▪ I. vane
(veɪn)
Also 6 vayn, 6–7 veine, 8 vain.
[Southern var. of fane n.1]
1. A plate of metal, usually of an ornamental form, fixed at an elevation upon a vertical spindle, so as to turn readily with the wind and show the direction from which this is blowing; a weather-cock.
Vanes are a common addition to the tops of spires or other pinnacles of buildings.
| 1425 in Kennett Par. Antiq. (1818) II. 254 Cum ii ventilogiis, viz. vanys de Tyn emptis..ponendis super utrumque finem prædicti dormitorii. 1479–81 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 103 Item, for mendyng of the vane of the steple. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour B j, Be ye not like ne semblable the tortuse ne to the Crane which wynde their hede here and there as a vane. 1532 in E. Law Hampton Crt. Pal. (1885) 364 A vayn servyng for the stone typis at the gabull ende of the Tennys play. 1572–3 Sarum Churchw. Acc. (Swayne, 1896) 287 Taking downe of the vane and mending of him. 1597 Middleton Wisd. Solomon xiv. 17 Like as a vane is turn'd with every blast. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 13 July 1654, These were adorn'd with a variety of dials, little statues, vanes, &c. 1785 Reid Intell. Powers ii. xix. 325 When I see a spire at a very great distance there appears no vane at the top. 1826 Scott Woodst. ii, One or two..venerable turrets, bearing each its own vane of rare device glittering in the autumn sun. 1849 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sci. (ed. 6) xv. 138 Thus two alternations of north and south wind will cause the vane at any place to go completely round the compass. 1880 L. Morris Ode of Life 130 The old grey church, with the tall spire, Whose vane the sunsets fire. |
| transf. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. i. (1873) 3 The direction of the branches was N.E. by N., and these natural vanes must indicate the prevailing direction of the trade wind. 1859 Herschel in Man. Sci. Enq. 136 The direction of the wind, as well as its force, should be registered at each observation; and for this it is well to have a small compass with a vane of card or thin and very moveable sheet brass. |
b. fig. An unstable or constantly changing person or thing.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. i. 97 What plume of feathers is hee that indited this Letter? What veine? What Wether-cocke? ? a 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Four Plays Wks. 1912 X. 303 My desire's a vane, That the least breath from her turns every way. 1850 D. G. Mitchell Reveries Bachelor 133 Who is going to shift this vane of my desires? |
c. Naut. A piece of bunting fixed to a wooden frame, which turns on a spindle at the mast-head to show the direction of the wind. (See also dog-vane.)
| 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 3 Some compare her [the ship] to a Commonwealth, and carry the Allegory from the Vane, down to the Keelson. 1769 Falconer Dict. Mar., Vane, a thin slip of bunting hung to the mast-head, or some other conspicuous place,..to show the direction of the wind. 1863 Rep. Sea Fisheries Comm. (1865) II. 404/2 Do you [trawlers] carry any particular kind of vane?—Yes, until it blows away; we generally carry a red vane. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 709 A distinguishing vane denotes the division of a fleet to which a ship of the line belongs, according to the mast on which it is borne. |
† 2. A metal plate having the form of a flag or banner bearing a coat of arms, esp. one supported by the figure of an animal. Obs.
Sometimes app. serving the purpose of a weather-cock.
| 1502 Marr. Pr. Arthur in Antiq. Rep. (1808) II. 260 A red lyon rampand, holdyng a vane enpeynted with the armys of Englond. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 97 Ouer the gates wer arches with towers embattailed set with vanes and scutchions of the armes of the Emperor and the Kyng. 1574 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 351 For..coloringe the beasts and the vanes and the Quenes armes..with good colors and oyles. |
3. a. A sail of a windmill.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 482 All thinges are carryed about in a certaine vehement whyrling unstablenesse, as it were the fleyng vanes of a windemill. 16.. Anc. Poems, Ball., etc. (Percy Soc.) 47 They have a castle on a hill, I took it for an old wind-mill, The vanes blown off by weather. 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v. Windmill, Made with vertical Sails, like the ordinary Windmils,..placed on an Axis of a proportionable length to the length of the Vanes. 1754 J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) I. 19 [She] took Occasion to utter three or four sighs,..each of which would have turned the vanes of a windmill. 1804 C. Smith Conversations, etc. II. 49 The miller shewed me the machinery..and how it works the mill by the action of those vanes or sails. 1864 G. W. Dasent Jest & Earnest (1873) I. 182 The women with a curious cap with an erection on it like two vanes of a windmill flapping in the air. |
b. A blade, wing, or similar projection attached to an axis, wheel, etc., so as to be acted upon by a current of air or liquid or to produce a current by rotation.
| 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 17 Each axis has four or more thin arms or vanes fixed into it; the vanes are similar in all respects, except in their position. 1824 R. Stuart Hist. Steam Engine 150 On the circumference of a wheel eight vanes or flaps are attached by joints. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 38 An upright shaft furnished with arms or vanes for the purpose of agitation. 1867 W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-mining 211 Fans.—These instruments, with straight radial vanes, were abundantly used in the German mines..about 1550. |
c. A revolving fan or wheel.
| 1810 Crabbe Borough x. 248 Ev'n the poor ventilating vane, that flew Of late so fast, is now grown drowsy too. 1842 Francis Dict. Arts s.v., Vane is also synonymous with fly or fly wheel. Ibid. s.v. Vane, Electrical, When..the vane is placed near to it, the strength of the current will be sufficient to impel the vane forward, so that it will rotate on its centre. |
4. A sight of a levelling-staff, forestaff, quadrant, or other surveying instrument.
| 1594 Blundevil Exerc. vii. xvi. 326 b, Turne both your faces, and also the vane of the Transame towardes the Sunne. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. xiv. 85 Set the Vane G to a certain number of Degrees,..looking through the Vane F,..draw your Sight-Vane a little lower. 1674 Leybourne Compl. Surveyor 45 Upon the longer Sight is to be placed a Vane of brass, to be moved up and down at pleasure. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., Those Sights which are made to move and slide upon Cross-staves, Fore⁓staves, Davis Quadrants, &c. the Seamen call Vanes. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. iii. 327 The quadrant was eagerly seized, but on examination, it unluckily wanted vanes, and therefore in its present state was altogether useless. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 307/1 [In] Houghton's staffs..the vane is circular inlaid with a diamond-shaped lozenge. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 710 The one opposite to the fore horizon⁓glass is the foresight-vane, the other the backsight vane. |
5. The web of a feather.
| 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. vii. i. 374 The Mechanism of the vanes or webs of Feathers. 1768 Phil. Trans. LVIII. 92 Their texture is equally extraordinary; the shafts broad and very thin; the vanes unwebbed. 1834 Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 14 The larger ribs of the webs or vanes of not a few are of considerable substance and strength. 1875 Blake Zool. 94 The vane consists of barbs which proceed at right angles to the shaft. |
6. attrib. and Comb., as vane-like adj., vane-pin, vane-spindle, vane staff, vane-surmounted adj.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants I. 91 Versatilis, vane-like. 1844 in Noad Electricity (ed. 2) 95 The balls from which arise the vane-spindles of the two churches. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 306/2 The vane staff is more calculated for the purpose [than the levelling staff]. 1848 Dickens Dombey ix, Then came rows of houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from among the scarlet beans. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Vane-spindle, the pivot on which the masthead-vane turns. 1889 P. H. Emerson English Idyls 22 She was black from stem to stern, from keel to vane-pin. |
▪ II. vane
southern ME. var. fain a.; obs. Sc. f. vain a., vein n., wane n. and v., won pa. tense of win v.