half- in comb.
[OE. half-, healf-, was regularly combined with an adj. or pple., as in healfewic, healfdéad, healfhw{iacu}t, healfréad, healfsoden, healf-slǽpiende; also with a n., as healfhéafod forehead, healfmann, healfpeniᵹ, healftrendel hemisphere. In OTeut. halƀ- appears to have been a later substitute for the original sāmi-, OE. sam-, as in OHG. sâmiquec, OS. sâmquic, OE. samcwic half alive, so sambærnd half-burnt, sambrice a half-breach; = L. sēmi- in sēmidoctus, sēmivīvus, sēmicoctus, sēmideus, sēmihomo, etc.; Gr. ἡµι- in ἡµιβάρβαρος, ἡµιπλήρης, ἡµιάνθρωπος, ἡµίθεος, etc.; Skr. sāmi, in sāmijīwas half alive, etc.]
I. 1. With adjectives and pa. pples. Already in OE.: see above. Very common in later use, esp. with pa. pples., to which half- may be prefixed whenever the sense suits: e.g. half-afraid, half-awake, half-blind, half-crazy, half-deaf, half-drunk, half-full, half-human, half-learned, half-mad, half-open, half-raw, half-ripe, half-savage, half-true; half-armed, half-ashamed, half-bent, half-buried, half-cured, half-disposed, half-done, half-dressed, half-eaten, half-educated, half-finished, half-formed, half-hidden, half-opened, half-roasted, half-ruined, etc., etc. With adjs. expressing shape, it implies the form of half the figure, as half-cordate, half-sagittate, half-terete.
The two elements are often written separately when the adj. is in the predicate (see half adv. 1); the use of the hyphen mostly implies a feeling of closer unity of notion in the compound attribute, as in half-blind, half-dressed, half-raw, viewed as definite states; but it is often merely for greater syntactical perspicuity, on which ground it is regularly used when the adjective is attributive, thus I am half dead (or half-dead) with cold; a half-dead dog. a. in the predicate.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. iii. ix. §4 & funde hiene..healf⁓cucne. a 1000 Elene 133 (Gr.) Sume healfcwice fluᵹon on fæsten. c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 163/7 Subalbus, healfhwit. c 1475 Nom. Ibid. 710/3 Semicecus, halfblynd. a 1626 Bacon (J.), The officers of the kings houshold..must look both ways, else they are but half-sighted. 1704 Swift T. Tub i. (1709) 29 As if they were half-ashamed to own us. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iv. 144 Her eyes half-languishing, half-drown'd in tears. 1714 Mandeville Fab. Bees (1725) I. 340 A rascal half-drunk. 1725 Pope Odyss. iii. 144 Leave half-heard the melancholy tale. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. xxi. 271 Being half-vexed, and half-afraid of his raillery. 1826 Scott Jrnl. (1890) I. 329 Either half-educated or cock-brained by nature. 1844 J. R. Lowell Poems 12 A youth half-smiling. 1845 Lindley Sch. Bot. v. (1858) 58 Stipules ovate, half-cordate. 1846 ‘A Lady’ Jewish Manual ii. v. 216 Dresses made half high are..unbecoming; they should either be cut close up to the throat or low. 1849 Thoreau Week on Concord 399 They are half forgotten ere we have learned the language. 1855 Kingsley Heroes ii. iv. (1868) 123 Stories of it, some false and some half-true. 1858 Bagehot Coll. Works (1965) II. 55 Half-crazed as she [Meg Merrilies] is described to be. 1863–5 J. Thomson Sunday at Hampstead v, The meat half-done, they tore it and devoured. 1868 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 80 Half-sterile, i.e. produce half the full number of offspring. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. vi. §8. 279 Amphitropous, also termed..Half-anatropous. 1880 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 196. I am more than half-disposed to go along with you in what you say. 1881 ‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Paup. 162 He was half-minded to resign. 1893 ― Man corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) 269 The station-master..became pleasant and even half-apologetic. 1904 W. de la Mare Henry Brocken 76, I glanced at the shock-haired creature, alert, half-human, beside me. 1910 J. Morley Cromwell (ed. 2) iii. 54 Never more were fish caught there, and the neighbouring town was half ruined. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 41 The dim light of full, healthy life That is always half-dark. 1936 Mind XLV. 252 What were the views concealed or half-concealed, expressed or half-expressed? 1937 Brit. Birds XXX. 240 We have two records of single adults spending one day in the nest when their young were half-fledged. 1961 M. W. Barley Eng. Farmhouse & Cottage iv. ii. 196 Roofs gabled and half-hipped. |
b. as attribute.
| 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. viii. §10 Certaine halfewaking men. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 54 The halfe-blowne Rose. 1625 Donne Serm. lxvi. 667 The Half-present Man, he whose body is here and minde away. 1629 Chapman Juvenal Sat. v. 293 That half-eat hare will fall..to our shares. 1682 N.O. Boileau's Lutrin ii. 16 And clos'd her speech with an half-dying swoon. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 409 The clown unread, and half-read gentleman. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 333 Half-form'd Words. 1725 Pope Odyss. xxii. 196 The half-shut door conceal'd his lurking foes. 1772 Hunter in Phil. Trans. LXII. 453 Half-digested food. 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 10 The learned, the half-learned, and those who were neither. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 223 In one of his half-earnest, half-joking moods. 1827 Southey Hist. Penins. War II. 679 The half-armed, half-clothed, half-hungered Arragonese. c 1827 J. S. Mill in Adelphi (1924) I. 689 A half-cultivated taste is always caught by gaudy, affected, and meretricious ornament. 1833 ― Lett. (1910) i. 41 It looks like the production of some half-fledged pupil of yours. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. viii. i. §37 Some half-informed critics. 1838 Lytton Alice 13 Her half-childish, half-womanly grief. 1843 J.S. Mill Syst. Logic II. v. ii. 345 It is in those steps of the reasoning which are made in this tacit and half-conscious, or even wholly unconscious manner, that the error oftenest lurks. 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Life xii. 220 A little half-coloured child..from India. 1851 Melville Moby Dick I. xvii. 132 Their half crazy conceits on these subjects. Ibid. II. viii. 60 Some sort of a half-hinted influence. 1853–4 J. S. Mill Draft Autobiogr. (1961) 116, I had a half formed intention of writing a History of the French Revolution. 1854 Thoreau Walden 286 Thus, with half-shut eyes, looking out from the land of dreams. 1858 Bagehot Coll. Works (1965) II. 72 The undefined, half-expressed..feelings. 1869 D. G. Rossetti Let. 27 June (1965) II. 704 A half-crazed charwoman. 1874 J. Sully Sensat. & Intuit. 95 Vague and half-thought out recollections. 1877 Whitman Specimen Days 104 Some good people may think it a feeble or half-cracked way of spending one's time and thinking. 1895 W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden (ed. 4) viii. 118 Shade is not essential, though we think the best effects are attained in half-shady spots. 1897 Essex Antiquarian I. 27 When neither stones nor timber were plenty the half-high wall..was early used, and is still common. 1904 W. H. Hudson Green Mansions xv. 208 Leaving her half-human child to play her malicious pranks in the wood. 1907 Daily Chron. 6 Feb. 4/6 Is he really a half-sexed personage? 1908 Westm. Gaz. 23 Jan. 2/3 Some trivial gossip in the half-lit hall. Ibid. 29 July 3/2 The forces of Free Trade may be confidently reckoned on to squash the half-believed-in promises of Tariff Reform. 1910 W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars 120 Her half-blind whitening eyes. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 37 Wavering men of old Etruria..Going with insidious, half-smiling quietness. Ibid. 41 The half-secret gleam of a passion-flower hanging from the rock. 1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. (1926) II. ii. xi. 234 He achieved a..half-apologetic smile. 1927 Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 11/7 Most of the ploughing is done with a pair of horses of the half-legged class. 1929 V. Woolf Room of one's Own 127 Those unsaid or half-said words. a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 307 Invisible Between the half-visible hordes. 1931 W. Ripman Eng. Phonetics 30 Intermediate positions give half-open and half-close vowels. 1932 D. Jones Outl. Eng. Phonetics (ed. 3) viii. 38 Half-close vowels are those in which the tongue occupies a position about one-third of the distance from ‘close’ to ‘open’. Ibid., Half-open vowels are those in which the tongue occupies a position about two-thirds of the distance from ‘close’ to ‘open’. 1934 E. Linklater Magnus Merriman 270 In the country of the blind the half-canned man is king. 1937 Burlington Mag. Nov. 234/2 Such half-forgotten artists. 1937 Mind XLVI. 83 There is a scale of ‘standing-outness’ (Abhebung) which reaches from intense experiential clarity to half-conscious habituation. 1941 Ibid. L. 10 Some [statements] which would usually be called ‘half-joking’ or ‘not serious’, as when the father says, ‘The wolves are gaining.’ 1949 K. S. Woods Rural Crafts Eng. iv. xiii. 200 The delightfully plump and comfortable curves of old Devon roofs are partly due to the ‘hipped’ or ‘half-hipped’ form of the supporting timbers. 1951 W. F. Leopold in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 355/1 The half-open fricatives were satisfactory as terminal consonants. |
c. Hence derivatives, as
half-dressedness.
| 1887 Daily News 29 June 5/4 That delicious condition of half-dressedness. |
2. With adverbs, as
half-angrily,
half-apologetically,
half-ashamedly,
half-blindly,
half-consciously,
half-divinely,
half-jokingly,
half-learnedly,
half-questioningly, etc.;
half-left,
half-right,
half-round, etc. (
Cf. half adv. 1 d.)
| c 1700 Watts Lyric P., To Mitio Pt. iii. ii. Wks. 1813 IX. 200 Damon is half-divinely blest. 1807 Coleridge Notebk. (1962) II. 2998, I still half-consciously expect to awake from the night-mair. 1840 Carlyle Heroes v. 296 Struggling half-blindly, as in bitterness of death against that! 1863 Mrs. Whitney Faith Gartney's Girlhood i. 10 Holding the bank-note half-ashamedly in her hand. 1883 Harper's Mag. June 141/2 The..little trot..lisped, half-coaxingly, half-questioningly. 1913 J. London Let. 17 Oct. (1966) 408 He..is..half-apologetically explaining that it is the first time. 1923 J. M. Murry Pencillings 271, I was, half-consciously, anxious to be reassured. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female ii. 22 It is often said half-jokingly. |
3. With verbs, as
half-believe,
half-deify,
half-fill,
half-laugh,
half-make,
half-murder,
half-poison. (
Cf. half adv. 1 c.) Also
half-inch v. (
Rhyming slang), to ‘pinch’, to steal; so
half-inching vbl. n.;
half-lap [
lap n.3 2 b]
v., to make a half-lap joint.
| 1674 Wood Life 2 Feb. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 281 Men that half-hanged themselves to try how it was. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1330 Locks, That half-embrac'd her in a humid veil. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 60 Half-filling a bottle with water. 1825 Nicholson Oper. Mech. 653 The reason for making the joints half-lapped, or scarfed, [etc.]. 1834 H. Martineau Farrers ii. 25 Two out of the remaining four halfstarted from their chair. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 296 They are half-lapped in pairs at the centre. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xlv, He half-murdered a ferret. 1849 Thoreau Week on Concord 192, I half believed that I should get above it. 1850 Marg. Fuller Woman 19th C. (1862) 343 Madame Recamier is half reclining on a sofa. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 60 The mind which before was..half-deified. 1878 Lockyer Stargazing 125 We shall not only halve, but half-halve, or quarter the aberration. 1879 Froude Cæsar xxvii. 477 In Cicero Nature half-made a great man. 1924 J. M. Murry Voyage viii. 152 ‘I can't help it,’ she said, half-laughing at her own confession. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 114 Half-inch, to steal. 1948 W. Clewes Journey into Spring ii. 30 We can half-inch those [eggs] from the huts. 1950 T. E. Lawrence Mint 130 Half-inching is venial, in certain lines of goods. 1952 C. P. Blacker Eugenics 293 The problem family is half-believed to be the product of the capitalistic system. 1972 Times 24 Aug. 12/1 If people are going to go around half-inching planets the situation is pretty serious. |
4. Special comb.:
half-cut a. (
slang), half-drunk;
half-equitant a. (
Bot.)
= obvolute:
cf. demi-equitant;
half-high a. (see
quot.);
half-imperial a., half imperial-folio size;
half-large a., (a card) 3 × 2
1/
4 inches (Jacobi
Printer's Vocab.);
half-saved a., half-witted (
dial.);
half-shaved a. (
Obs. U.S. slang), drunk.
| 1893 Farmer & Henley Slang III. 250/1 *Half-cut, half-drunk. 1971 Radio Times 18 Nov. 80 Inebriation..is the sport of all ranks. How many executives can work reasonably effectively unless they are half-cut? |
| 1891 Daily News 18 Nov. 3/1 An evening dress to be worn by a very young girl is made ‘*half-high’..which means that the bodice is to be cut away to a line mid⁓way between the neck and bust. |
| 1893 Collingwood Life Ruskin I. 92 Ruskin made sketch after sketch on the *half⁓imperial board. 1896 Daily News 23 Oct. 6/5 He generally completed a half-imperial sketch..in two hours. |
| 1834 Southey Doctor x. 115 He was what is called *half-saved. Some of his faculties were more than ordinarily acute, but the power of self-conduct was entirely wanting in him. 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. iii. 100 He was what the villagers called ‘half-saved’; not absolutely imbecile. |
| 1818 M. L. Weems Lett. (1929) III. 225 One night, getting *half shaved, he was easily over-persuaded (a common curse of whiskey) to try his luck at All Fours. a 1852 F. M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1856) xxviii. 354 I've seen that man half shaved on cider afore breakfast in the mornin'. |
II. In attributive relation to a
n. Of these there were already a few instances in
OE. (
e.g. healfmann ‘semivir’,
healfpeniᵹ,
healftrendel hemisphere); their number has been enormously increased in later times, especially through the practice of hyphening an adjective and substantive when these have a special or individualized application. These combinations may be distributed among the following classes:
In attributive relation to a
n. a. In names of
Coins,
Weights,
Measures of space, quantity, time, etc., as
half-barrel,
half-bit,
half-bottle,
half-caser [
caser2],
half-cent,
half-cooper,
half-farthing,
half-firkin,
half-florin,
half-foot,
half-hogshead,
half-inch,
half-joe,
half-litre,
half-mile,
half-mutchkin,
half-peck,
half-pint (also
ellipt., a half-pint of beer; see also sense n below),
half-pipe,
half-pound,
half-quarter,
half-quartern,
half-tierce.
Cf. demi- 7. Also
half-angel, -crown, -dollar, -hour, -minute, etc. These forms may also be used
attrib. as in
half-inch board,
half-mile race,
half-quartern loaf, etc.
| 1494 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 23 Preamb., Every barell, *half barrel and firkyn. |
| c 1782 T. Jefferson Autobiog. Wks. 1859 I. App. 173 The smallest coin..is the *half-bit, or 1-20 of a dollar. |
| 1877 E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 287 Where are these bottles and *half-bottles of Madeira to be found? 1927 E. Hemingway Men without Women (1928) 172 The American lady bought..a half bottle of Evian water. 1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party i. ii. 51, I found some champagne—Only a half-bottle, to be sure. |
| 1907 H. Lawson in Austral. Short Stories (1951) 70 Felt under his pillow for two half-crowns. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘here's two *half-casers.’ |
| a 1824 R. Patterson cited in Worcester 1846 for *Half-cent. 1889 Cent. Dict., Half-cent, a copper coin of the United States..weighing 94 grains, current from 1793 to 1857. |
| 1836 W. H. Maxwell Capt. Blake II. i, Carrying off diurnally his *half-cooper of port. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Half-farthing, a British copper coin..the number..issued between 1852 and 1854 was 2,621,784. |
| c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 129 Þe secunde *half-fote wose in coueytise is raueyne. |
| 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4337/4, 40 *half Hogsheads, of true neat Bordeaux Brandy. |
| 1820 Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. II. 194 Defended by plates of *half-inch iron. 1858 Greener Gunnery 53 An half-inch boiler plate. |
| 1777 J. Q. Adams Wks. (1854) IX. 470 Guineas, *half joes, and milled dollars in as high estimation as in Pennsylvania. |
| 1921 W. J. Locke Mountebank i. 7 A thick *half-litre glass of beer. 1967 ‘ G. Carr’ Lewker in Tirol iv. 56 He..ordered a half-litre of wine. |
| 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 86 Distant from the towne some *halfe mile. Mod. The winner of the half-mile race in the Oxford University Sports. |
| 1816 Scott Antiq. i, He might have stayed to take a *half-mutchkin extraordinary with his crony the hostler. |
| 1753 Scots Mag. June 310/1 Each.. received a *half-peck loaf. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Demi-sextier, the quarter of a French pinte, and much about our *halfe pinte. 1611 J. Donne in Coryat's Crudities Pref. verse, Can all carouse up thee? No: thou must fit Measures; and fill out for the *half-pinte wit. 1728 E. Smith Compleat Housewife (ed. 2) 151 Pour it into half-pint Basons. 1744 Berkeley Let. 21 Aug. Wks. 1871 IV. 299 Either in half-pint or quarter-pint glasses. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 186 An old half-pint bottle. 1899 R. Whiteing No. 5 John St. xi. 107, I..fell upon roast pork..and a foaming half-pint. 1937 Discovery Sept. 277/1 Fill a half-pint mug. 1966 E. M{supc}Girr Funeral was in Spain 101 The barman..was morosely polishing half-pint glasses. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Halfe pounde, selibra. Halfe pownde wayght, semissis. |
| 1535 Coverdale Neh. iii. 16 The ruler of the *halfe quarter of Bethzur. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2078/4 Lace, three half quarters broad. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 224 Half-quarter repeaters, instead of giving the minutes, strike one additional blow if the half quarter has passed. Mod. Alm. 8 Feb., Half-Quarter Day. |
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist v, A *half-quartern loaf and a piece of cheese. |
| 1708 Motteux Rabelais v. xlv. (1737) 191 A *Half-Tierce, or Hogshead. |
b. In
Heraldry = demi- B 1, as
half-belt,
half-cheek-bit,
half-spade,
half-spear.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. vii. 44 He beareth Gules, an Horse Bit, Argent. Some do call it..an Half Cheek-Bit. Ibid. viii. 5 He beareth Vert, an Half Spade. 1828 Berry Encycl. Her. s.v. Spade, This..spade is borne in the arms of Swettenham, but they appear as half-spades. 1889 Elvin Dict. Heraldry, Half-belt and four buckles. |
c. In
Artillery,
Arms, denominating a piece of half the size of the full-sized piece, or a shortened size of the latter, as
half-armour,
half-cannon,
half-culverin,
half-falconet,
half-head-piece,
half-lance.
Cf. demi- 2–4. Also
half-pike, -sword, etc.
| 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. x. 188 *Half-Armour, the period of the partial use of armour, extending to the commencement of the 18th century. |
| 1640 Fuller Joseph's Coat 1 Cor. xi. 30 (1867) 86 Sometimes He shooteth *half cannon. 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1116/3 A Battery of 12 Half-Cannon. |
| 1611 Florio, Mezza testa, a kind of halfe skull, or *halfe head-peece. |
| 1868 Kirk Chas. Bold III. v. i. 332 Armed with a *half-lance. |
d. In
Military tactics,
dress, etc., as
half-squadron,
half-turn,
half-wheel;
half-battery,
-company,
-distance,
-file (see
quots.);
half-mounting, the underclothing and minor articles of apparel belonging to a soldier's outfit in the 18th c.
Cf. demi- 6. Also
half-face, etc.
| 1800 War Office Order 9 Apr. in Grose Milit. Antiq. (1801) II. 186 In lieu of the former articles of cloathing, called half-mounting, two pair of good shoes of the value of five shillings and sixpence each pair. 1832 Regul. Instr. Cavalry iii. 73 The..troops wheel half right. Ibid. 99 The Base Troop wheels more than a half-wheel. Ibid. 103 The Troops wheel half-left. 1853 Stocqueler Milit. Encycl., Half-companies are the same as subdivisions, equal to two stations. Half-distance is the regular interval or space between troops drawn up in ranks, or standing in column...Half-files is half the given number of any body of men drawn up two deep. 1859 F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 11 Right half turn. Front turn. Ibid. 30 A battalion in open, or half-distance Column. Ibid. 134 Three subdivisions constitute a half-battery. |
e. In
Fortification, as
half-bastion,
half-caponier (Sir G. Duckett,
Mil. Dict.),
half-sap: see
demi-bastion, etc.;
half-merlon, that solid portion of a parapet which is at the right or left extremity of a battery. Also
half-circle, -moon.
| 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4721/1 We shall be obliged to finish it by the half Sap. |
f. Naut. and
Ship-building:
half-beam (see
quot. 1850);
half-board, an evolution by which a sailing vessel is luffed up into the wind with everything shaking, and then, before she has quite lost way, permitted to fall off on the same tack: see
board n. 15;
half-breadth (see
quot.);
half-breadth staff, a rod having marked upon it half the length of each beam in the ship (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875);
half-floor,
-point,
-port,
-top,
half-watch tackle (see
quots.);
† half-wind, a side-wind. Also
half-timber.
| 1836 Encycl. Metrop. VI. 415 The *half-beams are all to be of fir. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 95 Half-Beams are short beams introduced to support the deck where there is no framing. |
| 1863 Luce Seamanship (ed. 2) 484 In a tideway the *half-board is of great use. |
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) D ij b, The breadth of the ship at every top-timber is limited by an horizontal line drawn on the floor-plane, called the *half-breadth of the top-timbers. |
| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 66 The ‘*half-floors’..are pieces of timber placed between the ‘cross pieces’, to which they are ‘coaked’ and bolted. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Half-point, a subdivision of the compass card, equal to 5° 37{p} of the circle. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 122 *Half-ports, a sort of shutters made of deal, and fitted to the stops of those ports which have no hanging lids. |
| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 76 The *half-tops are bolted to the cross trees, and the sleepers are bolted above the trussle trees. |
| 1859 F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 317 A luff tackle, or *half watch tackle, consists of one double and one single block: the fall is fixed to the single. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Demivent, a side-winde, or *halfe-winde. |
g. In
Music, as
half-cadence,
-close, an imperfect cadence;
half-demisemiquaver;
half-rest (
U.S.), a minim rest;
half-shift,
-stop (see
quots.).
Cf. demi- B. 9. Also
half-note, -tone.
| 1880 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. T., *Half-cadence. If the last chord is the dominant and is preceded by the chord of the tonic, the cadence is called half or imperfect. |
| 1867 Macfarren Harmony i. 29 A *half close is when a passage ends upon the chord of the dominant, regardless of what harmony may precede it. |
| 1881 Academy 6 Nov. 355 The *half demisemiquaver is still much used. |
| 1880 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. T., *Half-shift, a position of the hand in violin playing. It lies between the open position and the first shift. |
| 1880 C. A. Edwards Organs (1881) 146 A stop is a set of pipes that run in order from the one end to the other of the clavier. If this set..discontinues at any portion of the keyboard, it is said to be a *half stop. Ibid. Half Stops, properly so called, have practically gone out of fashion. |
h. Applied to a stuff which is half of inferior material, as
half-gauze,
half-silk,
half-worsted,
half-yarn.
| 1759 Symmer in Phil. Trans. LI. 360 The sort I fixed upon, is what is called *half gauze. |
| 1738 Swift Pol. Conversat. 66 Ladies, you are mistaken in the Stuff; 'tis *half Silk. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 217 No fewer than 443 silk-looms, 149 of half-silks. |
| 1594 Blundevil Exerc. v. iii. (ed. 7) 533 Worsteds, and *halfe Worsteds. |
i. In
Games and
Sports, as
half-marathon;
half-back (
Assoc. Football), a position immediately behind the ‘forwards’; a player in this position; also in other games,
e.g. American Football, Rugby Football, Australian Rules;
half-ball (
Billiards): see
quot. 1850;
half-blast Golf, a shot which is played with half the force of a ‘blast’ (explosive shot);
half-blue, the ‘colours’ (see
blue n. 9) awarded to a player chosen to represent his university in inter-university contests as second choice to a ‘full blue’, or to any chosen representative in sports or games not recognized by the Blues Committee as sufficiently important for the award of a ‘full blue’; also, a competitor who has gained this award;
half-brassy shot Golf, a brassy shot played with a half swing;
half-captain, in women's colleges in Oxford, one who has attained a certain degree of proficiency in the management of a boat; so
half-captaincy;
half-colour, a badge showing that a stage of proficiency half-way towards getting one's colours has been reached (see
colour n.1 6 c);
half-court Tennis and
Rackets, half the court divided by a line (the
half-court line) parallel with the side lines;
half-fifteen,
-forty Real Tennis (see
quot.);
half-forward,
half-forward flanker Austral. (see
quot. 1968); so
half-forward flank;
half-hit (
Cricket), a faulty hit, the ball falling short of the distance it would have travelled if properly hit;
half-iron shot Golf, an iron shot played with a half swing;
half nelson Wrestling, a hold in which one arm is thrust under the corresponding arm of the opponent and the hand placed on the back of his neck; also
fig. in
phr. to get a half-nelson on, to hold in a crippling position, gain a complete hold over; hence as
v. trans. with the sense of this
phr.;
half-one Golf (see
quot.);
half-pin Chess, that position in which a defending man lies between an attacking piece and the defended king and in the line of attack of the attacking piece, but has liberty to move along the line of attack; also, that position in which two defending men lie between the attacking piece and the king so that if either moves the other man becomes pinned; so
half-pinned a.;
half-pinner, a half-pin problem;
half-shot Golf, a stroke made with a half swing, intended to carry less far than the full shot;
half-stroke Golf = half-one;
half swing Golf, a swing of half the usual amount of distance;
half-thirty Real Tennis (see
quot. s.v. half-fifteen);
half-topped a. Golf, designating a shot in which the ball is partly topped;
half-volley, (
a) (
Cricket,
Football, etc.), a ball which pitches so that it can be hit or kicked as soon as it rises from the ground; hence also
Cricket, a ball which pitches just in front of a fieldsman; (
b) (
Lawn Tennis), a stroke made when the ball has just left the ground; so
half-volleyer;
half-volleying vbl. n.; also
half-volley vb. Also
half-bowl, etc.
| 1882 Standard 20 Nov. 2/8 The *half-backs..effectually checked the threatened danger. 1887 Shearman Athletics & Football (Badm. Libr.) 346 A good half-back must be a versatile player. 1887 Century Mag. Oct. 892 Behind the quarter-back, and covering the two sides of the field, are the ‘half⁓backs’, the cavalry of the team. 1906 Gallaher & Stead Compl. Rugby Footballer v. 71 The half back as we know him in New Zealand is the donkey man of the team. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 53 He paused, crouched into a halfback's position, waiting for the ball. 1965 Sun-Herald (Sydney) 4 July 51 Sydney's half-back flanker Bob Sterling won the President's trophy. 1965 Advertiser (Adelaide) 17 July 25 Its half-forward line..was over-run by the powerful South Adelaide half-back line. 1968 Eagleson & M{supc}Kie Terminol. Austral. Nat. Football ii. 14 There are three half-backs in each team: left, centre, and right half-back. 1969 Australian 24 May 39/2 Ian Bremner, Norm Bussell and Peter Chilton constitute a tight-checking half-back line for Hawthorn. |
| 1850 Bohn's Hand-bk. Games 524 A *half ball, or a contact in which the half of one ball is covered by half of the other, produces in each an equal motion, both with regard to direction, strength, and velocity. |
| 1928 Weekly Dispatch 24 June 21/6 He played a superb ‘*half-blast’ out of a trap to lay the ball one foot from the cup. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 29 July 10/4 The *half-blue for billiards. 1909 Ibid. 26 Feb. 12/2 For some time players of lacrosse at Oxford have been urging the Blues Committee to grant them the Half-Blue. 1963 Times 5 Feb. 3/3 J. S. Grinalds (Brasenose), an old half-Blue, came back into the defence for the first time this season. |
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 3/1 The *half-brassy shot approach. |
| 1928 Daily Express 7 May 5/2 She may not go on the river unless she is accompanied by a *half-captain or is one herself. Half-captaincies may be had either in rowing, canoeing, or punting. |
| 1929 Evening News 18 Nov. 13/5 The player who appears in future bowls international trial matches, but who fails to be selected for the English team, is to receive a ‘*half-colour’. |
| 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 182/2 A space bounded by the net, the side line, the *half-court line, and the service line. 1895 H. W. W. Wilberforce Lawn Tennis 62 The half-court-line dividing the space on each side of the net into two equal parts, called the right and left courts. 1898 Encycl. Sport II. 462/2 The half court nearest the dedans is called the ‘service side’. Ibid., The half-court line..dividing the court lengthways into practically two equal parts. 1961 Times 13 Jan. 16/3 Half-court drive down the wall. |
| 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 182/2 *Half-fifteen is one stroke given at the beginning of the second and every subsequent alternate game of a set... Half-thirty is one stroke given at the beginning of the first game, two strokes at the beginning of the second game; and so on, alternately, in all the subsequent games of a set... *Half-forty is two strokes given at the beginning of the first game, three strokes at the beginning of the second game; and so on, alternately, in all the subsequent games of a set. |
| 1963 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 Nov. 7/5 A typical commentary from Australian Rules, ‘a long drop-kick from the *half-forward flank’. 1968 Eagleson & M{supc}Kie Terminology Austral. Nat. Football ii. 14 Half-forward, a player occupying a half-forward position, which comes between the centre and full-forward positions. Ibid., Half-forwards in the side position are generally referred to as half-forward flankers. 1969 Australian 24 May 39/2 Bremner will probably be given the task of watching Geelong's mercurial Ken Newland, who will start on a half-forward flank. |
| 1888 Daily News 15 Sept. 3/5 Caught at extra mid-off from a *half-hit. 1888 A. G. Steel in Steel & Lyttleton Cricket iii. 112 Extra cover⁓point..may be..placed for half-hits wide on the on—i.e. about half the distance from the batsman that a deep field would stand. 1899 W. Caffyn Seventy-one not Out 18 Fielder placed [behind the bowler] for half-hit. 1900 W. A. Bettesworth Walkers of Southgate 41 Mr. R. D. Walker, who was fielding in a nondescript sort of place for a half hit, brought off a brilliant catch. 1928 Daily Tel. 17 July 17/5 Freeman..had two half-hit fieldsmen. |
| 1895 H. G. Hutchinson Golf (ed. 5) iv. 143 The attitude..for the *half-iron stroke. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 10 Nov. 4/2 The half-iron shot..cannot be played properly unless turf is taken. 1977 Washington Post 7 Mar. d7/2 Dan Rincon of Delaware Track Club led a field of 297 to win the Athletic Shoe Box Classic *half-marathon yesterday. 1985 Oxford Mail 2 Mar. 1/5 He had already completed a half marathon at Stratford and was..hoping to go for a full marathon. |
| 1889 W. Armstrong Wrestling 230 *Half Nelson, Lancashire. 1896 Ade Artie xvii. 154 This thing got the half-Nelson on me before I know it. 1898 Encycl. Sport II. 548/2 The half Nelson and heave. 1901 Black & White Budget 30 Nov. 315/1 The half-nelson... You grasp your opponent by the right wrist with your left hand, thrust your right hand quickly under his arm at the same time seizing his neck and pressing his head forward. 1903 P. Longhurst Wrestling 77 The arm that has the half-nelson hold. 1912 Daily Chron. 6 Mar., And Radicals in sunshine bask with Delight to see the clever Asquith Half-Nelson Bonar Law. 1961 Observer 26 Nov. 27/1 He gives an exquisite demonstration of the half⁓nelson generally used to make the unwilling talk. 1966 New Statesman 15 July 74/2 He knew..that Sir Alec Douglas-Home had to be..half-nelsoned and regularly thrown out of the ring. |
| 1887 in J. L. Stewart Golfiana Miscellanea 299 *Half-one, a handicap of a stroke deducted every second hole. |
| 1922 Hume & White Good Companion Two-Mover 245 The term ‘*half-pin’ arose in 1915, in correspondence between Comins Mansfield and Murray Marble anent No. 122 D, a surprising example, with six half-pins... Greenwood, the composer of this problem, had published a complete half-pinner in 1859. 1926 H. Weenink Chess Problem 71 By a Half-pin is understood an arrangement where two Black pieces stand in line in such a way that if either one moves the other becomes pinned by a White piece which has been standing behind both of them waiting to exert its pinning powers. 1928 Observer 24 June 25 These three variations are highly complex, the first two illustrating the unpin of the White Q by half-pinned Black Kt's; the third is a half-pin line combined with Black interference. |
| 1891 H. G. Hutchinson Golf 26 The principle of the cutting stroke, on the other hand, lies in bringing the head of the iron across that line. It may be applied to a full shot, *half shot, quarter shot or shortest wrist shot. 1893 ― Golfing 41 When the distance is less than that for which the three-quarter stroke is used, it is commonly called a half-shot distance. |
| 1896 W. Park Game of Golf v. 107 Three-quarter and *half strokes are..much more difficult to play than full shots. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 461 A half⁓stroke or over, both in singles and foursomes, shall count as one. |
| 1891 H. G. Hutchinson Golf 30 Take pains in all *half-swing shots to bring the club-head well and slowly away from the ball before striking. |
| 1896 W. Park Game of Golf ii. 39 A club lying on its heel would, in playing through the green, be apt to get away a *half-topped ball. Ibid. x. 204 Hazards..should be placed at such distances from the teeing-grounds that, while a well-hit shot will carry them, a topped or half-topped stroke will get in. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 23 Aug. 5/1 A lucky half-topped shot. 1953 H. Simmons Golfers' ABC, The chip shot not as ought to be, The half-topped seven, scuttled three. |
| 1843 ‘A Wykehamist’ Pract. Hints Cricket 12 All balls pitching between the first line and the crease..are technically termed *half vollies. Ibid. 17 A leg half-volley..may be..‘dropped into’ now and then. 1851 J. Pycroft Cricket Field viii. 168 Every one knows the difficulty of making a good half-volley hit off a slow ball. Ibid. x. 189 If a bowler has half volleys returned to him, by stretching and stooping after them, he gets out of his swing. 1867 G. H. Selkirk Guide Cricket Ground v. 83 The half volley..requires practice to ensure its being picked up properly. 1870 London Society Nov. 425/1 The mode of playing a ball so well known at tennis, not quite half⁓volley. c 1880 A correspondent says: A half-volley at cricket is a ball bowled up so as to pitch just about the point at which the batsman has a good reach. 1891 W. G. Grace Cricket viii. 233 Occasionally you may get a half-volley on the pads. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 621/2 Half-volley, a stroke made the moment the ball leaves the ground. 1960 Times 21 June 16/1 Taylor half-volleyed a return into the net. 1963 A. Ross Australia 63 iii. 76 He played at nothing he did not have to, leaving Davidson to flash the odd half-volley through the covers. 1969 New Yorker 14 June 45/1 Players call it a half-volley drop shot. Ashe reaches down, lightly touches the rising ball, and sends it on a slow, sharply angled flight toward the net. Ibid. 45/3 Ashe, moving up, is again confronted with the need to half-volley. |
| 1912 Daily News 11 July 2 A famous *half-volleyer. |
| 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports iii. i. v. §4. 691 *Half-volleying consists in playing the ball when close to the ground, immediately after it has been dropped. |
j. In
Bookbinding, ‘half’ signifies that only the back and corners of the binding consist of the material specified;
e.g. half-calf,
half-russia.
| 1844 Catal. Messrs. C. Knight & Co. 8 Half Morocco or Russia. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. viii. (1885) 192 None of your ‘half-calf’ economies in that volume! Mod. Bookseller's Catal., Original half sheep. |
k. In names of animals, as
half-ape,
half-ass,
half-snipe, etc.
l. Applied to various articles and structures of about half the usual or full size or length, as
half-bath,
half-bathroom,
half-blind,
half-case,
half-door,
half-frame,
half-furnace,
half-gaiter,
half-gown,
half-hatch,
† half-head bedstead,
half-hessian,
half-hoop [
cf. hoop n.1 7],
half-hose,
half-jar,
† half-kirtle,
half-sleeve,
half-stocking,
half-tester,
half-tub,
half-veil,
half-wicket.
Cf. demi- B. 11. Also
half-boot, etc.
| 1879 A. von Harlingen in A. H. Buck Treat. Hygiene & Public Health I. 373 The *half-bath, in which the bather sits in a tub filled with water to the depth of from ten to twelve inches,..is adapted to invalids. 1953 R. Chandler Long Good-Bye xxvii. 171 There was a half-bath off the study. |
| 1959 News Chron. 19 June 4/3 A *half-bathroom..has a shower, wash-basin and lavatory, but no bath. |
| 1763 Boswell London Jrnl. 22 July (1951) 382, I was disturbed by the light..at the earliest dawn, as the windows have only *half-blinds. |
| 1888 Jacobi Printer's Voc., *Half cases, small cases used for jobbing purposes. |
| 1740 Dyche & Pardon, Hasp, a small iron or brass fastening to a hatch or *half-door. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. iii, The half-door of the bar. 1936 J. Tickell See how they Run ii. 19 The sort of horse's face that looks out over the half-door of a loose-box. |
| 1888 Jacobi Printer's Voc., *Half frames, small composing frames made to hold one pair of cases only. |
| 1775 F. Marion in Harper's Mag. Sept. (1883) 546/1 Black *half-gaiters. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Halfe gowne, hemitogium. |
| 1886 Willis & Clark Cambridge I. 88 A *half-hatch door. |
| 1598 Inv. King's Coll. ibid. III. 325 Item a *halfe head bedsteade of walnuttree. |
| 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. 76 A pair of *half-hessians completed his costume. |
| 1882 Times 31 Jan. 16/6 (Advt.), Single-stone, *half-hoop, and cluster rings. 1892 Kipling Lett. of Travel (1920) 94 His wife..wears half-hoop diamond rings. 1902 Daily Chron. 14 June 10/4 The hair..is surmounted by a half-hoop diadem encrusted with precious stones. 1928 R. Hall Well of Loneliness xxi. 198 ‘I made your mother's engagement ring for him; a large half-hoop of very fine diamonds.’ 1960 R. Collier House called Memory x. 150 Uncle William Henry bought Dora a half hoop of diamonds as an engagement ring. |
| 1851 Catal. Gt. Exhib. 588 Lambs-wool and Cashmere hose and *half-hose. |
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, v. iv. 24 If you be not swing'd, Ile forsweare *halfe Kirtles. |
| 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2477/4 A sad coloured Cloth Coat, with..blue *half Sleeves. |
| 1670 Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 104 Some wear *Half-Stockings. |
| 1803 T. Sheraton Cabinet Dict. 44 As to the particular management of beds, and the articles required in mounting them, together with their various classes; these..will most conveniently come under their respective names, as..*Half-tester,..&c. 1859 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 229/1 We approached the bed and examined it—a half-tester, such as is commonly found in attics devoted to servants. 1960 H. Hayward Antique Coll. 279/2 At this period [sc. late 17th cent.] a new type of bedstead without footposts was introduced, known as a ‘half-tester’. |
| 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 206 The old stratagem..of turning a light adrift, in a *half tub. |
| 1844 Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury (1856) I. viii. 60 The..*half-wicket that closed the entrance. |
m. In various connexions: as
half-barbarian,
half-battle,
half-belief,
half-believer,
half-christian,
half-conformity,
half-consciousness,
half-dark,
half-darkness,
half-defence,
half-defender,
half-dream,
half-education,
half-hint,
half-honesty,
half-humour,
half-knowledge,
half-laugh,
half-lengthening,
half-lie,
half-literate,
half-look,
half-mind,
half-power,
half-principle,
half-quotation,
half-reason,
half-reasoning,
half-repentance,
half-savage,
half-servant,
half-service,
half-sleep,
half-spacing (on a typewriter),
half-view,
half-whisper. (In most of these
half- has an adverbial force.)
| 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxii. §9 To speak as half-defenders of the faults. Ibid. v. lxxxi. §4 They judge conclusions by demi-premises and half-principles. 1690 Locke Govt. i. ii. (Rtldg.) 6 It is no injury to call an half-quotation an half-reason. 1736 Butler Anal. ii. viii. 276 Half-views, which shew but Part of an Object. 1768 Boswell Corsica ii. (ed. 2) 120 A parcel of half-barbarians. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 367 A kind of half-reasoning, that suffices to raise difficulties but not pursue them to an issue. 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park II. vii. 148 A certain half-look attending the..expression of his hope. 1816 ― Emma II. xvii. 320 Much that passed between them was in a half-whisper. 1817 J. Scott Paris Revisit. (ed. 4) 237 A kind of stupefied half-sleep. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. viii. 57 To admit of no half-conformity in religion. 1836 J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. XXV. 5 See how incapable half-savages are of co-operation. 1838 ― Ibid. XXVIII. 454 The sceptics and half-believers of the story. ― Ibid. XXXI. 484 Almost all rich veins of original and striking speculation have been opened by systematic half-minds. 1840 Carlyle Heroes iv. 219 Richter says of Luther's words, ‘his words are half-battles’. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 2 The character of Jehu and his half-belief. Ibid. 188 A half-repentance is no repentance. Ibid. 199 Another instance of this half-service. 1862 G. Borrow Wild Wales II. xxxii. 370 ‘In truth I am,’ said she, with a half laugh. 1865 Pusey Truth Eng. Ch. 3 Unbelievers, or half-believers. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxxii, A voice said brokenly in a half-whisper. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 349 That half-knowledge which is more mischievous in an editor than down-right ignorance. 1881 ‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Paup. 208 His senses struggled to a half-consciousness. 1895 Kipling Day's Work (1898) 344 Leading him on to see, more by half-hints than by any direct word, how boys and men are all of a piece. 1898 Pearson's Mag. May 539/1 With a half-power steamer which had only one man all told upon her decks. 1900 Daily News 18 Aug. 6/1 How she did it she didn't know, she said, in a half-humour manner. 1904 W. de la Mare Henry Brocken 13 The half-dream [which] weariness brings. 1904 W. B. Yeats Tables of Law 9 The formalisms of half-education. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 11/2 The inaccuracies do not matter very much unless they are so gross as to shock the great half-literate. 1926 Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage 399/2 The uneasy half-literates who like to prove that they can spell. 1927 A. Clarke Son of Learning ii. 44 In the half-darkness his cowled figure suggests demonic possession. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley xvi. 278 She could still see on Connie's face..the half-dream of passion. a 1930 ― Last Poems (1932) 257 A half-lie causes the immediate contradiction of the half-lie. 1934 Blunden Choice or Chance 40 Possessions too,—part fungus and part flower,—Forced on him their half-power. 1934 E. Pound Eleven New Cantos xxxix. 45 From star up to the half-dark. 1937 Mind XLVI. 101 Postulating a sort of extra, separate half-mind—entelechy—like Driesch. 1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Oct. 638/3 The curious delicate half-humour which smiled at his own hypersensitiveness. 1941 T. S. Eliot Dry Salvages ii. 11 The backward half⁓look Over the shoulder, towards the primitive terror. 1948 ― Notes Def. Culture 105 But what is important is to remember that ‘half-education’ is a modern phenomenon. 1949 Koestler God that Failed 31 Once or twice she spoke on the telephone to comrades of hers—always in half-words and half-hints. 1953 K. H. Jackson Lang. & Hist. Early Brit. 342 Half-lengthening of penultimates could not have arisen until after the accent-shift. 1959 E. Pulgram Introd. Spectrogr. Speech viii. 64 The half⁓power points, whose power is..proportional to the square of the amplitude. 1961 Imperial Type Faces 10 A half⁓spacing device lends itself to display work. 1962 Which? Dec. 359/2 If you leave out a letter, it should be possible, after rubbing out the word, to fit in the extra letter by using half-spacing. |
n. In specific combinations:
half-Abo Austral., a person having one Aboriginal parent (
cf. Abo a.
and n.);
half-adder [
adder1 3], a unit in an electronic computer (see
quot. 1962);
† half-almond stitch;
half-arm, half arm's length;
half-arsed,
-ass,
-assed adjs. slang (
orig. U.S.), ineffectual, inadequate, mediocre; stupid, inexperienced;
half-barrel a., semicylindrical (vaulting);
half-belt (see
quot. 1957);
half-bend, a half fillet for the head;
half-bent, (
a) the condition of being half-bent; (
b) the catch by which the hammer of a gun is placed at half-cock;
† half-bloom, the round mass of iron taken from the puddling furnace, which was hammered and shingled into a ‘bloom’;
half-boarder, one who has half his board, a day-boarder;
half-box, a box open at one side;
half-braid (see
quot.);
half-bull, (
a) a pontifical letter issued by a new pope before his coronation, so called because the
bulla is impressed with only one side of the seal, that representing the apostles (Giry); (
b) [
bull n.1 7]
slang, a half-crown;
half-catch, (see
quots.);
half-cell Electr. (see
quot. 1943);
half-centre (see
quot.);
half-chronometer (see
quots.);
half-class, a class that is half one and half another;
half-column, a column or pilaster half projecting from a flat surface;
half-commission attrib., working for or based on half commission;
half-communion, communion in one kind, as practised in the
R.C. Ch.;
† half-compass, hemisphere: see
compass n. 5 b;
half-compression attrib., designating a device for lessening the compression of the explosive mixture in an internal-combustion engine;
half-course,
half-coward (see
quots.);
half-day, half a working day (
cf. day n. 8 d);
half-dike, a sunk fence;
half-dress (see
quot. 1960);
half-duck = half-bird;
half-evergreen a., of a plant that is evergreen in a mild climate; also as
n.;
half-flat,
† (
a) one of the shapes into which a ‘bloom’ of iron was worked; (
b) half of a
flat (
n.2) or entire storey of a house;
half-foot (see
quot. 1880);
half-frame, (
a)
pl. reading-spectacles consisting of only the lower half of the frames and lenses; also in
sing. attrib.; (
b) (
Photogr.) half the standard 35 mm. picture size;
half-gerund (see
quot. 1924);
half-hatchet, ‘a hatchet with one straight line, all the projection of the bit being on the side towards the hand’ (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875);
half-header, a half-brick used to close the work at the end of a course;
half-hose (see
hose n. 1 a γ);
half-house, a shed open at the side; a hovel;
half-hunt (
Bell-ringing): see
hunt;
half inferior a. Bot. (see
quots.);
half-integer, any member of the set of numbers obtained by dividing the odd integers by two; hence
half-integral a.;
† half-labour,
half-landing, a landing half-way up a flight of stairs;
half-lap (see
lap n.3 2 b);
half-lattice girder, one consisting of a single system or row of triangles;
half-lift [
lift n.2 5 f], a medium-stressed lift in
O.E. verse;
half-line Pros. [
line n.2 23 e], half of a line of verse, used
esp. of
O.E. and related verse;
half-margin (see
quots.);
half-mask, a mask covering part of the face, such as is worn with a
domino;
† half-member, a semicolon;
half-pass (see
quot. 1948);
half-period, the
half-life of a substance; see also
quot. 1904;
half-pint [
cf. sense II. a]
fig., a small or insignificant person; also
attrib.;
half-plane Math. (see
quot. 1959);
half-plate Photogr. (see
plate n. 5 c), also
attrib.;
half-portion, a half of a portion;
fig., a small or insignificant person;
half-press (see
quots.);
half-principal (
Carpentry), ‘a rafter which does not extend to the crown of the roof’ (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875);
half-pull (
Bell-ringing): see
quot.;
half-race Bot. (see
quots.);
half-relief = demi-relief (see demi- 12);
half-rhyme, an imperfect or near rhyme; hence
half-rhymed ppl. a.;
half-ripper,
half-rip saw, a finer-toothed ripping saw (see
ripper 2,
rip-saw n.);
half-roll Aeronaut., a manœuvre in which the aircraft turns through 180° about the longitudinal axis; hence
half-roll v. intr.;
half-royal, a kind of millboard or pasteboard;
half-secret dovetail (see
quot.);
half-shade (
Painting), a shade of half the extreme depth;
half-sheet (
Printing), the off-cut portion of a duodecimo (Knight, 1875); (see
quots.);
half-shoe, see
quot.; also a shoe on one side only of a horse's foot;
half-sibling, each of two or more individuals having one parent in common;
half-slip, the lower half of a slip (see
slip n.3 4 c); a petticoat;
half-sole, that part of the sole of a boot or shoe which extends forward from the shank to the toe; hence
half-sole v.;
half-space = half-pace 2;
half-speed shaft, the cam shaft of a four-stroke cycle internal-combustion engine, which rotates at half the speed of the crank shaft;
† half-sphere, hemisphere;
† half-square (see
quot. 1674);
half-stitch, a loose open stitch in braid work or pillow-lace making (Caulfeild
Dict. Needlewk. 259);
half-storey, an upper storey half the height of which is in the walls and half in the roof;
half-stress Pros., a secondary stress;
half-stuff (
Paper-making), partly prepared pulp;
half-swing plough (see
quot.);
half-term, a period approximately half-way through a school or other term, often made the occasion of a holiday;
freq. attrib. as in
half-term holiday;
half-text, a size of handwriting half the size of ‘text’ or large hand;
half-thickness Physics = half-value thickness;
half-throw,
-travel, half the full movement of a piston, valve, etc.;
half-tint (see
quot. 1851);
half-title, the short title of a book often placed in front of the full title;
half-tongue (
Law), a jury of which one half were foreigners, formerly allowed to a foreigner tried on a criminal charge;
half-trap, a semicircular depression in a sewer pipe;
half-turning bolt (see
quot.);
half-uncial, writing which combines the characters of uncial and cursive; semi-uncial; also
attrib.;
half-valve Mus. (see
quot. 1955); hence
half-valved ppl. a.;
half-valving vbl. n.;
half-verse Pros.,
= half-line (above);
half-virgin = demi-vierge;
† half-vowel, a semi-vowel;
† half-vowelish a., of the nature of a semivowel;
half-water = half-tide;
half-watt a. Electr., applied to a gas-filled incandescent lamp consuming approximately a half-watt per candle-power;
half-wave, one-half of a complete wave,
esp. of electricity or radiation;
freq. attrib., utilizing only alternate halves of a sequence of waves, as
half-wave rectification (
Chambers's Techn. Dict. 1940); half a wave-length long, as
half-wave antenna,
half-wave dipole, etc.;
half-white = half-breed 2;
half-word,
halfword, a group of consecutive bits, which can be handled as a unit, occupying half a word storage unit of a computer;
half-world, hemisphere; the demi-monde; also
transf.| 1945 C. Mann in B. James Austral. Short Stories (1963) 72 Little black *half-abo. piccaninnies. |
| 1954 Electronic Engin. XXVI. 288 Numbers always enter the accumulator loop via the two *half-adders and are therefore automatically added to the previous contents. 1962 Gloss. Terms Autom. Data Processing (B.S.I.) 60 Half-adder, a logic element with two outputs and two inputs to which may be applied signals representing a digit or a number and a single addend or carry digit. |
| 1611 Florio, Mezzo-mandolo, Seamsters call it the *halfe-almond stitch. |
| 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 18 Each fought at *half-arm for superiority. |
| 1961 A. West Trend is Up ix. 386 You don't know what it is to worry about what *half-arsed thing your own son is going to pull on you next. 1972 Observer 24 Sept. 35/2 The sort of half-arsed dottiness they dish out in West End comedies. |
| 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 399 He spent years hobnobbing with gentlemanly shits and *half-ass operators. |
| 1932 Amer. Speech VII. 333 *Half-assed, mediocre; insignificant. 1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions i. v. 183 A half-assed critic..thinks he has to make you unhappy before you'll take him seriously. |
| 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 56 The abandonment of the *half-barrel vaulting of the aisles. |
| 1957 M. B. Picken Fasion Dict. 19 *Half b[elt], belt which extends only half-way around body; especially one across back section of garment, as on sports jackets or coats. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 9 Feb. Suppl. 5/1 A..jacket with a half-belt at the back. |
| 1834 J. R. Planché Brit. Costume 48 Canute's queen wears..either the diadem or the *half-bend. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Grecian Hist. II. 11 With one leg put forward, and the knee upon the *half-bent. 1881 Greener The Gun 259 A half-bent in the tumbler that prevents the hammer being accidentally pushed down. |
| 1678 Phil. Trans. XII. 934 The Metal runs together into a round Mass or Lump, which they call a *Half-Bloom. |
| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 36 ¶8 They [birds]..may be taken as *Half-Boarders. 1836 E. Howard R. Reefer xiii, The half-boarders whispered their fears to the ushers. |
| 1885 C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather 479 The support is provided with two *half-boxes. |
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 42 *Half, or Shadow, or Lace Braid, the passement is pricked, as in cloth braid, and twelve pairs of bobbins put on. |
| 1789 *Half bull [see bob n.8]. 1852 Halfbull [see bull n.1 7]. 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xvi. 216 I've gotter get that 'arf-bull 'r somethin' dangerous may set in. |
| 1890 Daily News 28 Aug. 6/4 What is called the ‘*half-catch’ system—i.e., the owner of the boat (who is usually a fisherman) provides the fishing gear, and receives in return half of the total catch of fish. |
| 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 399/1 *Half-cell. 1943 Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) v. 93 Half cell, of an electrolytic cell: an electrode and that part of the electrolyte with which it is in contact. |
| 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., *Half-centre, half-centre is sometimes used to denote the position of the crank-pin of an engine when midway between the two dead centres or dead points. |
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 115 *Half Chronometer..originally used to denote watches having an escapement compounded of the lever and chronometer, appears now to be applied to fine lever watches which have been adjusted for temperature. |
| 1845 A. M. Hall Whiteboy ix. 76 There was nothing..to distinguish L.M. from the *half class—neither gentleman nor farmer. |
| 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit., Life 4 Four *half Columns of the composite order. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 16 Feb. 7/4 He became a *half-commission man with a firm of stockbrokers. 1927 Sunday Express 13 Mar. 2 A half-commission stockbroker. 1931 Times 16 Mar. 18/1 The Half Commission Practice. |
| 1687 Reflect. Hawk & Panther 27 The *Half-Communion is no older, than the time of Acquinas. |
| 1587 Golding De Mornay vi. 72 The daysun..which inlighteneth not onely the *halfe compasse whereon he shineth, but also euen a part of that which seeth him not. |
| 1901 Motor-Car World II. 317/1 To facilitate starting the engine a *half-compression device is fitted which operates on the exhaust valve through the medium of a second or subsidiary cam attached to the main cam working the exhaust. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 11 Nov. 7/2 The simple half-compression gear. |
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, *Half-course, half on the level and half on the dip. |
| 1861 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXII. i. 41 Unless the whole evening's milk is skimmed and added to the whole new morning's milk—in which case the cheese made is ‘*half-coward’—the produce, whether single or double, is said to be whole-milk cheese. |
| 1791 F. Burney Jrnl. 31 July (1972) I. 2 One precious *half Day I was indulged with my kindest Mr. Lock. 1876 Lady C. Schreiber Jrnl. (1911) I. 477 We found that we could not execute all our little shoppings.., because the Saturday is but a half-day. 1932 Discovery Mar. 71/2 Now the minimum wage [for farm workers] is 30s. per week of five shorter days and a half day. 1973 Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 1/1 The Shadow Cabinet decided to give up a half-day of its Parliamentary time to complete the debate in the Commons. |
| 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. V. 421 Ditches, hedges, and *half-dikes or sunk fences. |
| 1788 E. Sheridan Jrnl. (1960) 138 Great coats made very open before to shew the peticoat—in Undress—*half dress, Night gown and peticoat with fine muslin Aprons—full dress I have not seen. c 1810 W. Hickey Mem. (1918) II. xx. 261 A tailor named Knill..advised my having a dark green with gold binding..and for half dress a Bon de Paris with gold frogs. 1815 Belle Assemblée Sept. Pl., Autumnal Walking Dress... The head dress must be either a half⁓dress cap, or a white satin gipsy, or Wellington hat. 1850 Ladies' Gaz. Fashion Aug. 255/1 Plain mousseline de soie..begins to be a good deal seen in half-dress. 1960 Cunnington & Beard Dict. Eng. Costume 100/2 Half dress, late 18th and 19th c's... The costume worn at day functions and at informal evening ones. |
| 1892 W. J. Gordon Our Country's Birds 10 Local and Popular Names... *Half Duck. 1903 J. A. Hamilton MS. in Red Box 329 Good sport among the half-duck and mussel-duck which abounded at Tudworth. |
| 1934 Webster, *Half-evergreen. 1952 A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders's Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 131 Glaucophylla, half-evergreen. |
| 1795 Repert. Arts in J. Holland Manuf. Metal (1831) I. 124 Anconies, bars, *half flats. 1889 Masson in De Quincey's Wks. I. Gen. Pref. 16 A half-flat set of apartments on the second floor of..a house of six such half-flats in all, accessible by a common stair. |
| 1814 J. Sinclair Agric. Scot. App. ii. 396 *Half foot, is another method of occupying a farm, equally barbarous in itself, and adverse to improvement. It is not so prevalent in the Highlands, as in some of the Western Isles. 1873 Trans. Highland Soc. 298 Out or led farms like the metayers of France, or the half-foot tenants of the Hebrides. 1880 W. Skene Celtic Scot. III. 370 A kind of tenancy called half-foot, where the possessor of the farm furnished the land and seed corn,..the produce being divided. |
| 1961 Colour Photogr. vi. 249/3 The normal 20-exposure cassette gives 40 *half-frame exposures and the 36-exposure cassette gives 72 so that each colour transparency would cost less than 6d. 1967 A. Flowers in L. Deighton London Dossier 170 Buy one of the half-frame cameras such as the Olympus Pen D2 or the Canon Dial. 1968 J. Hudson Case of Need i. i. 10 ‘Call me,’ Sanderson said, peering over his half frames. 1968 L. Deighton Only when I Larf ii. 17 Strange half-frame spectacles that he peered over abstractedly. |
| 1898 H. Sweet New Eng. Gram. ii. 121 The absence of a distinction between common case and genitive in the plural often makes it impossible in the spoken language to distinguish between gerund and *half-gerund, as in to prevent the ladies leaving us, I generally ordered the table to be removed.., where the..alteration of ladies into ladies' would make leaving into a full gerund. Ibid., There seems little doubt that the colloquial half-gerunds in such causal constructions as she caught cold sitting on the damp grass..have arisen through dropping a preposition. 1924 H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. 168 In certain constructions the ing form has a function intermediate between that of the present participle and the gerund. Sweet suggests for such cases the term half-gerund. |
| 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 342 A Hovel or *half House for them to run into. 1895 R. Kipling in Pall Mall G. 25 Oct. 3/1 When they were tired Kotuko would make what the hunters call a ‘half-house’. |
| 1900 B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms 118/1 *Half inferior, used of an ovary when the stamens are perigynous. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 399/1 Half inferior, said of a flower in which the receptacle forms a cup which is adherent to the base of the ovary and partly up its side. |
| 1928 Proc. Physical Soc. XL. 332 The number m can take only certain discrete values (either integers or *half-integers). 1971 P. Hlawiczka Introd. Quantum Electronics xvi. 247 The quantum numbers j1 and j2 may be either integers or half integers. |
| 1930 Ruark & Urey Atoms, Molecules & Quanta vii. 187 Many authors use j + ½ instead, when j is *half-integral. 1968 M. S. Livingston Particle Physics ii. 24 Nuclei with an odd number of protons plus electrons, each with half-integral spin, should result in half-integral nuclear angular momenta. |
| 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. II. 443 The rent was frequently paid in kind, or in what was called *half-labour...One-half of the crop went to the landlord. |
| 1910 Daily Chron. 1 Feb. 1/1, I saw the proprietor,..perched on the *half-landing of the stairs. 1965 ‘T. Hinde’ Games of Chance i. i. 16 The black and lemon half-landing bathroom. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1049/2 *Half-lattice girder, a form of girder..consisting of horizontal upper and lower bars, and a series of diagonal bars, sloping alternately in opposite directions, and dividing the space between the bars into a series of triangles. |
| 1894 H. Sweet Anglo-Saxon Reader (ed. 7) p. xc, To make up for the want of an accompanying dip, an extra medium-stressed *half-lift is made obligatory. 1967 C. L. Wrenn Study O.E. Lit. 38 Five basic combinations of stress or lift of the voice, half or secondary stress or half-lift, and unstressed syllables. |
| 1864 H. Morley Eng. Writers I. 251 The most important is a heroic poem..extending..to 6357 of the short Anglo-Saxon lines, or *half lines, as they are usually printed. 1900 A. S. Cook Christ of Cynewulf 70 Half-line space. 1910 F. Tupper Riddles of Exeter Bk. 220 The half-line is of the A-type..common in the Riddles. 1927 E. V. Gordon Introd. Old Norse 293 In ON. tradition the unit verse was not the long line, but the half-line, which was called a v{iacu}sa or line. 1964 English Studies XLV. 38 The patronymic epithet is separated from its antecedent by at least a full half-line. 1965 Ibid. XLVI. 420 In Germanic the basic principle is stress, together with a division into half-lines. |
| 1851 Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers iii. 13 The Paper must be folded in the centre, lengthways, by which it will be divided, equally, into what is technically termed *half-margin. Ibid., All Official Letters for the Inspector-General are..to be written on half margin. |
| 1762 Lowth Introd. Eng. Gram. (1838) 195 The Semicolon, or *Half-member, is a less constructive part, or subdivision, of a sentence or member. |
| 1929 Man. Horsemastership, Equitation & Driving ii. 115 The bending lesson includes..the ‘half passage’ or ‘*half pass’... In all lateral movements the forehand must slightly precede the hind quarters. 1948 E. Schmit-Jensen Equestrian Olympic Games App. 95 At the Half Pass the horse moves on two tracks... The outside legs pass and cross in front of the inside legs... The legs on the side to which the horse is moving are the inside legs; those on the opposite side the outside legs. |
| 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 277/2 The area included in this curve is the first *half period element. Ibid., The effect of the whole wave can be expressed in terms of these half period components. 1905 Nature 13 Apr. 574/1 Different samples gave for the half-period of decay from 52 to 55 seconds. 1942 J. D. Stranathan ‘Particles’ of Mod. Physics xi. 448 One product of the nuclear disruption was a Ba isotope having a half period of 86 minutes. |
| 1926 Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 9/1 *Half pint, stunted individual. 1929 W. R. Burnett Little Caesar iv. ii. 117 ‘Here's the half-pint,’ said Killer Pepi, pushing Joe Sansone forward. 1930 G. C. Myers Mod. Parent ix. 165 Here are types of remarks which some parents..will stoop to make: ‘What do you think of our half-pint?’ 1938 Wodehouse Summer Moonshine xvii. 200 That wonder girl in whose half-pint person were combined all the lovely qualities of woman of which he had so often dreamed. 1943 C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 35 Half-pint hero, swaggerer. 1948 ‘N. Shute’ No Highway iii. 82 The little half-pint size, with thick glasses? |
| 1891 *Half-plane [see orthomorphic a. 2]. 1927 H. G. Forder Found. Euclidean Geom. iii. 68 The regions into which a line a separates a plane ω in which it lies are the ‘half-planes from a in ω’. 1959 G. & R. C. James Math. Dict. 182/1 Half-plane, the part of a plane which lies on one side of a line in the plane. 1968 P. A. P. Moran Introd. Probability Theory x. 473 In the cases considered the domain is a rectangle, an infinite strip, a half-plane, or infinite quadrant. |
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 116 [A] *Half plate..[is] a watch in which the top pivot of the fourth wheel pinion is carried in a cock so as to allow the use of a larger balance. 1888 Jacobi Printer's Voc., Half plate paper, machine made paper of fine and soft texture used for woodcuts. 1877 Design & Work III. 451/1 Half-plate portrait lens. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 58 On your slide you require to get all the view on the half-plate negative. 1903 A. Watkins Photogr. (ed. 2) 13 Half-plate is the favourite amateur size. |
| 1907 F. H. Burnett Shuttle xxxviii. 379 Adroit manipulation of ‘portions’ and ‘*half portions’..enabled them to add variety to their bill of fare. 1919 Wodehouse Coming of Bill (1920) i. v. 59 He certainly is a kind o' half-portion, ma'am! 1967 ― Company for Henry vii. 130 Even when calling her a squirt and a half-portion he had thought of her as a comely squirt and a half-portion with plenty of sex appeal. 1967 L. Deighton Expensive Place ii. 14 [He] did not like orders for..charcuterie as a main dish or half-portions of anything. |
| 1883 Percy Smith Gloss. Terms, *Half-press, the work done by one man at a printing-press. |
| 1684 R. H. School Recreat. 90 Ringing at *Half-pulls is now the modern general Practice: that is, when one Change is made at Fore-stroke, another at Back-stroke, etc. 1872 Ellacombe Ch. Bells Devon iii. 36 What the trade would probably consider a ‘pull’ is, in ringing, termed only a half-pull. |
| 1906 R. H. Lock Variation, Heredity & Evolution v. 141 In the case of a *half-race a small percentage only of seedlings is found to produce plants which show the racial character. Ibid. 145 A half-race might have been defined as a strain in which the character of the complete race is usually latent, and only rarely appears. 1928 B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms (ed. 4) 169/2 Half-race, a form intermediate between a species and a variety of it, producing but few seedlings of the racial character, the majority reverting to the specific type. |
| 1830 B. Thorpe tr. Rask's Gram. Anglo-Saxon Tongue 139 Line-Rime is when two syllables, in the same line of verse, have their vowels and the consonants following them alike, which is called perfect rime (consonances), or unlike vowels, and only the following consonants the same, which is called *half rime (assonances). 1860 G. P. Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. xxv. 553 In Icelandic poetry,..imperfect rhyme is regularly employed, and..is called skothend{iacu}ng,..which we may conveniently translate by half-rhyme. Ibid. 560 Although half-rhyme may be said to be peculiar to Icelandic poetry,..yet there are examples of the employment of both full and imperfect line-rhymes in modern English. 1873–4 G. M. Hopkins Note-Bks. (1937) 243 In Icelandic verse an opposite kind of alliteration (skothend{iacu}ng) is made use of, namely ending with the same consonant but after a different vowel, as ‘bad’ ‘led’, ‘find’ ‘band’, ‘sin’ ‘run’ (from Marsh, who calls it half-rhyme). 1886 J. M. D. Meiklejohn Eng. Lang. ii. 186 The English language is very poor in rhymes, when compared with Italian or German. Accordingly, half-rhymes are admissible..: sun/gone, love/move, allow/bestow, etc. 1936 M. Roberts Faber Bk. Mod. Verse 28 In Owen's war poetry, the half-rhymes almost invariably fall from a vowel of high pitch to one of low pitch. |
| 1960 D. S. R. Welland Wilfred Owen vi. 115 Only in ‘Arms and the Boy’, ‘Wild with All Regrets’, and ‘Strange Meeting’ does he [sc. Wilfred Owen] write in *half-rhymed couplets throughout. |
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 476/2 The ripping-saw, *half-ripper, hand-saw..are saws for the use of one person. |
| 1846, 1875 *Half-rip saw [see rip-saw n.]. |
| 1926 J. M. Grider War Birds 206, I half rolled on top of him, he *half rolled too. 1934 V. M. Yeates Winged Victory i. iii. 29 The same with the half-roll. Nothing would half-roll like a Camel. A twitch of the stick and flick of the rudder and you were on your back. |
| 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 277/2 *Half secret dovetail, a dovetail of the form used in a drawer front; it is concealed in a front view, but visible in the side of the drawer when drawn out. |
| 1874 R. Tyrwhitt Sketch. Club 240 Paint the *half-shades in first. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Halfe shoes beynge of suche fashion, that aboue they couer but the toes. |
| 1683–4 J. Moxon Mech. Exerc. Printing (1962) 227 In *Half-sheets, all the Pages belonging to the White Paper and Reteration are Imposed in one Chase, and are plac'd, as you see by the Drafts..of Half-sheet Forms. 1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 56 Book-work is sometimes printed in ‘half-sheet’ fashion. When thus printed there are two copies on one sheet. 1914 T. L. De Vinne Mod. Book Composition ix. 336 It is called half-sheet because this larger sheet must be cut in halves before either half can be folded. 1952 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper (ed. 2) 122/1 Half-sheet, printing a whole sheet of a book so that all the pages of a signature are in one forme. 1964 F. Bowers Bibliogr. & Textual Crit. iv. ii. 109 The work-and-turn method of printing by half-sheet imposition. |
| 1903 Biometrika Nov. 391 The high values, however, found for *half-siblings in the case of the thoroughbreds. 1938 Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. 213 The mother allows the children to invite their half-siblings. 1959 B. Wootton Social Sci. & Social Pathol. iii. 85 Some authors state whether deceased, half- or step-siblings are included, or whether the delinquent himself is counted in the total of family members. |
| 1952 H. Waugh Last seen Wearing (1953) 31 ‘What about her..under⁓garments?’ ‘*Half-slip, pants, and bra.’ 1957 M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 313/1 Half slip, any of the various types of slips starting at the waistline. |
| 1795 J. & E. Pettigrew Let. 5 Apr. (MS.) (D.A.E.), I have not got my shoes *halfsoaled yet, as shewmakers are very scarce. 1861 F. W. Robinson No Church ii. I. 71 Two days at Penberriog to rest his ankle and get his boots half-soled. |
| 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 439 The floor between the two flights is termed a *half-space or resting-place. |
| 1902 A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors viii. 152 A crank, operated by a connecting rod from the *half-speed shaft on the engine. 1905 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. s.v. Motor Cycles, The half speed shaft, rotating at one half the speed of the crank shaft. |
| 1611 B. Jonson Cataline i. i, Let..day, At shewing but thy head forth, start away From this *half-sphere. |
| 1662 Pepys Diary 18 Aug., The whole mystery of *off [half] square, wherein the King is abused in the timber which he buys. 1674 Leybourn Compl. Surv. 345 Most Artificers when they meet with Squared Timber, whose breadth and depth are unequal..usually add the breadth and depth together, and take the half for a Mean Square, and so proceed..If the difference be great, the Error is very obnoxious either to Buyer or Seller. |
| 1618 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 206 The *halfe storie to be eight foote and a halfe. 1886 Ibid. II. 737 The dormer-gablets of the half-storey. |
| 1938 A. Campbell Battle of Brunanburh 24 Graz..regarding butu as having a *half-stress on the second syllable. 1961 Rev. Eng. Stud. XII. 345 Long and short syllables must be distinguised in scansion, when they bear either a strong stress or a half-stress. |
| 1766 C. Leadbetter Royal Gauger ii. xiv. (ed. 6) 370 In these Mortars the Rags are beaten into what is called *Half-stuff. 1836 Encycl. Metrop. VII. 764 A mill in which the rags are ground to a coarse imperfect pulp, called half stuff. 1912 Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 671/2 The pulp—at this stage commonly called half-stuff—is fed into beating-engines. |
| 1875 Sussex Gloss., *Half-swing Plough, a plough in which the mould-board is a fixture. |
| 1888 Boy's Own Paper Summer No. 16/2 At *half-term it was Hoskyn's custom to write letters to all the parents with reports of their sons' progress. 1944 L. A. G. Strong All fall Down 55 It's half term, as even you must have realised. 1950 Hodgkinson & Muir in R. M. Scrimgeour North London Collegiate Sch. 1850–1950 v. 101 Miss Drummond spent a half-term morning in her Sussex cottage trying to see whether, if girls spent the whole day at Canons, they could be supplied with adequate teaching there. |
| 1845 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 322 Writing in *half text on ruled paper. |
| 1950 Glasstone Sourcebk. Atomic Energy vii. 170/2 The mass half-thickness, i.e., the actual..*half-thickness multiplied by the density, is almost independent of the material absorbing the gamma rays. 1958 W. K. Mansfield Elem. Nucl. Physics v. 45 To compare the penetrating power of the γ-rays with that of α and β-rays, it is necessary to estimate the half-thickness. 1960 J. N. Gregory World of Radio⁓isotopes i. 9 The shorter the wavelength of the γ-radiation the greater the half-thickness. |
| 1812 Examiner 25 May 328/1 The brilliant lights relieving from a large proportion of *half tints. 1851 Dict. Archit., Half-tint,..in a monochrome, it embraces all gradations between positive white and black. |
| 1879 Furnivall New Shaks. Soc. Rep. 8 The notes on the back of the *half-title of the Part. |
| 1494 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 21 All Attaints..upon any Record, wherein the triall and enquest was by *halfe tongue. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1050 *Half-turning bolt, one with a thread occupying one half of its cylindrical surface. |
| 1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 153/2 Examples of *half-uncial writing. 1897 H. W. Johnston Lat. MSS. 70 Half-Uncials are derived from the uncials and represent the last efforts of the book hand to differentiate itself from the improved business hand of the time... It is also called the Roman Uncial and Pre-Caroline Minuscule. 1912 E. M. Thompson Introd. Gr. & Lat. Palaeogr. 305 It is the Half-uncial hand which we find employed as far back as the fifth century as a literary hand in the production of formally written MSS. 1926 E. A. Lowe in Crump & Jacob Legacy of Middle Ages 209 Before developing a minuscule Irish calligraphers had created a majuscule, the Irish half-uncial as it is styled, of which the Book of Kells, a work of unsurpassed skill and artistry, is the most eminent example. |
| 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues i. 12 Yellow's *half-valve inflections and slurs. 1955 L. Feather Encycl. Jazz vii. 292 Boy meets Horn, a showpiece displaying the novel style and tone he popularized using ‘half-valve’ effect (a squeezed tonal sound obtained by depressing the valve halfway). 1958 S. Dance in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz xxiii. 297 Original creations like Boy meets horn with its stifled, half-valved statements. |
| 1956 S. Traill Play that Music viii. 87 Some players achieve a sort of ‘blue note’ effect by ‘*half-valving’, which would mean, in our particular example, pressing the middle valve (for a correct E♭) half down. The distortion of tone which this produces is not very attractive, and I would discourage ‘half-valving’ altogether. |
| 1711 *Half Verse [see hemistich]. 1876 H. Sweet Anglo-Saxon Reader p. xcviii, There is often only one alliterative letter in the first half verse. 1907 F. A. Blackburn Exodus & Daniel p. x, Uncorrected errors are few, though occasional omissions occur, generally of a half-verse. 1938 A. Campbell Battle of Brunanburh 16 It will be convenient to group its half-verses in the ‘five types’ of Sievers. |
| 1946 Koestler Thieves in Night 165 As obscene and shocking to me as a petting party with a *half-virgin. 1965 N. Freeling Criminal Conversation ii. xv. 164, I imagined, being full of valuable premedical catch-phrases, that she was ‘half-virgin’ and therefore despicable. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 11 Varro devideth his husbandry necessaries into..vowels..*halfe vowels..and mutes. |
| a 1637 B. Jonson Eng. Gram. iv, L is a letter *half-vowelish. |
| 1883 Stevenson Treas. Isl. iv. xix, The low, sandy spit..is joined at *half-water to Skeleton Island. |
| 1913 Lighting Jrnl. I. 207/1 (heading) A *half watt lamp!.. The types which it is expected to first develop..operate at an efficiency of half a watt per candlepower. 1915 Nature XCVI. 407/1 With electricity generated in modern power-houses, and ordinary metal filament lamps, 750,000 candle-power-hours are generated per ton of coal, compared with 260,000 C.P. per ton of coal when gas and modern gas mantles are used. The extended use of so-called ‘half-watt’ lamps will soon double this 750,000. 1932 N. Royde-Smith Incredible Tale 57 The white glare of the half-watt lamp hanging from the studio roof. |
| 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict., *Half wave plate, a plate of doubly refracting crystal, capable of splitting up a plane polarised ray into two portions, one of which is retarded half a wave length with respect to the other. 1912 Motor Man. (ed. 14) ii. 33 When the platinum contacts at the end of the armature touch, one-half of every complete wave flows into the accumulator, and when the contacts separate, the reverse wave of the current is interrupted at the zero or no-voltage line; thus only the half-waves of current flowing in the same direction are used. 1926 R. W. Hutchinson Wireless viii. 145 If the first half-wave is positive the grid will become positive. Ibid., The next half-wave is negative and this still further lowers the potential of the grid. 1928 Morning Post 6 Feb. 3/4 A half wave rectifier. 1943 Gloss. Terms Telecommunications (B.S.I.) 67 Half-wave dipole, a straight aerial symmetrical in regard to its standing-wave current and usually approximately half a wavelength long. 1962 Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors xii. 276 The same is true of any amplifier, such as the Class AB, whose output is asymmetrical and consists of pulses that are larger than one half-wave. 1962 Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields xiii. 446 After having mastered the electric dipole, we shall be able to study the radiation field of the half⁓wave antenna—the type commonly used for transmitting radio waves. |
| 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. fr. Hawaii (1967) 26 Foreigners and the better class of natives, and ‘*half whites’ in carriages. 1897 ― Following Equator 63, I asked after ‘Billy’ Ragsdale, interpreter to the Parliament in my time—a half-white. 1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 23 Oct. 8/3 In this boat's crew..was Charlie Diamond... He was a Bonin island half-white and is well known to old time sealers. |
| 1959 J. Jeenel Programming for Digital Computers ii. 60 One might choose a 12-digit word size for the calculator and have a word represent either one number or a pair of instructions. The single-address instructions would be represented by ‘*half words’. 1964 Halfword [see byte]. 1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing vi. 105 Some machines pack two instructions per cell, and there are different addresses for each half-word, e.g. even addresses for left half-words, odd addresses for right half-words. |
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. ii. i. 49 Now o're the one *halfe World Nature seemes dead. 1866 Howells Venet. Life xvii. 260 The night's whole half-world. 1881 Daily Tel. 3 Feb., The endless intrigues of the ‘half-world’. 1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xliii. 613 ‘Baby Hamilton’ is another celebrity of the Half-World. Many stories are told about the recklessness of this girl. 1874 Porcupine 21 Feb. 742/1 Those moral magistrates who have so distinctly set their faces against Cremorne and other outdoor haunts of the ‘half-world’. 1950 Half-world [see folk-jazz s.v. folk 6]. 1972 Times 6 Apr. 7/5 Away from his chosen half-world, Munby's social life was passed in the first literary and artistic circles of his day. |
III. Parasynthetic, as
half-languaged,
half-legged,
half-lived,
half-sensed,
half-sighted (hence
half-sightedness),
half-sleeved,
half-souled,
half-syllabled,
half-tented,
half-winged, etc.
| 1596 R. L[inche] Diella (1877) 48 Halfe-leg'd Buskins curiously ytide with loopes of burnisht gold. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 3 The men weare halfe-sleeued gownes. 1651 tr. Bacon's Life & Death 7 In the Daylight, they wink and are but half-sighted. 1762 Ellis in Phil. Trans. LII. 662 This genus of insects is placed..under the Hemipteræ or half winged. 1833 Browning Pauline 167 Like things half-lived, catching and giving life. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home 378 The national half-sightedness. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. iv. 76 Half-languaged men. |
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Add:
[II.] [i.] half-move Chess, a single move by White or Black (as distinct from a full move, one by each side) made or investigated by a computer program during the course of a game; similarly in chess puzzles;
cf. *
ply n. 4.
| 1958 Sci. Amer. June 105/2 Even with much faster computers..it will be impracticable to consider more than about six half-moves ahead. 1973 Ibid. June 93/3 With the computers then available, Shannon thought it would be possible to look ahead four half-moves, or two full moves for each side. 1984 Oxf. Compan. Chess 227/1 A move made by one player is called a single-move and not a half-move, a term used occasionally for trick problems better called puzzles. 1987 C. Ebeling All the Right Moves iv. 71 (caption) The information captured by a register is programmed by connecting the appropriate halfmove inputs to the AND gate governing the enable. |