exterior, a. and n.
(ɛkˈstɪərɪə(r))
Also 6 exteryor, 6–7 exteriour.
[a. L. exterior, compar. of exter-us outside. Cf. F. extérieur.]
A. adj.
1. a. Outer; pertaining to or connected with the outer portion or outside of anything; visible or perceptible on the outside; external. (In many uses not clearly distinguishable from the n. used attrib.)
exterior angle (Geom.): the angle included between any side of a triangle or polygon and the production of the adjacent side; also, an angle included between a straight line falling upon two parallel lines and either of the latter on the outside. exterior † polygon, exterior screw, exterior side, exterior slope (see quots.). † exterior epicycloid: see epicycloid.
| 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 2 Things Naturall, of the sense exterior, ar hable to be perceiued. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 30 The sinne of the heart..bursteth not foorth into exteriour action. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. Induct., Frame your exterior shape To hautie forme of elate majestie. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 6 Not th' exterior, nor the inward man Resembles that it was. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Exterior Polygon, the Out-lines of all the Works drawn from one outmost Angle to another. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxxii. 219 His exterior concurrence with..the prosecutions. 1823 Lamb Elia, Diss. Roast Pig (1867) 160 What a sacrifice of the exterior tegument! 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 47 Whose exterior front is covered. 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. xii. 300 Beatrice possesses a fund of hidden tenderness beneath her exterior gaiety. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Exterior side, the side of an imaginary polygon, upon which the plan of a fortification is constructed. Exterior slope, in fortification, that slope of a work towards the country which is next outward beyond its superior slope. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 819/1 Exterior-screw, one cut upon the outside of a stem or mandrel. |
† b. Concerned with externals. rare.
| 1541 Barnes Wks. (1573) 341/2 What more exteriour honour can you diuise then this is? and yet you doe say y{supt} you honour no stockes nor stones. 1797–1803 Foster in Life & Corr. (1846) I. 164 Why was the Jewish dispensation so strange, so exterior, so inadequate? |
2. a. Situated outside or without (an object); coming from without; concerned with what is without; external, extrinsic. Const. to.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe ii. xxiv. (1572) 38 b, The exteriour ayre which compasseth the body. 1538 Starkey England i. ii. 50 Exteryor thyngys—frynds, ryches, and abundance of necessarys..are..requyryd. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 336 Without exterior help sustaind. 1780 Cowper Table T. 247 Happiness depends..less on exterior things than most suppose. 1815 Jane Austen Emma ii. xiii. 226 Giving particulars of his journey and feelings..and describing everything exterior and local. 1834 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. iv. (1849) 32 The attraction of a sphere on any exterior body. 1885 C. Leudesdorf Cremona's Proj. Geom. 219 If the conic is a hyperbola..the centre is a point exterior to the curve. |
† b. Foreign. Obs. rare.
| 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 14 This realme of England and any other exteriour potentates. |
B. n. (Not in Johnson.)
1. a. The adj. used absol.: An exterior thing. rare in sing. In pl. Outside parts, features, habits, manners, trappings, etc.; externals.
| 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 58, I speake not only for eies priuilege, The chief exterior that I would enioy. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iii. 72 She did course o're my exteriors with..a greedy intention. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. To Rdr., Discoursers, who look beyond the shell and obvious exteriours of things. 1712 J. Henley Let. in Spect. No. 518 Without producing a suitable Revolution in his Exteriors. 1784 J. Barry Lect. Art i. (1848) 76 Riches, dignities, and all..showy pompous exteriors. |
b. An outdoor scene represented on the stage or in a film or television programme; a film, or sequence of a film, photographed outdoors.
| 1872 Daily Tel. 11 Mar. 3/4 The cottage garden exteriors, by Mr. Hawes Craven..are as pretty and effective stage pictures as have ever been seen. 1918 H. Croy How Motion Pictures are Made 74 The few pictures that had been made were made outdoors in the open—‘exteriors’, as they are called. 1949 Here & Now (N.Z.) Nov. 27/2 The exteriors, shot unglamorously in a dead daylight, have a harsh gritty quality. |
2. a. The outward surface, the outside. b. That which appears outside; outward aspect or demeanour.
| a. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. 3 Nor..did I neglect the exteriour or Surface. 1853 Sir H. Douglas Mil. Bridges (ed. 3) 28 Wooden frames, covered on the exterior with sheet copper. |
| b. 1801 H. More Wks. VIII. 99 The engaging exterior of urbanity. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. 464 Under this ridiculous exterior however lay a man of much natural ability. 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. xiv. (1877) 247 These were covered by the most pious exterior. |