cushioned, ppl. a.
(ˈkʊʃənd)
[f. cushion n. and v. + -ed.]
1. a. Furnished or fitted with a cushion or cushions.
| 1839 J. L. Stephens Trav. Greece, etc. 65/1, I had a large cushioned seat of the diligence to myself. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. i. 21 The top of the locker is cushioned, and serves for a lounge. |
b. transf. Cf. sense 6 below.
| 1861 W. F. Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 400 Grass-cushioned crags. 1863 Possib. of Creation 235 The cushioned, spreading feet [of the camel]. 1960 New Statesman 30 Jan. 146/1 An earth-to-moon flight with a cushioned landing on the moon and return flight to the earth. |
c. Padded. See cushion n. 3 b.
| 1777 Colman Epil. Sheridan's Sch. Scandal, Farewell the plumèd head, the cushion'd tête. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 32 Our ladies..When bishop'd, and cushion'd, and hoop'd to the chin. |
d. Cycling. Furnished with cushion-tires.
| 1891 Wheeling 11 Mar. 453 The best plan..is that..of making forks wide enough for either pneumatic or cushioned wheels. |
e. fig. Of the voice: soft and smooth, velvety.
| 1909 Daily Chron. 20 Jan. 5/6 Complaining for two hours against fate in that cushioned voice of hers. 1920 Galsworthy In Chancery ii. xiii, There was comfort in her cushioned voice. |
2. a. Seated on, or propped up with cushions.
| 1818 Hazlitt Eng. Poets v. (1870) 116 The in-door quiet and cushioned ease. 1877 Blackie Wise Men 274 A languid life And cushioned soft recumbency. |
b. fig. Comfortable; protected.
| a 1941 V. Woolf Captain's Death Bed (1950) 32 A luxurious, educated, cushioned career for life. |
3. Arch. cushioned capital = cushion capital, (see cushion n. 11.)
| ? 1754 Gray Norman Archit. Wks. 1884 I. 298 The capitals of the piers..have great variety in their forms; the square, the octagon, the cushioned, or swelling beneath. |
4. Bot. Cushion-shaped, pulvinate.
| 1832 Lindley Introd. Bot. iv. Gloss. 374 Cushioned (pulvinatus), convex and rather flattened; seldom used. |
5. Billiards. Placed close to the cushion. Said also of the player whose ball is so placed.
| 1770 J. Love Cricket 5 Or when the Ball, close cushion'd, slides askew, And to the op'ning Pocket runs, a Cou. |
6. Of air: made into a ‘cushion’.
| 1935 Times 4 Mar. 11/3 It has been held that lift rapidly decreases when the helicopter moves above the area of cushioned air created where the down-wash from the screws strikes the earth. |