ˈgable-ˌend
An end-wall that is surmounted by a gable.
| α 1464 Nottingham Rec. II. 374 A lode cley to dawbe þe gavulende with. 1597 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1860) 344 Aboute one yeard above the floore, on the south gavell end. 1795 Macneill Will & Jean i. xxii, Up the gavel end thick spreading, Crap the clasping ivy green. |
| β a 1380 St. Bernard 299 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1878) 46 In þe gable end of þe churche Ben þreo wyndouwus. 1427 in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 5 The West Gabylende of the Halle. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 179 Gable endes, cambers, parlers. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iii. i, I affect not these high gable-ends, these Tuscan tops, nor your coronets, nor your arches, nor your pyramids. 1708 S. Molyneux in Phil. Trans. XXVI. 38, I found all was done on or near the Gabel-end of the House. 1838 Lytton Alice 61 Do tell me to whom that old house belongs—with the picturesque gable-end, and Gothic turrets. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Leg. Folkestone, The numerous gable-ends and bayed windows. 1878 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 296 Perhaps..now only some one gable-end..shows the noble scale of the ancient church. |
† 2. Used for
gable n.1 1, 1 b.
Obs.| 1632–33 Contract in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 697 The Gable-ends ouer the Windowes in y⊇ Roofe to be of Bricke. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 163 The Angle a Gable-end is set to, is called the Pitch of the Gable-end. |
3. transf. and
fig.| 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. (1798) 329 Lord Monboddo believed..that men had once tails depending from the gable end of their bodies. 1834 Oxf. Univ. Mag. I. 16 They have..satisfied themselves with narrow, contracted, and, as it were, gable end views of the monetary edifice. |
Hence
ˈgable-ˌended a., having a gable-end.
| 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 129 Gable-ended roofs, unless properly supported by ties, are liable to thrust out the walls. 1851 H. Melville Whale ii. 10 A gable-ended old house, one side palsied as it were and leaning over sadly. |