displayed, ppl. a.
(dɪˈspleɪd)
Also 4–6 des-, dys-, -plaied(e, -playit, -plaid, -pleyd.
[-ed1.]
1. Unfolded, unfurled, spread open to view.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxxix. 32 A Rade of were He made wyth displayid Banere. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turkes (1638) 297 The displaied ensignes. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis iii. iii. 155 Opening now their displayed Pedigrees. 1649 Milton Eikon. Wks. 1738 I. 365 Fought against him with display'd Banners in the Field. |
b. Expanded, as wings, leaves, etc.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xvii. 339 The leaves are lyke desplayed winges. 1648 Boyle Seraph. Love (1660) 44 The Coy delusive Plant..shrinks in its displayed leaves. |
† c. Lying supine with the limbs extended.
| a 1400 Octouian 1516 Well many Sarsyns..ley dyspleyd. c 1485 Digby Myst. iv. 313 This displaied body. 1591 [see display v. 2]. 1647 Cleveland Poems, Smectymnuus 90. |
2. Her. Having the wings expanded: said of a bird of prey used as a bearing. Also with wings displayed: see quot. 1882.
| c 1400 Sowdone Bab. 190 An Egle of goolde abrode displayed. a 1490 Botoner Itin. (1778) 164 Ung egle displayed de argent. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 60 b, The fielde is of the Topaze, a Basiliske displayed, Emeraude, cristed, Saphire. 1766 Porny Heraldry (1787) 170 Three Eaglets displayed, points of their wings pendent, Or. 1830 Robson Brit. Herald III. Gloss., Displayed recursant, or tergiant, the wings crossing each other; sometimes termed backward displayed, the wings crossing. Displayed foreshortened, eagles, etc. thus borne, are depicted flying straight forward towards you, so as no part but the roundness of the head and body is seen, with the pinion of the wings extended. 1882 Cussans Her. vi. 91 The Heraldic student must bear in mind the difference between An Eagle displayed and An Eagle with wings displayed; when the latter term is employed, the Bird is supposed to be perched. |
b. By Puttenham (1589) Eng. Poesie ii. xi[i]. (Arb.) 106 applied to geometrical figures arranged in pairs somewhat as wings, e.g. the Tricquet displayed [= two triangles joined at their apices]; the egge displayed, the Rondel displayed [= an oval or a circle bisected, and the halves joined at their convex margins].
Hence † diˈsplayedly adv. Obs.
| 1611 Florio, Spiegatamente, openly, displaiedly. |