. using a cosmetic preparation.
| 1975 Chicago Tribune 8 Dec. iii. 6/1 It's even more effective when used with a *body scrub such as Clinique's or Diane von Furstenberg's. 1985 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 27 Jan. (Travel section) 8 [He] proceeded to show me the immaculately kept indoor and outdoor pools, a multi-nozzle Swiss shower, four indoor racquetball courts and various baths, massage, body scrub, sauna and steam rooms. 1992 Vanity Fair Nov. 196 As my handsome young Korean masseur started in on me, I felt pulverized... ‘It felt’, she said as we staggered off for a ‘body scrub’ and ‘body care’, ‘like they were trying to get information.’ 2000 Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 25/1 A good body scrub, such as this one from Origins, is essential shower kit to ensure your skin is smooth and buff. |
▸
body wrap n. a beauty treatment in which a person's body is wrapped tightly in cloth or plastic film which is either placed over a layer of or impregnated with a substance intended to soothe, detoxify, improve the appearance of skin, encourage slimming, etc. (
freq. with prefixed word indicating the type of substance used);
cf. earlier
herbal wrap n. at
herbal adj. Additions.
| 1969 Elk Grove (Illinois) Herald 11 Dec. iii. 4/1 (advt.) We guarantee three inch loss on full *body wrap treatment or there's no charge to you! 1972 N.Y. Times 28 Sept. 58/5 The nation is being swept with gadgets and pills and body wraps that claim to take inches off a person's body. 2001 Men's Exercise July 102/3 Body wraps are also a good idea early in your stay because they might help you relax a little. |
▪ II. body, v. (
ˈbɒdɪ)
[f. prec.] trans. 1. To furnish or provide with a body; to embody.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. 245 We..holden now oure God to be bodili and to be Bodied in a Maner which no Cristen man kan at the ful comprehend. 1621 Bolton Stat. Irel. 315 (an. 11 Eliz.) His head sundred from his bodie..and..bodied with a stake. 1634 Habington Castara 14 In some faire forme of clay Myself I'de bodied. 1656 Cowley Davideis ii. Wks. 1710 I. 353. 1858 Sears Athan. iii. x. 335 The state where every man's real and dominant life is..bodied and robed according to its intrinsic quality. |
† 2. To give body, consistence, or strength to.
lit. and
fig. Obs.| 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 41 Boyle them..vntyll they bee well bodyed and incorporate together. 1657 May Satyr. Puppy 43 Bodying each word with active emphasis. |
† 3. To draw up or form (troops, etc.) into a body, to form in a body. (Also
intr. for refl.)
Obs.| 1651 Proc. Parliament No. 80. 1215 The Earl of Sunderland..hath bodied above 500 of his tenants, & other people under his jurisdiction. Ibid. No. 104. 1603 But we could not hear of any bodying considerably, so that we could onely disperse severall parties. 1653 Gauden Hierasp. 14 Bodying into small Corporations. |
4. to body forth:
a. to represent to oneself as in bodily form; to give mental shape to.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 14 Imagination bodies forth the forms of things Vnknowne. 1820 Scott Monast. xiii, The beau-ideal which Dame Glendinning had been bodying forth in her imagination. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. iii. iv. §16 The power of bodying forth or realizing what is described in language, is one of the meanings of Conception. |
b. To put (an idea) into outward shape or tangible form, to exhibit in outward reality.
| 1800–24 Campbell Chaucer & Windsor 1 Long shalt thou flourish, Windsor! bodying forth Chivalric times. 1835 Lytton Rienzi iv. i. 191 Wonderfully did her beauty..body forth the brightest vision that ever floated before the eyes of Tasso. 1840 Carlyle Heroes iv. (1858) 277 The spiritual will always body itself forth in the temporal history of men. |
c. To represent; to symbolize, typify.
| 1846 Keble Lyra Innoc. (1873) 54 One bodies forth a Virgin form Holding aloft a Cross of might. 1879 Church Spenser iv. (1883) 90 The allegory bodies forth the trials which beset the life of man. 1883 Spectator No. 2874. 958 Both as egotist and as patriot M. de Lesseps bodies forth the age. |
d. To indicate, betoken.
| 1831 Scott Kenilw. xvii, A sharp, lively, conceited expression of countenance, seemed to body forth a vain hair-brained coxcomb. |
5. to body out: to give body or a body to; to fill out (a skeleton), to clothe (a mind) with bodily form.
| 1839 Bailey Festus xxii. (1848) 285 If thus they bodied out The immortal mind. 1883 Academy 20 Oct., To body-out the meagre accounts of Thucydides. |