▪ I. mattress1
(ˈmætrɪs)
Forms: 3–6 materas, 4 matrace, 4–5 materace, 6 mattrace, 4–6 materes, 5–6 matres, 6 mattres, 6–7 mattresse, -iss, matteris, (5 matras(e, -ess, -ys, materis, -os, matteras, 6 mattrys, matrice, 7 matt(e)rice), 5, 8–9 matrass, 9 mattrass, 6– mattress.
[a. OF. materas (mod.F. matelas), ad. It. materasso, commonly viewed as identical (exc. for the Arab. prefixed article al-) with Sp. and Pg. almadraque, Pr. almatrac, ad. Arab. al-maṭraḥ, place where something is thrown, in mod. use also mat, cushion, f. root ṭaraḥa to throw. The MHG. matraz (mod.G. matratze) is from Fr.]
1. A contrivance used as a bed or (more commonly) as a support for a bed, consisting of a case formed by two pieces of canvas or other textile material quilted together, stuffed with hair, flocks, straw, or the like. In recent use extended to include other appliances serving the same purpose, esp. one consisting of wire cloth stretched upon a frame or containing an array of springs.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 188 ‘Goth’, he seide, ‘and maketh a bed..Of quoiltene and of materasz’. 1395 E.E. Wills (1882) 5 My secunde best fetherbed, with caneuas materas. c 1425 Hoccleve Minor Poems xxiii. 779 The pilwes nesshe and esy materas. 1495 Nottingham Rec. III. 38 Duo matrasses, pretii vs. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 24 b, The flesshe lieth bytwene the bone and the skynne lyke a mattresse of cotton. 1588 Fitch's Voy. in Hakl. Voy. (1811) II. 388 Gownes of cotton like to our mattraces and quilted caps. 1624 Invent. in Archæologia XLVIII. 136 A bedsteed, a matt, a matterice, a fetherbed. 1693 Dryden Juvenal vi. 128 She..On a hard Mattress is content to sleep. 1764 Harmer Observ. 82 Their beds consist of a matrass laid on a floor, and over this a sheet. 1812 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 86 He hid it between a mattrass and a bed. 1848 in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Furniture, etc. (1869) 551 An elastic mattress entirely metallic. 1850 Ibid. 158 A very portable spring mattress. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. 2291 Spring-mattress, one having metallic springs beneath the hair or moss filling. Ibid. 2792 Wire-mattress... See patents:—..79,040. June 16, 68 [etc.]. 1890 Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v. Mattress, Water mattress, a waterproof case containing water, used for the prevention of bed-sores. 1900 Cassell's Cycl. Mech. (1902) IV. 325 A full-size wire mattress. |
† 2. A protective covering for a floor or for plants; a
mat.
Obs.| 1644 Evelyn Diary 17 Oct., By their carefull covering them [sc. plaster floors in the palace of Negros, Genoa] with canvas and fine mattresses, where there is much passage [etc.]. 1658 ― French Gardiner (1675) 239 Shelter them [peas] with pannels of Reeds, or Mattrasses. 1664 ― Kal. Hort. Apr. 65 Covering them [delicate plants] with Mattresses supported on cradles of hoops. 1706 J. Gardiner tr. Rapin of Gardens (1728) 59 Your Flow'rs defend with Matresses of Straw. |
3. a. Engineering. A strong mat consisting of brushwood bound or twisted together, used in layers in the construction of dikes, piers, etc.
| 1875 Proc. Inst. Civ. Engin. XLI. 161 In commencing the construction of the dam..the first step was to cover the entire site with a strong fascine mattrass. Ibid. 167 The body of the pier takes from five to six mattrasses, averaging, with the stones, about 3 feet 3 inches thick. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 581/1 The parallel jetties [at the mouth of the Mississippi] consist of tiers of willow mattresses. |
b. U.S. A bed of sugar-cane. Hence
mattress v. trans., to form (sugar-cane) into ‘mattresses’.
| 1829 A. Sherwood Gazetteer Georgia (ed. 2) 255 The stacks or banks in which seed cane is preserved during winter, are called mattresses. 1833 B. Silliman Man. Sugar Cane 12 They are cut near the ground, and carted to the vicinity of the fields where they are to be planted; being formed..into long beds about fifteen feet wide, which are called mattresses. 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. 1850 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 423 It was..supposed that the cane was spoiled in the mattress by the continued warm weather after it was mattressed. |
4. attrib. and
Comb.:
a. attrib. (sense 1), as
mattress-maker,
mattress-making,
mattress tick; (sense 3), as
mattress dike,
mattress sill;
b. special comb., as
mattress antenna,
array = bill-board, billboard 2, also
ellipt.;
mattress boat, a boat on which mattresses for dikes, etc. are made and from which they are launched;
mattress-coat,
needle (see
quots.);
mattress-jig slang, sexual intercourse;
† mattress rubber, ? a rough mattress-cover;
mattress suture Surg., a continuous suture through both lips of a wound, in which when a stitch has been taken the thread is tied, and the needle inserted on the same side from which it emerged.
| 1950 *Mattress antenna [see bill-board, billboard 2]. |
| 1947 D. G. Fink Radar Engin. iv. 247 The power efficiencies of properly adjusted *mattress arrays vary from 80 to 95 per cent. Ibid. 249 The gain of a paraboloid is generally lower than that of a mattress of the same area expressed in square wavelengths. 1961 R. L. Mattingly in H. Jasik Antenna Engin. Handbk. xxv. 26 A common transmitter-receiving antenna can be implemented with a mattress array. |
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Mattress Boat. |
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees Soc.) 20 When woll is well risen from the skinne, the fleece is as it weare walked togeather on the toppe, and underneath it is but lightly fastened to the undergrowth; and when a fleece is thus it is called a *mattrice-coate. |
| 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 581/1 The entrance..was contracted..by means of *mattress dykes; and mattress sills were laid right across the entrance. |
| 1896 Farmer & Henley Slang IV. 290/2 *Mattress-jig, copulation. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 418 Smutty Moll for a mattress jig. |
| 1381 Rolls Parlt. III. 112/2 Johannes Sutton, *Materas-maker. |
| 1829 Register of Arts III. 51 In the manner of *mattress making. |
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 236/2 Curved *Mattress Needle (Hydraulic Engineering), a needle for sewing brush mats with No. 13 wire. |
| a 1625 Beaum. & Fl. Wit. at Sev. Weap. ii. ii. (1647) 76/1 Here's a promising palme..here's Downe compared with Flocks and quilted Straw, thy Knight's fingers Are Ieane [1679 and mod. edd. read lean] *mattrice rubbers to these Feathers. |
| 1886 *Mattress sill [see mattress dike]. |
| 1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 24 Dec. 1682/2 In suturing up the wound in the kidney in the ordinary way the stitches frequently, on tying them, cut through. To avoid this..I have again followed Kelly who advises the use of *mattrass sutures. |
| 1857 Subj.-Matter Index of Patents 924 Weaving looms (for making..*mattress-ticks, &c.). |
▪ II. mattress2, mattriss (
mætrɪs)
[Of obscure origin; cf. 18th c. Fr. maîtresse: see Fry loc. cit.] (See
quot. 1867.)
| 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2500/4 Playing-Cards..the Mattriss at 10s. 6d. per Gross, Fine Mattriss at 12s. per Gross [etc.]. 1867 Fry Playing-Card Terms in Philol. Soc. Trans. 56 Mattress, Mattriss, rejected playing cards..placed at the bottom of the sorted bundle, to be..sold at a cheaper rate... Fine Mattress is..applied to cards which are less defective; Common M. to cards which are more defective. |