▪ I. cincture, n.
(ˈsɪŋktjʊə(r))
[ad. L. cinctūra girdle, f. cinct- ppl. stem of cing-ĕre to gird: see -ure.]
1. A girding, encompassing, or encircling; enclosure, environment, compass, embrace, ‘girdle’.
| 1615 Chapman Odyss. i. 32 He, That girds earth in the cincture of the sea. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. i. (1865) 242 A yet securer cincture of excluding garden walls. 1875 Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome i. (1877) 5 The seven hills were..united within the cincture of a single wall. |
† b. spec. cincture of sword: The girding on of a sword, as a ceremony of investiture with a dukedom or earldom. Obs.
| 1587 Churchyard Worth. Wales (1876) 17 By cincture of a sword, we him ennoble reallie. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 249. 1667 E. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. iii. (1743) 163 A Duke is at this day created by Patent, anciently by cincture of sword. |
† 2. concr. An enclosure, enclosed area. Obs. rare.
| 1627 Drayton Sheph. Serena (R.), Nor flower is so sweet In this large cincture. |
3. concr. That which encircles or encompasses. a. spec. A girdle or belt for the waist. (Mostly poetic, or in reference to ancient times.)
| [1595 Shakes. John iv. iii. 155 (Globe ed.) See centure.] 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1117 Th' American so girt With feathered Cincture, naked else and wilde. 1791 Cowper Iliad iv. 251 To draw the arrow from his cincture. 1814 Wordsw. White Doe vii. 57 Her dress A vest with woollen cincture tied. 1853 Card. Wiseman Ess. iii. 387 The alb and cincture which any minister could wear in a church of London or Bristol. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 350 Augustus..in the semi-nude cincture of a divinity. |
b. Arch. ‘The ring, list, or fillet at the top and bottom of a column, which divides the shaft from the capital and base’ (Gwilt).
| 1696 Phillips s.v., In Building, the Cincture is that part which makes the middle of the Baluster of the Ionick Order. 1751 Chambers Cycl., Cincture, or Ceinture..The cincture is supposed to be an imitation of the girths, or ferils, antiently used to strengthen and preserve the primitive wooden columns. |
c. gen. Anything that encompasses, as a band, fillet, ring, halo, etc.; an environment; a surrounding border or belt.
| 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. iv. v. 165 [A] Diadem..was a white Cincture, encircling the Heads both of Kings and Queens. 1855 Smedley Occult Sc. 361 This golden cincture [a wedding-ring]. 1859 J. Hedderwick Lays Mid. Age 81 O that her cincture were thy seeking arms. 1861 A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. 112 The chevet has a cincture of nine chapels. 1876 Gladstone Synchr. Homer 12 At various points on the cincture of the Mediterranean Sea. |
▪ II. cincture, v.
(ˈsɪŋktjʊə(r))
[f. prec.]
trans. To girdle, gird; to encircle, encompass, surround.
| 1791 E. Darwin Bot. Gard. ii. 92 Twenty Priests..Cinctured with ephods. 1831 Fraser's Mag. III. 181 The fire, whose bright etherial ray Cinctures with immortality the soul. 1872 Blackie Lays Highl. 8 A..barren Country Cinctured by the ocean grey. 1875 Longfellow Pandora 1, Thus her hair was cinctured. |
Hence ˈcinctured ppl. a., girdled.
| 1757 Gray Progr. Poesy ii. 2 Their feather-cinctur'd chief. 1791 Cowper Iliad v. 1018 His cinctured waist. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 33 Long cinctured robes. |