nosegay
(ˈnəʊzgeɪ)
Also 6–7 -gaye, -gaie.
[f. nose n. + gay n.]
1. A bunch of flowers or herbs, esp. sweet-smelling flowers; a bouquet, a posy. Also, an imitation or representation of this.
| c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 380 A nosegay she had made full pleasauntly. 1530 Palsgr. 698/2 Assay, this nose⁓gaye savoureth swetely. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 88 At the toppe..groweth small tuftes, or as it were nosegeyes of ten or xii floures or more. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme ii. xlvii. 301 These..flowers for nosegaies shall be set in order vpon beds and quarters. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 203 'Tis a Flower of the Sun, and might alone serve both for a Staff and a Nose-gay for any Noble mans Porter. 1704 Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 690/1 Also a Nosegay of Gold to be worn by the Emperor only. 1753 Hogarth Anal. Beauty viii. 43 Observe the well composed nosegay, how it loses all its distinctness when it dies. 1837 Howitt Rur. Life (1862) 231 Almost every person..had a nosegay in hand. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile xv. 396 The damsels..in holiday apparel, with nosegays in their hands. |
b. fig. or in fig. context.
| 1570 Dee Math. Pref. b j, To make this Preface, to be a little swete, pleasant Nosegaye for you, to comfort your Spirites. 1626 T. H[awkins] tr. Caussin's Holy Crt. 3 The Nose-gay of the Elect, called in holy Scripture Fasciculus viventium. 1651 C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 103 Will you forsake the Rose of Sharon, and the Lillie of the Vallies for such a Nose-gay? 1731–8 Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. Wks. 1751 XII. 160 It hath become a choice Flower in the Nosegay of Wit and Politeness. 1778 F. Burney Early Diary, Let. to Susan Burney 16 June, I design to make you a present of Miss Couss's letter when we meet for your nosegay, if you think her praise worth having. |
c. transf., with ref. to scent or show.
| 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man v, I have a drop in the house of as pretty raspberry as ever was tipt over tongue..; the last couples we had here, they said it was a perfect nosegay. 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xviii, The smell of sweet herbs and all kinds of wholesome growth..made the whole air a great nosegay. 1889 W. Morris in Mackail Life (1899) II. 222 The country is one big nosegay, the scents wonderful. |
d. A perfume or scent (spec. one artificially prepared; see quot. 1881); an odour, smell.
| 1855 Piesse Art Perfum. vi. 115 The formulæ for preparing the most favourite ‘bouquets’ and ‘nosegays’. 1881 Spons' Encycl. Manuf. II. 1530 Nosegays or Bouquets.—By far the greatest part of the scent consumed is in this form being as the names indicate, mixtures of a number of odoriferous extracts. 1889 Gretton Memory's Harkback 53 The lodgers had, to boot, the nosegay from the drains. |
† 2. A gay bunch or cluster. Obs. rare—1.
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 13 b, These aged mothers of iniquitie will..weare nosegayes of yeolow haire on their furious foreheads. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as nosegay-dance, nosegay-flowers, nosegay-garden, nosegay-like (adj. and adv.), nosegay-maker; nosegay-plant (see quot. 1837); nosegay-tree, the red jasmine of Tropical America, Plumeria rubra, or the related species P. alba.
| 1597 Breton Figure of Four Wks. (Grosart) II. 7/1 Foure sweet Trades in a Citie: Sugar-men, Comfit-makers, Perfumers and Nose-gay-makers. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme ii. xlvii. 301 Nosegaie flowers..shall be sowen,..no otherwise then the potherbes. Ibid., [This] may be called the nosegaie garden. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Bouquet, Bransle du bouquet, the nosegay daunce. Ibid., Bouquetier, of, or belonging to, nosegayes, nosgay-like. 1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 215/1 The French gardeners call it [the curled-leaved Bigarade] Le Bouquetier, or Nosegay plant. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 630 All the fields are tied up fast with hedges, nosegay-like. |