gusset
(ˈgʌsɪt)
Forms: 5–7 gussett(e, 6 gossette, 8 gussit, 7 gousset (also 9 Hist. in sense 1), 5– gusset. β. Sc. 5, 9 guschet, 7, 9 gushet, 8 gooshet.
[a. OF. gouchet, gousset (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), app. f. gousse shell of nuts, etc. = It. guscio.]
1. In a suit of mail, a piece of flexible material introduced to fill up a space at the joints between two adjacent pieces of mail.
| 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. xxii. (1513) N ij b, A payre gussettes on a pety cote. c 1470 Henry Wallace ii. 63 A rycht straik Wallace him gat that tyd: In at the guschet brymly he him bar. 1497 Will of Sympson (Somerset Ho.), A paire of gussettes a folde & a Standard of Mayle. 1500 Nottingham Rec. III. 72, i jak, i peyr de gossettes. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xlii. 137 The gussets of his armour under the arm-pits. 1824 Meyrick Anc. Armour II. 104 Instead of gussets to protect the armpits, circular plates are attached by points which are tied at their centre. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. x. 197 Goussets of mail were worn at the joints. |
2. A triangular piece of material let into a garment to strengthen or to enlarge some part,
esp. in order to afford ease in movement.
† scent of gusset: smell of the armpits.
| c 1570 Pride & Lowl. (1841) 35 The woman and the wench were clad in russet..worne so very neere, That ye might see cleane through both sleeve and gusset The naked skinne. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Gousset..d'vne chemise,..the gusset of a shirte. 1688 R. Holme Armoury i. 108/2 Gusset, a thing belonging to a Shirt or Shift. 1690 Evelyn Mund. Muliebr. 9 Essence rare..to repel, When Scent of Gousset does rebel. 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6150/3 A white great Coat,..with two Gussits in the Shoulder-Seam. 1843 Hood Song Shirt iii, Seam, and gusset, and band, Band, and gusset, and seam. 1878 M. E. Herbert tr. Hübner's Ramble II. vi. 350 The gussets of his waistcoat. 1880 Plain Hints Needlework 63 The neck gusset of a gentleman's shirt is sometimes made the shape of an isosceles triangle. |
b. The ‘clock’ of a stocking.
Sc.| 1685 Lintoun Green (1817) 12 (E.D.D.) He'd flame-like gushets, to his thighs Half up, on stockings blue. 1724 Ramsay Generous Gent. ii, Silken hose with gooshets fine. |
c. pl. The flexible sides of a pair of bellows.
d. An elastic insertion in the side of a boot.
| 1861 Our Eng. Home 130 The gussets [of bellows in the 16th c.] fastened with trefoil bullion-headed nails, were made of scarlet velvet. 1881 Daily News 17 Jan. 3/3 The inquiry for gussets shows no improvement. |
3. transf. A triangular piece of land.
| 1650 Fuller Pisgah i. 34 Which gore, or gusset of ground, was called Apherema, that is, a thing taken away, because parted from Samaria, and pieced to Judea. [1667 in N. Mitchell Hist. Bridgewater (Mass.) (1840) 69 A piece of common land between the lots in form like a gussett.] 1825–80 Jamieson, A guschet o' land, a narrow intervening stripe; a small triangular piece of land interposed between two other properties. [1871 Alexander Johnny Gibb xlii, A gushetie o' finer lan' there is not upo' the place.] |
4. Her. An abatement formed by a line drawn from the dexter or sinister chief to a central point from which the line is continued perpendicularly to the base of the escutcheon. (
Cf. gore n.2 4.)
| 1562 Leigh Armorie (1597) 72 b, Hee beareth Argent, two Gussets Sable..If he be too letcherous, the Gusset on the right side: If he commit Idolatrie to Bacchus, then the gusset on the left side. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry i. viii. (1660) 45. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry ii. vii. 78 The gusset was proper for Reuben. |
5. techn. A ‘bracket’ or angular piece of iron fixed at the angles of a structure to give strength or firmness.
| 18.. W. Fairbairn in Ure Dict. Arts (1853) I. 213 Gussets, when used, should be placed in lines diverging from the centre of the boilers, and made as long as the position of the flues and other circumstances in the construction will admit. 1879 W. H. White in Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 363/2 The principal transverse frames are made up of ‘gusset’ or ‘bracket’-plates instead of plates lightened by holes. |
6. attrib., as
gusset-armour;
gusset (bracket) -plate,
stay = sense 5;
gusset needle Knitting, one of the two side needles used in knitting the foot of a stocking.
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. xxvii. 173 *Gushet-armour for the armpits. |
| 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. i. 13 All that was done to her was to refasten the *gusset bracket-plates at her beam ends. |
| 1885 Bazaar 30 Mar. 332/1 When the left hand side *gusset needle is reached knit the eighteen stitches that were picked up from the side. |
| 1883 Philol. Soc. Trans. Monthly Abstr. 21 Dec. iii. iv, *Gusset-plate, in girder-work, from gusset in needlework. |
| 1887 D. A. Low Machine Draw. (1892) 12 One form of boiler stay, called a ‘*gusset stay’... The stay or gusset plate is 3/4 of an inch thick. |
Hence
ˈgusseted a., having a gusset or gussets;
ˈgusseting vbl. n., insertion or making of gussets; also
concr., a gusset.
| 1883 Daily News 24 Sept. 2/6 Gussettings are as much neglected as ever; and only a revolution in fashion in the character of boots worn can effect any substantial revival. 1883 Washington Evening Star 31 Oct. 3/6 The gusseted feet [of stockings] in colors. 1888 Besant Fifty Y. Ago vi. 91 Everybody knew that every girl in the place was always making, mending, cutting-out, basting, gusseting, trimming, turning, and contriving. |