▪ I. garret, n.1
(ˈgærɪt)
Forms: 4 garite, -yte, 5 -ytte, 5–6 garett(e, (5 garet, gerret), 6 garrette, gar(r)it, 6–8 garrat, 6– garret.
[a. OF. garite, guerite, watch-tower (mod.F. guérite watch-tower, sentry-box, refuge) = Sp. garita (? from Fr.), Pg. guarita; of Teut. origin, connected with OF. guarir, warir, to preserve, guard, cure (mod.F. guérir to cure), ad. Teut. *warjan to defend, pro-tect; the precise formation of the n. has not been satisfactorily explained.]
† 1. A turret projecting from the top of a tower or from the parapet of a fortification; a watch-tower. Obs.
| 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 1658 He be-held forþer a lite To a chaunber vnder a garite. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 9101 Þe garettes oboven þe yhates bryght Of þe ceté of heven, I lyken þus ryght, Tylle þe garettes of a ceté of gold. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 562 There salle appone Godarde a garette be rerede. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 88 She putte her in a garet to see the Kinge Josue passe. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. iv. 112 Garrits and watch houses, where the..Sentinels are to be placed. |
2. A room on the uppermost floor of a house; an apartment formed either partially or wholly within the roof, an attic.
from cellar to garret,
from garret to kitchen, etc.: over the whole house.
| 1483 Caxton Cato H v b, What shold auaylle..a garette ful of whete or a celer ful of wyn. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 43 In countreys that are very wette and watrishe, it is better to make them [corn lofts] in Garrettes as hie as may be. 1625 Bacon Apophth. xvii. Wks. 1859 VII. 180 My Lord St. Alban said that wise Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high: and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 368 This is not for an unbutton'd fellow to discuss in the Garret, at his tressle. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 262 Two Stories high, besides Cellars and Garrats. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iv. viii, John Bull..ran upstairs and downstairs, from the kitchen to the garrets, and from the garrets to the kitchen. 1714 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to W. Montagu 24 Sept., If it were possible to restore liberty to your country..by reducing yourself to a garret, I should be pleased to share so glorious a poverty with you. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 219 The..lodging-house, where the poet Codrus, and his wife, were permitted to hire a wretched garret immediately under the tiles. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 231 The news of his arrival circulated from the cellar to the garret. 1849 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 80, I was through all our house yesterday, from garret to kitchen. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. i. 11 His [Johnson's] happiest effort is a dissertation upon the advantage of living in garrets. |
| fig. 1812 H. & J. Smith Horace in Lond. 132 We'll talk of our gambols..Till Phœbus looks out of his garret. |
3. slang. a. The head;
esp. in phrases
to be wrong in one's garret,
to have one's garret unfurnished, etc.
b. (See
quot. 1812.)
| 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Garret, or Upper Story, the head. His garret, or upper story, is empty, or unfurnished; i.e. he has no brains, he is a fool. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Garret, the fob-pocket. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Bagman's Dog, What's called the claret Flew over the garret. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss. s.v., To be wrang in yan's Garrets, to be wanting in intellect, or suffering from temporary delirium. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
garret-poverty,
garret-room,
garret-stairs,
garret-story,
garret-window;
garret-high adj.;
garret-wise adv.;
garret-lock (see
quot.);
garret-master, a cabinet-maker, lock-smith, etc. who works on his own account, selling his manufacture to the dealers direct (
cf. chamber-master).
| 1684 Dryden Prol. to Disappointment 46 He hires some lonely room, love's fruits to gather, And *garret-high rebels against his father. |
| 1848–52 Dict. Archit., *Garret-lock, the term applied to locks of the most inferior description, because they are made by men of small means who live and work in garrets. |
| 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 376/2 In the shoe trade..they are called ‘chamber-masters’, in ‘the cabinet-trade’ they are termed ‘*garret-masters’. Ibid. III. 223/2 The garret-masters are a class of small ‘trade-working masters’, supplying both capital and labour. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 6 June 2/3 Complaints made by the local Locksmith's Trades Union, as to the sub⁓letting of Navy contracts to garret-masters not under factory inspection. |
| 17.. Addit. to Pope (1776) I. 117 Again my *garret poverty is shown By the mean cov'ring of this Portland stone. |
| 1671 J. Davies Sibylls i. viii. 23 There may be some brain which hath *garret-room to receive it. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxiv, It was a bare garret-room. |
| 1859 W. Collins Q. of Hearts (1875) 69 My aunt came hastily up the *garret-stairs. |
| 1806 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. IV. 1 Most of them have now what the country-people call a loft; i.e. a *garret-story. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Lucarne, a *garret window, or window in the roofe of a house, etc. |
| 1886 Willis & Clark Cambridge II. 531 The rooms on the second floor are still arranged *garret-wise. |
▪ II. † garret, n.2| 1626 Bacon Sylva §352 The Experiment of Wood that Shineth in the Darke..The Colour of the Shining Part, by Day-light, is in some Peeces White, in some Peeces inclining to Red; Which in the Countrey they call the White and Red Garret. |
▪ III. garret, v. Build. (
ˈgærɪt)
[Of uncertain origin; cf. gallet v.] trans. To insert small pieces of stone in the joints of (coarse masonry). Hence
ˈgarreting vbl. n. (see
quots. 1845 and 1893).
| 1845 Parker Gloss. Archit. (ed. 4), Garretting, small splinters of stone, inserted in the joints of course masonry; they are stuck in after the work is built. Flint walls are very frequently garretted. 1846 Ecclesiologist VI. 45 The old way of ‘garreting’ flint-work, that is, of inserting small flint-shivers in the mortar of the joints. 1893 Surrey Gloss., Garreting, a species of pointing of stonework with small chips of stone in the joints. |