▪ I. dome, n.
(dəʊm)
Also 7 dosme, 8 doom.
[In sense 1, app. directly ad. L. dom-us house, home; in other senses, a. F. dome (15–16th c.; sometimes dosme, whence mod.F. dôme), ad. It duomo house, house of God, ‘chiefe Church or Cathedrall Church in a citie’ (Florio), high cupola, dome (as a distinguishing feature of Italian cathedrals):—L. domu-s house.]
1. A house, a home; a stately building, a mansion. Now only as a poetical or dignified appellation.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. Prol. 93 Onto my dome [= in my dwelling], I saw ȝou neuir ayr. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 166 Dated at my Dome, or rather Mansion place in Lincolneshire. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Dome..a Town-House, Guild-Hall, a State-House, Meeting-house in a city, from that of Florence, which is so called. 1724 Swift Riddles vii. 51 Sad charnel-house! a dismal dome, For which all mortals leave their home. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 74/2 They built temples..and other sacred domes. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. Introd. 121 Gladly as he we seek the dome, And as reluctant turn us home. |
| fig. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. vi, Ambition's airy hall, The dome of thought, the palace of the Soul. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam ii. xliii, Hoary crime would come Behind, and fraud rebuild religion's tottering dome. |
† 2. A cathedral church; = dom2. Obs.
| 1691 tr. Emillianne's Journ. Naples 71 The Ceremony..Celebrated..at the Dome (so they call the Cathedral Churches in Italy). 1704 Addison Italy (1766) 46 Pope Lucius, who lies buried in the dome. 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4382/3 There was a Jew Christen'd last Sunday in the Dome of this City [Berlin]. 1753 Hanway Trav. II. i. iii. 15 There is also the dome, which is a cathedral church. |
3. a. A rounded vault forming the roof of a building or chief part of it, and having a circular, elliptical, or polygonal base; a cupola.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Dome..a flat round Loover, or open roof to a Steeple, Banqueting-house, &c. Somewhat resembling the bell of a great Watch. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 114 The Kings Palace..was built square, with a Dosme. 1712 Lond. Gaz. No. 5058/2 The Dome of the Cathedral was illuminated. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 311 The roof of the Pantheon is a round doom, without pillars or windows. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 66 The whispering gallery in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. II. 229, I defined a dome as the covering of a circular space produced by the revolution of an arch round its central vertical axis. |
b. The hemispherical roof of an astronomical observatory, made to revolve and open so as to direct the telescope towards any part of the heavens.
| 1865 Chambers' Encycl. VII. 30/2 Since the year 1852, a time-ball has been dropped on the dome of the Observatory..at precisely one o'clock. |
4. a. transf. The vaulted roof of a cavern or natural hollow; the concave vault of the sky; a vaulted canopy; a canopy of trees, etc.; a bee-hive.
| 1727 Swift Gulliver iii. iii, Whence the astronomers descend into a large dome..called..the astronomer's cave. 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 1182 The tender race, By thousands, tumble from their honeyed domes. 1790–1811 Combe Devil on 2 Sticks in Eng. (1817) VI. 59 In a..bed, with a dome to it. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ii, The whole dome of the sky had an appearance of transparency. 1830 Tennyson Recoll. Arab. Nts. 41 Imbower'd vaults of pillar'd palm..the dome Of hollow boughs. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 18 Some bubbles..had lifted the coating here and there into little rounded domes. |
b. The convex rounded summit of a mountain, a wave, etc. In U.S., frequently entering into the names of rounded mountain peaks.
| [1788 Sir W. Jones Tartars v. Wks. 1799 I. 52 A stupendous edifice, the beams and pillars of which are many ranges of lofty hills, and the dome, one prodigious mountain.] 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. v. At Sea, The billows..upon their flowing dome..poise her. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. x. (1858) 366 Tabor with its rounded dome. 1882 Worcester Exhib. Catal. iii. 58 Velvets..‘studded’ with polished domes. 1890 M. Townsend U.S. 138 Carter Dome, New Hampshire; The Dome, State of New York. |
c. Geol. Any of various kinds of geological structure resembling a dome in shape (see quots.).
| [1833 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. III. xxi. 289 Suppose the five formations to lie in horizontal stratification at the bottom of the sea; then let a movement from below press them upwards into the form of a flattened dome, and let the crown of this dome be afterwards cut off.] 1900 Rep. Geol. Surv. Louisiana 1899 228 The dome of the salt is situated on the northeast of the island. Ibid. 229 A very distinct anticline, or better, elongated dome. 1909 J. P. Iddings Ign. Rocks I. i. viii. 301 Since the more siliceous lavas are generally the more viscous when extruded, they are oftener found in domes than the less siliceous ones. 1930 Engineering 10 Jan. 39/3 A sulphur salt dome in Louisiana has yielded 9,000,000 tons of sulphur. 1936 C. M. Nevin Princ. Struct. Geol. (ed. 2) iii. 46 A dome is a roughly symmetrical upfold, the beds dipping in all directions, more or less equally, from a point. 1938 Nature 2 Apr. 599/1 The productive domes are fairly typical of the oil fields, being of small extent but giving large yields. 1944 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. vi. 73 Domes and basins represent the limiting cases in which the beds dip in all directions, outwards from, or inwards towards, the centre of the structure. Ibid. xvi. 349 Salt domes are curious structures occurring in great numbers along the Gulf Coast of the United States. 1962 E. A. Vincent tr. Rittmann's Volcanoes i. 26 The slowly extruded lava piles up into a dome over the mouth of the vent. |
d. The head. slang.
| 1891 in Farmer Slang II. 305/2. 1918 C. Sandburg Cornhuskers 60 Your bony head..Those grappling hooks..The dome and the wings of you. 1923 R. D. Paine Comr. Rolling Ocean ix. 160 He got tired of trying to shove the book stuff into ivory domes like yours. 1959 [see bonce 2]. 1959 [see dong v. 2]. |
5. Technical senses. a. Manuf. The cover of a reverberatory furnace, etc.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Dome ..among chymists, a kind of arched Cover for a Reverberatory Furnace. 1823 Specif. Johnson's Patent No. 4747. 2 The..uppermost vessel..must have a close dome or cover applied to it. 1854 Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) I. 127 The dome ought to be made as flat as possible consistent with durability, in order to reflect the heat down upon the coal. |
b. Cryst. (See quot.)
| 1863–72 Watts Dict. Chem. II. 1 Dome, a term used to designate a trimetric, monoclinic, or triclinic prism, whose faces and edges are parallel to one of the secondary axes. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. §326 The term dome is employed not in contradistinction to the term prism or prismatid, but, like the latter term, conventionally and merely to distinguish these forms from one another. |
c. In locomotive engines, the raised conical part of the boiler, forming a steam-chamber, the steam-dome (Weale Dict. Terms, 1849–50). In railway carriages, the raised roof, forming a space for ventilation and light (Knight Dict. Mech., 1874).
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 259/2 The steam-dome and similar parts are double. |
d. Watchmaking. The back part of the inner case of a watch to which sometimes the works are attached.
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 88 Used for attaching a watch movement to a dome case. |
e. dome of silence, the trade name of a type of castor (castor2 2) fitted to furniture; also fig.
| 1924 Trade Marks Jrnl. 12 Mar. 551 Domes of Silence...Metal Castors for Furniture. 1925 A. Christie Secret of Chimmeys xvii. 170 Those boots of yours aren't exactly domes of silence, are they, Bill? 1947 G. Greene 19 Stories 161 One of those cases of circumstantial evidence, in which you feel the jurymen's anxiety—because mistakes have been made—like domes of silence muting the court. 1960 Woman 13 Feb. 3/4 Domes of silence, small metal fittings for the legs of tables or chairs. |
f. In full dome fastener. A press-stud consisting of a rounded portion which clips into a socket, used esp. as a fastener for gloves.
| 1910 Daily Chron. 14 Mar. 6/4 Ladies' Kid Gloves..with 2 or 3 dome fasteners. 1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 17 Jan. 7/1 (Advt.), Dome Fasteners. Black or White, assorted sizes. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Austral. & N.Z. viii. 172 Press studs are called domes [in New Zealand]. |
6. attrib. and Comb., as dome-case, dome-cover, dome-face, dome-form, dome-head, dome-span, dome-spire, dome-theatre, dome-top, dome-vaulting; dome-like, dome-shaped adjs; dome-headed a., having a large, well-rounded head; dome-light, a dome-shaped lamp.
| 1797 College 6 Science trailed her pall Through the dome-theatre and spacious hall. 1809 A. Henry Trav. 128 Its [the beaver's] house has an arched dome-like roof. 1819 Pantologia s.v. Dome, Dome-vaulting..is lighter than any that can cover the same area. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 60 The dome-shaped roof. 1849–50 Weale Dict. Terms, Dome Cover, in locomotive engines, the brass or copper cover which encloses the dome, to prevent the radiation of heat. 1863–72 Watts Dict. Chem. II. 147 When trimetric crystals are bounded only by prismatic and dome-faces. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. §328 Dome-forms with the general symbol (0kl). 1910 H. G. Wells Mr. Polly vii. 158 A certain high-browed gentleman living at Highbury... This dome-headed monster of intellect alleges [etc.]. 1938 W. de la Mare Memory 75 A sage, dome-headed, grey, Who looked a child. 1956 Archit. Rev. CXIX. 354/4 The metal combined curbs and linings made for use with glass domelights. 1962 K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed iii. 23 She sat back under the winking domelight. |
Hence ˈdomeless a., not having a dome.
| 1870 Athenæum 20 Aug. 232/3 In that domeless Domkirche of Cologne. |
Add: [3.] c. [f. *astrodome n. 2.] A sports stadium with a domed roof. Freq. as the final element in the names of stadiums of this kind. N. Amer.
| 1965 Sports Illustr. 12 Apr. 45 (heading) Giltfinger's golden dome [= Houston Astrodome]. 1984 Toronto Star 28 Mar. a6/1 The Mississauga dome, which would be constructed on a site just to the west of the airport, would, like all the other prospective domes, require heavy government support. 1986 TV Guide (U.S.) 6 Dec. 20/2 NFL teams hate playing in the Kingdome because the crowd noise disrupts their offense. |
▪ II. dome, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To cover with or as with a dome.
| 1876 Whitney Sights & Ins. xxv. 248 An enlarged chamber, almost domed in by the deep scooped over⁓leaning wall. 1885 Tennyson Early Spring i, [He] domes the red-plow'd hills With loving blue. 1894 Baring-Gould Deserts S. France II. xix. 88 To the Romans there was no necessity for doming over quadrangular spaces. |
2. To make dome-shaped.
| 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 299/1 And brings down upon them a polished globular punch, which domes them up. 1894 Mrs. H. Ward Marcella I. 293 The roof had been raised and domed. |
3. intr. To rise or swell as a dome.
| 1887 Argosy Jan. 32 The cathedral towered, or rather domed, above the ramparts. 1894 Doyle S. Holmes 261 His forehead domes out in a white curve. |
▪ III. dome
obs. form of doom, doum.