▪ I. cast, n.
(kɑːst, -æ-)
[f. the vb.]
I. The act of casting or throwing (simply).
1. a. A throw of a missile, a bowl, or other object.
| 1382 Wyclif Numb. xxxv. 17 If a stoon he throwe, and with the cast [1388 strook] sleeth. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxxii. 140 The fyrst kast that it [the engyne] kest, bot ane, It hyt the towre a mery strak. 1565–78 Cooper Thesaur., Iactus, a throwe..or cast. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. i. (1623) C ij, One or other spying him..will haue a cast at him. 1756 Connoisseur No. 129 At bowls, if any one is near winning the game, he never fails, in the next cast, to mistake his bias. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Power Wks. (Bohn) II. 332 The opponent has the sun and wind, and, in every cast, the choice of weapon and mark. 1868 Daily Tel. 7 Sept., Counting a cast with the right hand and another with left as one throw. |
b. Considered, as a performance, with reference to its quality. measuring cast: a competitive throw at a mark in which the results are so close as to require measurement.
| c 1400 Sowdone Bab. 2603 The shotte, the caste was so stronge Syr Bryer was slayn there. 1567 Harman Caveat 46 They coulde not agree vpon a caste. 1647 Fuller Good Th. in Worse T. (1841) 96 Is it a measuring cast whether it be lawful or no? 1655 ― Ch. Hist. vii. 407 Yet was their precedencie no measuring cast, but clear in the view of any unpartiall eye. 1676 Wycherley Pl.-Dealer i. i. 4 My Brother and I were quarrelling about a Cast. 1816 Scott Antiq. (1879) II. 110 The disputed cast was a drawn one. |
| fig. 1660 N. Ingelo Bentivolio & Urania ii. (1682) 20 It is a cast beyond Laughter to see..how proud they grow. |
c. The distance which anything can be thrown.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (1865) I. 215 Pilers as hiȝ as a stones cast. c 1400 Mandeville viii. 92 A Stones cast fro that Chapelle, is another Chapelle. 1611 Bible Luke xxii. 41 He was withdrawen from them about a stones cast. 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2102 Sinking from cast to cast, (i.e. as high as a man can conveniently throw up the Ore with a shovel). 1870 Bryant Homer II. xxiii. 344 He fell as far behind As a quoit's cast. |
d. Manner or way of throwing (e.g. seed).
| 1677 Plot Nat. Hist. Oxfordsh. 246 In Sowing they have their several methods, viz., the single Cast, the double Cast. 1707 J. Mortimer Husb. (J.) Some..sow wheat or rye..with a broad cast, some only with a single cast. |
† 2. The delivery of a blow, a stroke. Obs.
| [Cf. 1382 in 1.] c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xlviii, With a cast of the car-honde. 1530 Palsgr. 563/1 He had thought to gyue me a caste with a horse combe. |
3. a. spec. A throw of dice; the achievement of the throw. Phrase, to set, stake upon a cast.
| 1509 Barclay Ship of Fooles (1570) 109 That playeth for money..And on his felowes caste taketh onely heede. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. iv. 9. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xviii. (1632) 916 Here is a gay goodly cast, foule cast away for hast. 1641 Milton Ch. Discip. i. (1851) 32 'Tis no winning cast. 1648 ― Observ. Art. Peace (1851) 579. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) II. 187 Their clothes, their arms, are staked..upon a single cast. 1820 Hoyle's Games Impr. 303 To hit the one, that cast [of dice] must be eight. |
b. fig.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 25480 On domesdai be-for iustise, þar all es casten on a cast. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. v. 164 It would be absurd to ascribe the formation of Human Bodies to a Cast of this Chance. 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy iii. 59, I was my father's last stake..he had been unfortunate in his three first great casts for me. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 423 Neither Rosen nor Schomberg wished to put every thing on a cast. 1879 Froude Cæsar xxv. 430 It was the last cast of the dice for the old party of the aristocracy. |
4. a. A throw or stroke of fortune; hence, fortune, chance, opportunity; lot, fate. Obs. or dial.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6205 Him suld þan reu his cast þat þis folk was fra him past. c 1450 Erle Tolous 452 To reste hym there he toke hys caste. 1513 Douglas æneis ix. v. 14 Glaid of this cast, seand thair tyme maste gane. a 1605 Montgomerie Flyting 340 Cauld be her cast. 1722 W. Hamilton Wallace 323 (Jam.) Black be their cast! great rogues. 1820 Scott Monast. iv, Before the death of Walter Avenel, haly be his cast! 1871 Browning Balaust. 2038 Now that one cast of fortune changes all! |
† b. Hence (or from 3), at the last cast: at the last shift, in extremities, near to death or ruin.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. 338 Into tyme he be at his last Caste. 1549–62 Sternhold & H. Ps. cxix (1583) 93 Thou hast my lyfe restor'd When I was at last cast. 1615 Bp. M. Smyth Pref. Babington's Wks., Having the plague about him, and being at the last cast. 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely 540, I returne to him, who is now at his last casts. 1700 J. Wellwood Mem. 251 As the last Cast for their Liberty they applied to the Prince of Orange. |
5. a. A throw of the sounding-lead, of a fishing-line, net, dredge, etc.
| 1616 B. Jonson Forest Poems 92 And Pikes (run into thy net) As loth the second draught or cast to stay. 1662 Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 442 The next cast shall be no less than fourteen or fifteen fathom water. 1805 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. III. 290 We had less water every cast of the lead. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet Let. vi, He couldna help taking a cast [with the fishing rod]. 1848 Life Normandy (1863) II. 205 He had not made above half a dozen casts before he called out ‘I have one!’ 1864 Burton Scot Abr. I. ii. 99 The right to a cast of a net was a feudal privilege. 1868 Carpenter in Sci. Opin. (1869) 6 Jan. 175/1 A cast of the dredge was therefore taken at this point. |
b. That which is so cast, or used in casting; now spec. in Angling.
| 1556 J. Heywood Spider & Fl. (N.) In eche weake place is woven a weaving cast. 1883 Century Mag. 378 Very killing flies, and a cast admirably suited to the state of the water. 1887 Illust. Lond. News 2 July 27/1 It is a mistake to coil up the fly casts in the tackle book. |
c. Angling. A spot suited for casting the line.
| 1823 Scott Peveril xi, He chose..with an angler's eye, the most promising casts. 1867 F. Francis Angling i. (1880) 41 It is so easy to pass good casts. |
6. A throwing or turning of the eye in any direction; a glance, a look, expression. ? Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 768 He conueyen hym con with cast of his yȝe. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows i. §41. 66 Passion will soone manifest itselfe..by a fierce cast of his eyes. 1632 Milton Penseroso 43 With a sad, leaden, downward cast. 1661 Origen's Opin. in Phœnix (1721) I. 5 A direct View of him without so oblique a Cast upon his Opinions. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 161, I had given a cast with my eye into half a dozen shops. |
7. A ‘lift’ in a conveyance, given to one to put him forward on his way. Also fig.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. (N.), I o'r the water will give thee a cast. 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 88 If..you are for the Village, I'll give you a Cast. 1787 Gentl. Mag. Sept. 819/2 They met with some good-natured waggoners, who gave them a cast. 1822 New Monthly Mag. IV. 103, I should get a cast to Newbury by one of the mails. 1885 L. B. Walford Nan & other St. II. 26 So you can't give a cast to this lassie? Well, I must take her on myself. |
† 8. cast of the hand: a helping turn. Sc. Obs.
| 1637 S. Rutherford Lett. cxxix. (1881) 238 A right cast of his holy and gracious hand. 1775 Guthrie's Trial 82 To delay their soul-business, hoping for such a cast of Christ's hand in the end. |
9. fig. ‘A stroke, a touch’ (J.), specimen, ‘taste’. esp. a cast of one's office.
| a 1553 Udall Royster D. (Arb.) 19 Shall I go call your folkes, that ye may shewe a cast? 1575 Laneham in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. I. 418 Bringing with them a cast of their office, by courtly mean. 1589 Greene Arcadia (1616) 32 Shew vs a cast of your cunning. 1625 Sanderson Serm. Ps. cvi. 30 Do not show a cast of thy office for the promise or hope of a reward. 1673 Answ. Season. Disc. 4 This Dutchman has scribled and thrown amongst us (as a cast of his office) this bone of Division. 1676 Wycherley Pl. Dealer iv. i. (1678) 53 If you hate Verses, I'll give you a cast of my Politics in Prose. 1699 Bentley Phal. 360 To receive this as a Cast of his Rhetoric. 1749 Wesley Wks. (1872) IX. 12 Now, Sir, give us a cast of your office. 1832 Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. (1852) 248 Whose only cast of surgery is blood-letting. |
† 10. Said of a bow: ? Casting power, ? elasticity, ? flexibility. Obs. Cf. casting ppl. a. 1 a.
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. i. (Arb.) 28 Two bowes that I haue, wherof the one is quicke of cast, tricke, and trimme both for pleasure and profyte; the other is a lugge slowe of cast, folowing the string. Ibid. ii. 116 A faste and harde woode..stronge and myghtye of cast. |
II. The act of throwing down, off, etc.
11. A throw in wrestling; a fall; an overthrow or defeat. arch.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xiv. 321 He thoucht ȝeit to cowir his cast. c 1400 Gamelyn 248 Shal it be holde for a cast? 1530 Palsgr. 179 Sombresault, a tumblyng caste. a 1607 Descr. Cleveland in Topog. & Geneal. (1853) II. 410 Not without hazard of a breaknecke tumblinge caste. |
† 12. Bringing forth young, laying of eggs. ? Obs.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 149 After the first cast, there remaine successive conceptions. |
III. What is thrown; the quantity thrown.
13. A throwing (of anything); the quantity thrown.
| c 1450 Bk. Curtasye in Babees Bk. (1868) 305 Þay schyn haue two cast of hay. 1481 Caxton Reynard viii. (Arb.) 16 Bruyn receyued of hem many a caste of stones. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §11 How many castes of corne euery lande ought to haue. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 86 A cast of scatter'd dust. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Cast, among wax-chandlers, denotes a laddleful of melted wax, poured on the wicks of candles made by the laddle. 1797 W. Macro in A. Young Agric. Suffolk 46 Drawing the land over with a heavy harrow when only one cast, or half the seed is sown. |
14. Hawking. The number of hawks cast off at a time; a couple; also of other birds.
| c 1470 Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822) 31 A caste of hawkes of the tour. 1530 Palsgr. 203/3 Caste of haukes, niee doiseaux. 1562 Pilkington Exp. Obadiah v. Wks. (1842) 255 A kennel of hounds or a cast of hawks. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xvi. 406 As, on some far-looking rock, a cast of vultures fight. 1615 ― Odyss. xxii. 390 A cast Of hill-bred eagles, cast off at some game. 1826 J. S. Sebright Observ. Hawking (1828) 41 A cast of falcons is always flown at a rook. 1852 R. F. Burton Falconry in V. Indus v. 60 The sport is better with single birds than with ‘casts’. 1881 E. B. Michell in Macm. Mag. Nov. 41 An exceptionally good cast of female merlins. |
15. The quantity of bread or ale made at one time (obs.); a certain quantity of clay made into flower-pots.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. xiv, Two cast of bread, with fat venison baked, and dainty fowls. 1538 Bale Comedie of Nat. (N.) If the bruar please me nat, The cast shall fall down flat And never haue any strength. 1587 Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 154 Of the flower of one bushell..they make fortie cast of manchet. 1636 B. Jonson Discov. ix. 163 An elephant, in 1630..was every day allowed twelve cast of bread, twenty quarts of Canary sack, besides nuts and almonds. 1802 W. Forsyth Fruit Trees viii. (1824) 210 [Flower] pots are denominated by the number contained in what the potters call a cast. |
16. So many (herrings, etc.) as are thrown into a vessel at once, a ‘warp’; a set of three or four.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 914/2 A cast of red herrings. 1808 Jamieson s.v., A cast of herrings, haddocks, oysters, etc.; four in number. S. 1884 F. Pollock in Eng. Illustr. Mag. 159/1 Three fish = one cast (as much as can be held in one hand). |
† 17. a. A set or suit of other things. Obs. (exc. as in 5 b).
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 140 With courtlie cast of cot⁓armour abufe. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Sartal de cuentos, a cast of counters. a 1659 Cleveland Surv. World vi, A cast of Lackeys, and a Lady-bird. |
† b. (?) A standard size or quantity of wood in a billet. Obs.
| 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, iii, Euerie byllette to be onely of one cast and not aboue. 1553 Act 7 Edw. VI, vii. §2 Every Billet named to be a Cast, to contain ten Inches about, and every billet named of two cast, to containe fourteene inches about. |
IV. That which is thrown off or out.
18. A second swarm of bees thrown off by a hive in one season.
| 1662 Fuller Worthies i. 22 Though only old Stocks of Bees were kept, without either Casts or Swarmes. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 207 Look to your Bees for Swarms and Casts. 1675 J. Smith Chr. Relig. Appeal i. 36 The Swarm, that hived in Plato's mouth..was a Cast of the School of the Prophets. 1777 Terrier in Briscoe Old Nottinghamsh. I. 37 Every swarm of Bees sixpence, and every Cast..threepence. 1825 in Hone Every-day Bk. I. 647. 1875 J. Hunter Man. Bee-keeping (ed. 2) 92 If lighter..they would probably be casts or second swarms. |
19. What is thrown up from the crop by a hawk or other bird of prey. Also, the convoluted earth thrown out by an earthworm; or sand on the sea-shore by the lug-worm.
| 1793 White Selborne (1853) 382 Earth-worms make their casts most in mild weather. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 849 Where the two contrived their daughter's good Lies the hawk's cast. 1880 Huxley Cray-Fish ii. 67 As a hawk or an owl rejects his casts. |
20. a. The number of lambs produced in a season. b. The yield of corn (? obs.).
| 1787 Marshall E. Norfolk (E.D.S.) Cast, yield; applied to corn crops. 1887 Scott. Leader 10 Aug. 4 To estimate what the result of the year's cast [of lambs] will amount to. |
V. † 21. A burden cast or laid upon people; an impost, a charge. Obs.
| 1597 Cartmel Ch. Acc. in Stockdale Ann. Cartmel 36 A caste or laye should bee forthwith had throughout all the parish to the value of twenty marks. 1619 in N. Riding Rec. (1884) II. 209 Paying castes imposed on him by the parishe for..the poore. 1696 Let. W. Cunningham in Diary (1887) Introd. 36 Not putting you to the pains of a Cast or Act of Imposition. |
VI. 22. a. Calculation, reckoning; an act of calculation; techn. the addition of the columns of an account.
| 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 56 By great cast & cost. Mod. If the account does not balance now, there must be an error in the cast. |
b. Conjecture, forecast.
| 1519 St. Papers Hen. VIII, I. 4 Lettres devised by the prudent caste of Your Grace. 1877 Fraser's Mag XVI. 221 That..must be taken into account in any casts a-head. |
VII. Mental revolving, contrivance, device.
† 23. Device, purpose, design, aim. Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 1162 Out of þat caste I watz bycalt. c 1440 Bone Flor. 1406 Thus then ys my caste. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 20 Thair is na sege for na schame that schrinkis at short, May he cum to his cast. a 1529 Skelton Dk. Albany 101 Such trechery..Is all your cast. 1532 G. Hervet Xenophon's Househ. (1768) 61 Teche me the very point and cast of husbandry. |
† 24. a. A contrivance, device, artifice, trick. Obs.
| c 1340 Hampole Psalter lxxxix. 10 Ydell & swykil kastes about erthly thynge. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1610 The derke tresoun, and the castes olde. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. xx. (1495) 48 The preuy werkes and false castes of Sathanas. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 740 He was full sle, and ek had mony cast. 1513 Douglas æneis i. Prol. 255 Quent and curious castis poeticall, Perfyte similitudes and examplis all. 1530 Palsgr. 658, I playe a caste of legyer demayne. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xiv. xi. 26 Subtile sleights and juggling casts [præstigiis]. |
† b. Skill, art. Obs.
| c 1320 Seuyn Sag. 2105 (W.) We beth mazouns queinte of cast. |
VIII. Form into which a thing is thrown; disposition, arrangement.
† 25. Plan, design; shape, conformation, of a building, etc. Obs.
| a 1300 Floriz & Bl. 338 To makie a tur after þis cast. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8735 He dide masons diuise a cast What werk myghte lengest last. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 1178 The caste, crafte, and curiositie Ne can I not to you devise. 1509 Fisher Wks. (1876) 270 His buyldynges.. after the newest cast. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 24 My onely endeuour shalbe to show you that in a rough cast. |
26. a. Theatr. The assignment of the parts in a play to the several actors; the part assigned to any actor (obs.); the set of actors to whom the parts of a particular play are assigned.
| 1631 R. Brathwait (title), Whimzies: or a new Cast of Characters. 1732 T. Fuller Gnomol. 115 If thy Cast be bad, mend it with good Play. 1795 T. Wilkinson Wand. Patentee I. 61 Played several characters..but did not please in the lovers, in which cast I wanted Mr. Kniveton. 1798 Epitaph in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 390 To play a comic cast of characters in this great theatre—the World. 1876 World V. No. 116. 3 The best representatives for the complete cast of a comedy. 1880 Dramatic List 219 The cast included the following admirable players. 1880 Manch. Guard. 20 Dec., He had brought together ‘an unusually powerful cast’. |
† b. Hence, to speak in a man's cast: to speak during his part; to interrupt. Obs.
| 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 274 If I may speak in your cast, quoth Issida. Ibid. 412 The Lady Flauia speaking in his cast, proceeded in this manner. 1611 Cotgr., Entre⁓parlement, an interruption, a speaking in a mans cast. 1642 Rogers Naaman 46 As when the minde is filled with businesse, all that is spoken is, as it were, spoken in a mans cast. |
27. Painting. The adjustment of draperies in art.
| 1784 J. Barry Lect. Art v. (1848) 187 The several textures..afford an extensive variety in the cast and manner of their several foldings. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 201 The ‘cast’ or adjustment of draperies is made the object of a special course of study. |
28. The form into which any work is thrown.
| 1775 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. ii. 34 Some of Aldhelm's verses are exactly in this cast. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. iv. (1875) 152 The turn of the phrase..the happy cast and flow of the sentence. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. Pref. 7 The compendious cast of the work. |
IX. Casting metal, etc.; mould; model.
† 29. Casting or founding (of cannon, etc.). Obs.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. i. 73 And why such dayly Cast of Brazon Cannon. |
30. a. A model made by running some liquid or forcing some soft substance into a mould or shape. Sometimes applied to the negative impression taken from the original; more usually to the copy of the original moulded in this.
| 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 240 Plouer roosted, un caste de gely florisshyd, creues deudose. 1645 Evelyn Diary (Chandos) 175 My purchases of books, pictures, castes. a 1763 Shenstone Lett. cvii, A most excellent figure, and I shall wish much to get a good cast of it. 1777 Johnson in Boswell (1831) IV. 63 Direction to send you a cast of my head. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. ii. 38 A cast in plaster of Paris. 1872 Ellacombe Bells of Ch. i. 9 note, Taking therefrom a cast to constitute the outer mould for the bell. 1875 Fortnum Maiolica ix. 77 The Alhambra vase was copied..after a cast and photographs. |
b. A model of a fossil organism formed by mineral matter which has filled up the cavity originally occupied by the organism itself.
| 1873 Dawson Earth & Man iii. 38 Casts of sponges or fucoids. 1881 Lubbock in Nature No. 618. 408 The green sands of the geologist are largely made up of casts of foraminifera. 1881 Huxley ibid. No. 619. 453 Their solid substance may be dissolved away entirely, or replaced by mineral matter, until nothing is left of the original but a cast, an impression. |
c. Path. ‘A mould of an interior, specially applied to casts of the urinary tubules in kidney disease, or of the respiratory tubes in croup,’ etc. (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
| 1867 J. Hogg Microsc. i. iii. 223 Urinary deposits (as casts, epithelium, crystals). 1880 Webster Suppl. s.v., Renal casts (Med.), microscopic bodies found in the urine of persons affected with disease of the kidneys. |
† 31. (See quots.)
| 1726 R. Neve Builder's Dict., These casts are Pipes of Wax..proportion'd to the Bigness of the Work. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Cast, among plumbers, denotes a little brazen funnel, at one end of a mould, for casting pipes without soldering, by means of which the melted metal is poured into the mould. Ibid., Cast also denotes a cylindrical piece of brass or copper, slit in two lengthwise, used by the founders in sand to form a canal or conduit in their moulds, whereby the metal may be conveyed to the different pieces intended to be cast. |
32. fig. Mould.
| 1709 Tatler No. 28 ¶3 The true Cast or Mould in which you may be sure to know him. 1761 Churchill Rosciad Poems (1769) I. 47 In whate'er cast his character was laid, Self still, like oil, upon the surface play'd. |
X. A twist, or turn.
33. A permanent twist or turn, esp. to one side; a warp. cast of the eye: a slight squint.
| 1505 F. Marsin, etc. Mem. Hen. VII (1858) 278 He hathe a litell caste with his lefte eye. 1635 H. Glapthorne Lady Mother ii. i. My lady has got a cast of her eye. 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1251/4 Trots all, and hath a Cast in her Gallop with her Off leg before. Ibid. No. 1183/4 Very small Eyes, with a squint or cast with one of them. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 120 ¶4 Her eyes..had odd Casts in them. 1725 Ramsey Gentle Sheph. iii. iv, Which gi'es their sauls a cast, That turns them downright beggars at the last. 1816 Scott Old Mort. iv, A cast of eye which, without being actually oblique, approached nearly to a squint. 1825 Waterton Wand. S. Amer. i. (1887) 100 Seldom placing it [the blowpipe] in an oblique position, lest it should receive a cast. |
34. A bearing in some direction; inclination of one's route.
| 1768 Ross Helenore 79 (Jam.) Gang east, but ay some northward hald your cast. |
XI. Dash or shade of colour.
[It is difficult to say whether the original notion was that of dashing in an admixture or ‘eye’ of some colour, or associated with casting a shade.]
35. a. A ‘dash’ of some colour, thrown into or over, or interspersed with another; tinge, hue; shade.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 85 Thus the natiue hew of Resolution Is sicklied or'e with the pale Cast of Thought. 1712 Spect. No. 425 ¶5 A Robe..of a yellowish Cast. 1772 Hist. Rochester 66 Of a gray colour with a cast of green. 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing II. ii. iv. i. 264 The effect..is to give the colour a gold cast. 1822 Wordsw. Scen. Lakes iii. (1823) 70 The colour of the house ought..to have a cast or shade of the colour of the soil. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. II. lviii. (1844) 227 The teeth of the Indians..are not white, having a yellowish cast. |
b. fig. Hue, tinge, shade, of guilt, conduct, etc.
| 1655 R. Fellowes tr. Milton's 2nd Def. 245 What follows is of a more shocking and atrocious cast. 1762 New Dial. of Dead 30 The crime was of such a deep and malignant cast. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1816) I. Introd. 4 Of a dark uncharitable cast. 1815 Scribbleomania 118 b, His thoughts were of the sombre cast. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 341 His countenance assumed a deeper cast of dejection. |
36. A ‘dash’ of some ingredient or quality.
| 1662 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 499 This mungrel name seemeth to have in it an eye or cast of Greek and Latin. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 102 La Fleur had a small cast of the coxcomb. 1816 Scott Antiq. i, A countenance in which habitual gravity was enlightened by a cast of ironical humour. 1823 ― Peveril xiii, Julian, who had in his disposition some cast of the romantic. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) II. iv. iv. 270 The wild cast of religious adventure in his life. |
XII. Sort, kind, style, quality, stamp, type, as determined by characteristics.
This section, which is of modern use, and chiefly since 1700, appears to blend figurative uses of many of the foregoing senses, VIII.–XI., one or more of these being prominent, according to the feeling of the moment. Thus the notions of conformation, mould, turn, inclination, colouring, complexion, quality, appear all to contribute vaguely to the result.
37. in reference to outward form, configuration, tournure, esp. in phrase cast of features, which sometimes chiefly refers to facial expression.
| 1653 Walton Angler xi. 198 This fish is of a fine cast and handsome shape. 1727 Pope, &c., Art Sinking 93 The figures must be so turned, as to manifest that intricate and wonderful cast of head, which distinguishes all writers of this kind. 1816 Scott Antiq. i, His countenance was of the true Scottish cast. 1816 J. Scott Vis. Paris 36 The general cast of feature is the same. 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 139 An officer, with a very sinister cast of countenance. 1837 Disraeli Venetia iii. i. 160 A cast of features delicately moulded. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ii. 27 The pictures of Mephistopheles owe much of their devilish cast to the twitching upwards of the external angles of the lid. |
38. a. in reference to the mind or character.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 106 ¶6 This Cast of Mind..renders his Conversation highly agreeable. 1764 Reid Inquiry vi. §1 He must have a very strange cast of understanding who can seriously doubt, etc. 1798 Ferriar Illustr. Sterne iii. 62 Nothing is more seductive..to minds of this cast. 1805 Foster Ess. i. ii. 21 A strongly individual cast of character. 1865 Merivale Rom. Emp. VIII. lxiii. 2 His character was not of the severe and antique cast. 1836 I. Taylor Phys. The. Another Life 6 Minds of philosophic cast. 1879 M. Arnold Mixed Ess. 148 The professions so naturally share..the cast of ideas of the aristocracy. |
b. with the notion of ‘bent’ or ‘turn’ emphasized.
| 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 197 ¶2 The business men are chiefly conversant in, does not only give a certain cast or turn to their minds. 1711 Addison ibid. No. 163 ¶10 The Mind that hath any Cast towards Devotion. 1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. vii. (1853) 51 Every Man hath something peculiar in the Turn or Cast of his Mind. 1782 Paine Let. Abbé Raynel (1791) 44 The present condition of the world..has given a new cast to the mind of man. |
c. with the notion of ‘tinge’ or ‘colouring’ emphasized.
| 1779 Cowper Lett. 14 Nov., My mind has always a melancholy cast, and is like some pools..which though filled with a black and putrid water, will nevertheless on a bright day reflect the sunbeams. |
39. in reference to actions.
| 1750 Johnson Rambl. No. 99 ¶16 A cast of talk, peculiar to their own fraternity. Ibid. No. 181 ¶10, I had now wholly changed the cast of my behaviour. 1789 Belsham Ess. I. ii. 23 His language has acquired a certain obsolete cast. 1817 Monthly Rev. LXXXIII. 499 Certainly a loose cast prevailed in the literature of the times. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. II. ii. vii. §36. 311 The reflections are usually of a moral cast. |
40. Kind, sort, style; ‘stamp, type’: a. of persons. App. there has here often been vague association with caste (formerly spelt cast).
| 1673 Marvell Reh. Transp. II. 361 The design of you and those of your cast has been..against all the forraign Churches. 1713 Berkeley Hylas & P. iii, I am of a vulgar cast, simple enough to believe my senses. 1728 Young Love Fame iii. (1757) 101 As if men now were of another cast, They meanly live on alms of ages past. 1742 Richardson Pamela III. 216 Better than twenty humble Servants of Mr. Murray's Cast. 1776 Gibbon Decline & F. I. ix. 180 Heroines of such a cast may claim our admiration. 1829 Scott in Croker P. (1884) II. xiv. 30 Strict Presbyterian and Whig of the old Scottish cast. 1842 J. H. Newman Ess. (1871) II. 376 Here is a man of the cast of Hooker and Butler. |
b. of animals, or things.
| 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1290 Farther up the hills, it [the soil] is of a grey tough cast. 1785 Burke Nab. Arcot's debts Wks. 1842 I. 318 Crimes of the same blood, family, and cast. 1802 Huntington Bank of Faith 73 A dapple-grey, very spotted, and of the tabby cast. |
XIII. 41. a. Hunting. The spreading out of the hounds in different directions in search of a lost scent.
| c 1830 C. Wicksted in R. Eg.-Warburton Hunt. Songs (1883) 226 Those sons of old Bedford..So quick at a cast, and so ready to turn. 1846 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs (1883) 4 Friends, gentlemen, foxhunters, pray now, Hold hard, let 'em make their own cast. 1861 G. Berkeley Sportsm. W. Prairies xviii. 311 No cast that I could make, or the hound in his sagacity imagine, could recover her line again. 1885 Beaufort & M. Morris Hunting (Badm. Libr.) ii. 87 Always allow your hounds to make their own cast before you make yours. |
b. fig.
| 1846 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs (1883) No. xx. v. 53 How his Muse o'er the field made each season a cast. |
c. Austral. and N.Z. The sweep a trained dog makes when mustering sheep. Cf. cast v. 60 c.
| 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch) 30 Sept. 15/7 A heading dog..goes wide round sheep so as not to disturb them and make them go faster. This curve or sweep is called a cast. 1946 F. D. Davison Dusty (1947) 115 The trial had four phases; the cast, when the owner sent the dog forward by himself to find the sheep. 1947 P. Newton Wayleggo (1949) ii. 28 [The dog] had a tremendous cast, and I used to marvel at the unerring way he would land out at the head of sheep in country where his cast took him far out of sight of them. |
XIV. 42. Comb. (in some cases perh. the verb stem): as cast-maker; cast-fly, a fly for angling; cast-hole (see quot.); cast-house (see quot.); cast-net, a net which is cast and drawn immediately, as distinguished from a net which is set and left.
| 1647 Hexham Dutch Dict. s.v. Net, A cast-net, een werpnet. 1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. ii. §11 (1689) 12 Your line for Dub-fly, Cast-fly or Artificial fly. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. E ij, Cutting a Square Hole, about a Yard every way, throwing out the Earth as far as he can with his Spade, which will be..about three Yards Deep, and this is called a Cast-hole. 1767 Fawkes Theocritus xxi. 13 The seine, the cast-net, and the wicker maze. 1877 Symonds in Academy 3 Nov. 419/2 As a cast-maker uses plaster of Paris. 1880 Times 10 Sept. 9/4 The hops when..swept from the floors of the cast-houses are packed in sacks by the pressure of machinery. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Cast-house, the building in which pigs or ingots are cast. 1883 Day Indian Fish 46 In some places several cast-nets are joined together, to stop up all passage of fish along a stream. 1952 Hemingway Old Man & Sea 13 I'll get the cast net and go for sardines. 1963 Times 8 Feb. 12/6 Most of his days are spent plying his cast-net in the shallow waters of the south Arabian coast. |
Add: [IX.] [30.] d. Med. = *plaster-cast n. 2.
| 1934 in Webster. 1949 E. Birney Turvey iv. 29 The up-patients had gone about autographing all the casts with indelible pencils. 1965 P. De Vries Let Me count Ways xi. 140, I awaken with my leg in a hip-length cast. 1980 M. Richler Joshua i. i. 3 His right leg..was still held in a cast, multiple fractures healing slowly at his age. |
▪ II. cast, v.
(kɑːst, -æ-)
Pa. tense and pa. pple. cast. Forms: inf. 3–5 casten, (5 castin, -yn), kaste(n, keste(n, 6 caste, 3– cast. pa. tense 3–5 caste, kast(e, 3–7 kest(e, (5, 6 cest, kiste, keist, kyste), 7 Sc. cuist, 8 Sc. coost, 3– cast; also 4–7 casted, 4–5 -id(e. pa. pple. 3–8 north. casten, -in, -yn, 4–6 caste, kast(e, kest(e, (4 icast), 6 Sc. cassin, -yn, caissen, 4– cast; also 4–6 castid.
[ME. cast-en, a. ON. kasta wk. vb. to cast, throw (Icel. and Sw. kasta, Da. kaste, North Fris. kastin): cf. kös (kasu), köstr (:—kastuz), pile, heap thrown up, which has been compared with L. gerĕre (ges-) gestus. It took in ME. the place of OE. weorpan (see warp), and has now in turn been largely superseded in ordinary language and in the simple literal sense by throw, q.v. ‘Cast it into the pond’ has an archaic effect in comparison with ‘throw it into the pond’. But it is in ordinary use in various figurative and specific senses, and in many adverbial combinations, as cast about.]
General arrangement: I. To throw. II. To throw down, overthrow, defeat, convict, condemn. III. To throw off so as to get quit of, to shed, vomit, discard. IV. To throw up (earth) with a spade, dig (peats, a ditch, etc.). V. To put or place with haste or force, throw into prison, into a state of rage, sleep, etc. VI. To reckon, calculate, forecast. VII. To revolve in the mind, devise, contrive, purpose. VIII. To dispose, arrange, allot the parts in a play. IX. To cast metal, etc. X. To turn, twist, warp, veer, incline. XI. To plaster, daub. XII. Hunting and Hawking senses, those of doubtful position, and phrases. XIII. Adverbial combinations.
I. The simple action: To throw.
1. a. trans. To project (anything) with a force of the nature of a jerk, from the hand, the arms, a vessel, or the like; to throw (which is now the ordinary equivalent); to fling, hurl, pitch, toss.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 41 Ha [pride] cast hire fader sone se ha iboren wes fram þe hehste heuene in to helle grunde. c 1275 Lay. 1919 Corineus..caste hine adun mid þe cleue. a 1300 Cursor M. 20962 His hand..he schok and in þe fir hir [þe neder] kest. c 1340 Ibid. 19461 (Fairf.) Þe witnes sulde be-gyn þe first stane for to caste. c 1450 Merlin iii. 42 Pendragon caste in fier, and brente vp Vortiger. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 101 Certayn men beyng at a wyndow keste water vpon him. 1595 Shakes. John v. i. 39 They found him dead, and cast into the streets. 1611 Bible John viii. 7 Hee that is without sinne among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 195 Never cast Water on things newly planted. 1678 N. Wanley Wond. Lit. World v. ii. §86. 473/1 He would cast a Horse-man's Mace..farther than any other of his Court. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v. Baile, Casting the water by hand out of a Boat. 1829 Hood Eug. Aram xxi, I took the dreary body up And cast it in a stream. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 300 Men fell to play at casting of the stone; And strong men cast it mighty of their hands. 1887 Cornh. Mag., Gaverocks i. 7 ‘Take my rein’ said the girl..casting the reins towards him. |
† b. absol. Also, To aim, deliver a blow. Obs. or arch.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1901 Þe wyȝe..braydez out þe bryȝt bronde, & at þe best castez. |
c. fig.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter 498 Þan kest behynd þi bake all my synnys. a 1541 Wyatt Poet. Wks. (1861) 83 From my heart I cest That, I had first determin'd for the best. 1642 T. Taylor God's Judg. i. i. xv. 49 Hee..doth..cast behind his backe the grace of God's spirit. 1704 Pope Windsor For. 173 Lodona's fate, in long oblivion cast. |
d. † to cast seed. Now chiefly fig.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 24 b, Neither can it be certaynely appoynted, howe muche seede is generally to be cast uppon an acre. 1611 Bible Eccles. xi. 1 Cast thy bread vpon the waters. 1861 T. Trollope La Beata II. 73 (Hoppe) These hints had not been cast on barren ground. 1864 Tennyson Flower, Once in a golden hour I cast to earth a seed. |
e. To throw (dice) from the box. Also absol. Hence † to cast a chance (obs.).
| 1458 MS. Christ's Hosp. Abingd. in Dom. Archit. III. 42 They cockid for cartes, & cast for her chisyng. 1565–78 Cooper Thesaur., Fritillus, a little boxe to cast dice on the table. 1595 Southwell Tri. Death 22 God casteth the dice, and giueth vs our chaunce. a 1628 F. Greville Sidney (1652) 58 He might..cast a chance for all our goodes, lives, and liberties. 1820 Hoyle's Games Impr. 362 Any throw which the caster may be going to cast. |
f. To deposit (a voting paper or ticket); to give (a vote).
| 1871 Smiles Charac. x. (1876) 273 The immense majority of votes would be cast in favour of Plutarch. 1885 Contemp. Rev. June 886 Inability..to read the ballot they are expected to cast. |
† g. to cast cross and pile: to toss up a coin as a way of casting lots. Obs.
| 1637 T. Brian Pisse-proph. (1679) 164 He should notwithstanding cast cross and pile which of these [remedies] he should appoint. c 1645 Vox Turturis 23 They had a Custome, when buyer and seller could not agree, to draw Cutts (as we do) or cast crosse and pile. |
h. to cast lots: see lot.
i. fig. To cause to fall or happen.
| 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 46 Pray ye that this flight of yours..be not cast upon such a time. |
† 2. Formerly said also of military engines, bows, and the like, which throw or shoot projectiles; often absol. (like to shoot). Also of the general or soldiers. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9890 Þis castel..it es hei sett a-pon þe crag..þan na maner engine o were Mai cast þar-til it for to dere. c 1325 Coer de L. 4116 The engyne was bente..A gret ston into the toun was keste. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 165 Bothe day & nyght unto þe toure he kast. 1382 Wyclif 2 Kings xiii. 17 Helise seyde, kast an arowe; and he kest. 1544 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 117 So that he be..spedye ynough for far casting. 1599 Thynne Animadv. (1865) 41 The trepeget must nedes also be one instrumente to cast stones. 1609 Bible (Douay) 1 Macc. vi. 51 Arbalists and engins, and instruments to cast fyre. |
3. Said of the sea, waves, wind, or the like: esp. in cast ashore. Cf. cast away, 72 e.
| 1611 Bible Acts xxvii. 26 Howbeit we must be cast vpon a certaine Iland. 1618 M. Baret Horsemanship i. 4 Aristippus trauailing to Rhodes by Sea, was cast a-land by shipwracke. 1634 Herbert Trav. 21 The wind blowing strongly, we were cast upon the shoales..of Mozambique. |
4. Said of any similar motion however produced. arch. (In quot. used absol.)
| 1340 Ayenb. 66 Ase þe wyȝte þet ualþ ine hot weter þet kest hyer and þer, and scoldeþ alle þo þet byeþ þer aboute. |
5. a. refl. To throw oneself. (not colloq.)
| 1330 R. Brunne (1810) 274 Þam to kest smertly to þe assaute. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 203/2 Not shewing themselues too muche, nor casting themselues at randome. 1611 Bible Pref. 2 He casteth himselfe headlong vpon pikes. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav., viii. §2. 23, I cast myself at the feet of the Elephant whereupon the King rode. 1693 Mem. Ct. Teckely ii. 121 To cast themselves on any other side upon the Emperor's Lands. 1714 T. Ellwood Autobiog. 14 At length I found Means to cast my self into the Company of the Daughter. 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) iv. s.v. Alcyone, Alcyone..hearing of her husband's death, cast herself into the sea. 1832 Tennyson Mariana in South 27 Low on her knees herself she cast. |
† b. intr. (for refl.) Obs.
| c 1300 St. Brandan 517 Ther-over [A..rock] the see caste i-lome. |
6. a. To throw forth (a net, fishing line, hook, or the like, also the sounding lead, an anchor).
| a 1300 K. Horn 1014 Hi strike seil, And ankere gunne caste. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 133 b, He casteth his nettes in vayne before them y{supt} be as byrdes full flygge. 1535 Coverdale Acts xxvii. 28 They cast out the leade & founde it twentye feddoms. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. i, The Temple Church, there I have cast my angle. 1651–7 T. Barker Art of Angling (1820) 6 You can cast your flye. Be sure you be casting alwayes down the stream. 1674 Evelyn Navig. & Comm. §54. 101 Those of Flanders, who never presum'd to cast a Net without Permission. 1798 E. Berry in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1845) III. 51 Hauling the braces, etc., preparatory to our casting anchor. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 353 Some angler casting his fly on the foam of the river. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 413 Shall he..cast his emptied net, unceasingly. |
b. Hawking. to cast a lure.
| 1682 Dryden Epilogue King & Queen (Globe) 457 Methinks some vizard mask I see Cast out her lure from the mid gallery. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Faulcon, Cast the Lure so near her, that she may catch it within the length of her lease. |
c. intr. (for refl.) of an anchor.
| 1646 H. Lawrence Comm. Angels 171 Our anchor casts deepe in heaven. |
d. trans. To throw the line over (a piece of water). Hence ˈcastable a.
| 1892 Field 16 July 104/2 A fairly strong stream of only about 2 ft. in depth, and just a nice ‘castable’ width. Ibid. 1 Oct. 522/2, I therefore began to cast the lower portion of the pool. 1953 J. Masters Lotus & Wind xviii. 229 She..took her rod and..began listlessly to cast the pool. |
7. a. to cast an eye, glance, look, etc. Still in common use.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 56 To kesten kang eien upon ȝunge wummen. a 1300 Cursor M. 15952 [Jesus] þan turnd him a-bute on petre his hei he kest. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1852 As she felle adoun she kaste hir loke. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 57 For a leude loke that he kiste on Barsaba. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 124 Horses..if they cast their looke upon their belly. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 13 How fearefull And dizie 'tis to cast ones eyes so low. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. Ded. 2 Cast your eye on the matter contained in it. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 708 Th' unwary Lover cast his Eyes behind. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. ix. 302 My family have cast their eyes on an excellent person. 1812 J. Wilson Isle of Palms iii. 866 They cast their eyes around the isle. 1816 Scott Antiq. xliv, I have sometimes thought that you have cast your eyes upon Miss Wardour. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola i. vi. (1880) I. 97 He cast a keen glance of surprise at the group before him. |
† b. Formerly, also, to cast a thought, a reflection upon; to cast one's heart, affections, etc. (now, to set); also, to cast love, favour, a fancy unto. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1810) 151 Þe kyng in hys syde ys herte al up hym caste. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1878 Ther as they kaste hir hert, there it dwelleth. 1470–85 Malory Arthur (1816) I. 36 The king cast great love unto her. 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) M iv, Men never cast any favor to a woman but for some good profite. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 64 An harlot that Anniball cast a fancie vnto. c 1665 Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. H. 9 A rich widow..cast her affections on him. 1736 Butler Anal. i. iii. 64 Who casts a transient reflection upon the Subject. |
† 8. To emit, give out, send forth (light, darkness, fire, heat, cold, an odour). Obs. (exc. as in 9).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23218 Euer it brennes dai and night, bot neuermare it castes light. c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2001 Clowdes kesten kenly þe colde to þe erthe. 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. Prol. 68 Hornyt Lucyne castand bot dym lycht. 1637 Rutherford Lett. clxxxi. (1862) I. 436 How soon can he with his flint cast fire. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 183 Voyd of light Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth (J.) This..casts a sulphureous smell. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. England, Coal..casts a greater heat, and is more lasting. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 539 Turned to the sun, she casts a thousand dyes. |
9. a. To throw or cause to fall (light, etc.) on or over any object, or in some particular direction. Now chiefly in cast a shadow (on).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9925 It castes lem ouer al sa bright, þat reches to þe dunjon light. Ibid. 10060 Þe grace þat of hir brestis Ouer all þis world þat grace it kestis. 1535 Coverdale Judith ix. 8 Castinge a thick darcknes before them. 1634 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. Wks. (1808) 109 The sun darkens the full moon, in casting the shadow of the earth upon her opposed face. Ibid. xxxii. 134 On the sight of a dark lantern..he can discern another man, by that light, which is cast before him. 1738 Pope Epil. Sat. ii. 97 Or round a quaker's beaver cast a glory. 1752 J. Gill Trinity iii. 72 Though they do not prove the doctrine of the Trinity, yet they cast some light upon it. 1801 Campbell Lochiel 56 Coming events cast their shadows before. 1830 Tennyson Poems 79 There is no bright form Doth not cast a shade. 1860 Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. vi. iv. 33 Every shadow which one casts on the next. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §16. 106 A pine-fire was..casting its red light upon the surrounding objects. |
† b. intr. (for refl.) Obs.
| 1692 in Capt. Smith's Seaman's Gram. ii. 154, I..find..the Shadow of the top of the Tower to cast at D. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Low Bell, The light will cast a great distance before you very broad. |
c. to cast (a thing) into the shade: usually fig.
| 1884 Manch. Exam. 2 May 4/7 Internal taxation..is so excessive..as to cast even an illiberal tariff into the shade. |
† 10. To toss (the head), to shrug (the shoulders).
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1351 Þe keiser kaste his heaued, as wod mon, of wreððe. c 1430 How Gd. Wijf 61 in Babees Bk. (1869) 39 Braundische not with þin heed, þi schuldris þou ne caste. c 1500 Cocke Lorell's B. (1843) 8 Than Cocke cast a syde his hede. 1792 Burns Duncan Gray Maggie coost her heed fu' heigh. |
II. To throw down, overthrow, defeat.
11. To throw down, throw on the ground.
| 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 3 The wulf caste his glove to fight with the foxe. 1755 Johnson Dict. s. v., The king was cast from his throne. 1861 Thackeray Four Georges iii. 176 Low he lies..who was cast lower than the poorest. |
12. To throw (a beast) on its back or side. The pa. pple. is used of a sheep or other beast that has got upon its back, and is unable to rise.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 133 For kibed heeles, take and cast him, and binde his legges fast together. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 313 Cast the Horse..and with that Oyl rub the Splent. 1810 Treat. Choice, Buying, &c., Live Stock 63 The animal is first cast, or thrown, and his legs bound. 1882 Romanes Anim. Intell. 448 A collie which..would run off to seek any sheep that might be cast, and..assist it to rise. 1886 Sat. Rev. 6 Mar. 327 Granted..that it is a triumph of ingenuity [for a horse] to get cast in a loose box half as big as a barn. |
13. To throw to the ground, esp. in wrestling; fig. to overthrow (an antagonist). arch. or dial.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 25671 Þe feindes fraistes me ful fast, wele i hope i sal þaim cast. c 1400 Gamelyn 245 And kaste him on the lefte syde that thre ribbes tobrak. c 1489 Caxton S. Aymon i. 55 Guenes..casted hym ded to the erth. 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 158 Either she should sit fast, or else I should cast her. 1605 Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 46 Though he tooke vp my Legges sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him. a 1615 Brieue Cron. Erlis of Ross (1850) 1 He had sic craft in wrasling, that he cuist all men that assilȝeit him. 1887 Cornh. Mag., Gaverocks i. 6 His father..tripped up his heels, and cast him sprawling on his back. |
14. To defeat in an action at law.
| 1542 Brinklow Compl. viii. (1874) 22 The promoter payth no charges though he be cast. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. 20 Their cause thereby was cast by their own confession. 1659 Hammond On Ps. li. 4 What ever suite thou wagest against me, thou art sure to cast me. 1730 Fielding Temple Beau Wks. 1755 I. 119, I have resolved never to go to law with a beggar or a lord: the one will never be cast, and the other you will get nothing by casting. 1818 Jas. Mill Brit. India I. ii. iv. 144 A punishment seems to be inflicted on the defendant in all actions for debt wherein he is cast. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xxii. (1857) 495 The magistrates were cast in damages. |
† 15. To defeat in competition. Chiefly in pass. Obs. or dial.
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. City of God 6 Shee [i.e. Juno] was cast, in the contention of beauty, by the judgement of Paris. 1628 Feltham Resolves i. lxxii. Wks. (1677) 111 Juno was content with her beauty, till the Trojan Youth cast her, by advancing Venus. 1686 Burnet Trav. i. (1750) 56 A Man may have more than two thirds sure, and yet be cast in a Competition. |
† 16. To find or declare guilty; to convict. Obs.
| 1536 Sir J. Russell Let. 12 May in Lisle Papers VII. 35 This day, Mr. Norris and such other as you know are cast; and the Queen shall go to her judgment on Monday next. 1649 Milton Eikon. 15 The Commons by farr the greater number cast him: the Lords agreed to the Sentence. 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 90/2 Socrates was cast by 281 voices. a 1714 Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 33 When it went to the vote seven acquitted but eight cast him. 1849 Grote Greece ii. lxvii. VIII. 463 There was no man..who might not be cast or condemned, or fail in his own suit, even with right on his side. |
† 17. a. To condemn. Const. for (the penalty).
| 1567 Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 107 Thinke you, he would determine matters, before he knew them: So might he cast Christ, and quit Barabbas. 1649 Lovelace Poems (1659) 155 As a prisoner new cast Who sleeps in chaines that night his last. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xv. 192 Strangways and his crew..were..all cast to suffer death. a 1714 Burnet Own Time (1766) II. 49 He was cast; and he prepared himself very seriously for death. 1772 Mackenzie Man World ii. xxii. (1823) 495, I was tried for the crime, & was cast for transportation. 1816 J. H. Vaux in Knapp & Baldw. Newgate Cal., Cast for death for privately stealing. |
b. fig. and transf. To condemn.
| a 1375 Joseph Arim. 117 ‘What, mon?’ quaþ þe kyng ‘þou castest þiseluen.’ 1567 Harman Caveat 88 The learned lawes do quite or do cast, Such suttile searchers. 1606 Dekker Sev. Sins i. (Arb.) 15 Thy last will, at the last day, will be an Inditement to cast thee. 1669 Penn No Cross i. §10 (1682) 17 That..thy unsutable & un-Christ-like life may not cast thee at that great assize of the world. |
III. To throw off, out, away: with stress on the notion of getting quit of or losing.
18. a. To throw off. Of a horse: to cast his rider (arch. or dial.), to cast a shoe (the ordinary phrase).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 27067 Quen man has casten his birthing o sin þat on him forwit lai. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 64 Like the hors that castethe his maistre. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. iv. 30 To stumble, that his rider nigh he cast. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. ii. xxiii. (1739) 108 Having once won the Saddle, he is loth to be cast. a 1700 Trooper's Proph. in Sc. Pasquils (1868) 271 Sir Presbyter, ye spur Your speavie mear too fast..Your covenant she'll cast. 1816 Scott Antiq. i, One of the horses had cast a fore-foot shoe. 1822 T. Bewick Mem. 24 One may soon get what one will never cast. 1840 Thackeray Catherine vii, The horse had cast a shoe. |
† b. Of a pen, etc.: To shed (ink, colour).
| 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xxvi. (1647) 76 His penne will seldom cast ink when he meeteth with the corruption of the Romish court. 1716 A. Horneck Crucif. Jesus 597 If the Pencil in his Hand should..cast no Colour. |
19. To throw off (clothes). Now chiefly dial. (esp. Sc.), except where it has the sense of ‘discard’, = throw off for good or for the season, cease to wear. Cf. cast off (79 b).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 21527 Of he kest al to his serk. 16.. Dryden (J.), When I begin, In virtue clothed, to cast the rags of sin. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 98 ¶1 They have cast their Head-dresses in order to surprise us. 1787 Burns Amer. War, Till Suthrons raise, an' coost their claise Behind him in a raw, man. 1845 Hood Mermaid of Marg. i, The widow comes..to cast her weeds. a 1889 Old maxim. Cast not a clout till May be out. |
20. a. To throw off in process of growth (esp. the skin, as reptiles, caterpillars); also (somewhat arch. or dial.) to shed (hair, horns, teeth, leaves).
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iv b, At saynt andrew day his hornys he will cast. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. Irel. (1808) VI. 331 As the woolfe which often casteth his haires but neuer changeth his conditions. 1626 Bacon Sylva §732 The Creatures that cast their Skin are, the Snake, the Viper, the Grashopper, the Lizard, the Silk-worm, etc. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. xlvii. (1739) 77 The Eagle had cast its Feathers, and could towre no more. 1676 Walton's Angler iv. (1864) 62 Some hollies or oaks are longer before they cast their leaves, 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 649. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Oxen, He will cast his two foremost Teeth in ten Months of his first Year. 1789 White Selborne ii. xlvi, A skin or coat, which must be cast before the insect can arrive at its perfect state. 1801 Strutt Sports & P. i. ii. 33 At the moulting time, when they cast their feathers. |
† b. To give birth to, bear (young); to lay (eggs), deposit (spawn). Obs. or dial.
| 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 161 Shee was the fairest hewde..that ever kinde Had cast. 1653 Walton Angler i. 26 There be divers fishes that cast their spawne on flags and stones. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 120 ¶5 Some Creatures cast their Eggs as Chance directs them. 1769 D. Herd Coll. Sc. Songs II. 7 Four-and-twenty gude milk kye..a' cast in ae year. 1774 Goldsm. Anim. Nat. (1776) IV. 174 They make a second departure in March to cast their young. |
† c. To void (excrements). Obs.
| 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Badger, One [sort] casteth his Fiants long like a Fox. Ibid. s.v. Wolf-Hunting, The Bitch casteth her Fiaunts commonly in the midst of the High-way. |
d. To ‘yield’ (as corn). dial.
| 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk, 'Ow did that w'eät cast as yo' wun thrashin'? Middlin' like..it dunna cast like it did last 'ear. |
21. esp. To throw off, or shed, or drop, out of due season; to give birth to or bear prematurely. (In common use of animals, fruit-trees.)
| 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. (1652) 71 A Mare woll cast her Foale. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §69 Lesse hurte..to haue his cowe caste her calfe, thanne an ewe to caste her lambe. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. xv. 8 An vnseasonable borne apostle..lyke an vnperfite chyld, rather caste, than wel borne. 1587 Harrison England ii. xxi, The spring maketh him that drinketh it to cast all his teeth. 1602 Return fr. Parnass. iii. v. (Arb.) 46 It was a terrible feare that made vs cast our haire. 1611 Bible Rev. vi. 13 As a figge tree casteth her vntimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty winde. 1617 J. Moore Mappe Mans Mortal. iii. iii. 199 The Elephant (being coursed) casteth her precious tooth and so escapeth. 1658 Ussher Ann. vi. 220 Darius his wife..cast the child of which she went, and died. 1882 Garden 168/3 Nature may..relieve herself by casting the whole of the crop. |
22. Of bees: To throw off (a swarm); generally absol. to swarm. (The ordinary term in Sc.)
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §122 At the tyme that they shall cast the swarme. Ibid. In June and July they do moost comynly cast. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 188 b, From the fifth Ides of May, till the tenth, or the twelfth of June, they use to cast theyr swarmes. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. v. (1623) I iv, A good stocke doth..vsually cast twise, a prime swarme, and an after swarme. 1747 Maxwell Bee Master 34 (Jam.) A hive, which to appearance was ready to cast. |
23. † a. Of plants: To throw out (branches or shoots). Obs.
| 1340 Ayenb. 31 Þis zenne his a to kuead rote þet kest uele kueade boȝes. 1631 Markham Weald of Kent ii. i. (1668) 11 The former Marle..is but a dead Clod..nor casteth any profitable grass at all. |
b. Of crops: to yield, bear fruit, produce. dial.
| 1890 Gissing Village Hampden vii, They tell me as the Lammas wheat be a-casting badly. 1893 Field 8 Apr. 530/1 A dry March..is of universally good omen for the coming corn crops. These never ‘cast’ so well as they do when a warm soil causes the under ground progress to be earlier and quicker than is that above the surface. |
24. to cast colour: to lose colour, become pale, fade, esp. by the action of light. Also absol. in mod. dial. use.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 881 He cast al his colour and bi⁓com pale. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 118 The kynge keste colours..with crouelle lates. Mod.Sc. A very good colour, if it do not cast. |
25. a. To throw up from within; to vomit. to cast the gorge: to vomit violently, or make violent attempts to vomit. Now, only of hawks or other birds (exc. dial.).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 26783 Þai þaim to þair filthes fest als hund to þat he forwit kest. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xciii. (1495) 661 The sede of clete helpith theym whyche castyth blood. 1486 Bk. St. Albans C vij, Ye se yowre hawke nesyng and Castyng wat thorogh her Nostrellis. 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 4355 Till scho had castin ane cuppill of quarts. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 40. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World II. v. iii. §18. 483 Somewhat that shall make him cast his gorge. 1768 Ross Helenore 56 (Jam.) Gut and ga' she keest wi' braking strange. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 324/2 The undigestible parts of the prey of the Owl..are regularly cast or regurgitated from the stomach. |
b. absol. Also fig.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 63 Castyn or brakyn [K. as man owt the stomack]. 1493 Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 52 He might not receyue y⊇ sacrament for castynge. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 278 These feathers will make him to cast immediately at the nose. 1623 Hart Arraignm. Ur. v. 110. 1735 Pope Donne's Sat. iv. 157 Like a big wife, at sight of loathsome meat Ready to cast. 1850 Fraser's Mag. 557 The swallow casts after the fashion of a hawk or owl. |
| fig. 1632 Rutherford Lett. xxiii. (1862) I. 91 Let your soul..cast at all things and disdain them, except one only. a 1665 W. Guthrie Serm. Mark viii. (1709) 25 (Jam.) They have broken the covenant, casten at his ordinances. |
c. Said also of the sea, a volcano, etc.
| 1592 No-body & Some-b. (1878) 296 All the chimneyes shall cast smoake at once. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 106 The hill Chimæra, which casteth flames of fire euery night. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. i. 251 We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast againe. |
† 26. To ejaculate, utter (words), heave (a sigh).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 10464 Wit the bolnning of hir hert, Sco kest sum wordes son ouerthuert. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 295 Þe kest all suilk a crie, þat men mot here a myle. c 1450 Sir Beues (MS. M.) 2740 The dragon had of ham a smell And he keste vp a gret yell. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon (1885) 485 Whan the byshop turpyn sawe this, he casted a grete sighe. 1712–4 Pope Rape Lock iii. 157 Not louder shouts to pitying Heav'n are cast. |
27. To throw or set aside, reject, discard; esp. to set aside as disqualified; to reject (horses) as unfit; to dismiss (soldiers, etc.).
[In this sense the pa. pple. ran together with that of cass v. (sense 2), so that about 1600 cast may be either.]
| a 1375 Joseph Arim. 703 Forte cristene þe folk, and casten þe false. 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 52 No more must all Cupidos knyghtes be cast because of some. [1604 E. Grimstone Siege of Ostend 80 He hath cast and dismist so many olde experimented Captaines.] 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. i. 150 The State..Cannot with safetie cast him. [1614 Raleigh Hist. World II. v. iv. §5. 523 Many Companies..of forrein Auxiliaries are presently cast.] 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iii. vi. §26 This Child..was..near being excluded..and 'tis certain a Figure a little more oddly turn'd had cast him. 1715 in Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 78 If that [Revelation] be once casten, we shall fall upon no other. 1817 Keatinge Trav. II. 103 The number of horses cast from the cavalry. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. vi. (1857) 114 He determined that Cousin George should be cast in the examination. 1872 Anteros ii. 9 No more thought of rejecting him as a suitor, than a trainer would of casting a colt for showing temper. |
¶ Improperly for cass, to make void.
| 1717 Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 331 It is nothing..less..than a total casting and making void the patrons' power in all time coming. |
IV. To throw up with a spade or shovel.
28. a. To throw up (earth, etc.) whence the current northern use in to cast sods, turf, peat: to dig them up. Also in ploughing.
| 1497 in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. I. 364 To the monk that castis the gardin. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §13 Let him caste his barley-erthe, and shortly after rygge it agayne. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 307 It being vsed to be cast and tilled with thicker raisings of the earth. 1663 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1792) I. 166 (Jam.) Peats and fire was very scarce, through want of servants to cast and win them. Ibid. 216 The servants, who should have casten the peats. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 131 To be preserved always in the same form, by casting, that is, by ploughing two ridges together, beginning at the furrow that separates them, and ploughing round and round, till the two ridges be finished. 1860 J. F. Campbell Tales W. Highl. II. 36 The Laird was getting his peats cast. Mod. Sc. Casting divots on the edge of the common. |
b. To shovel coal from the keels into the collier (vessels); see caster 2 b.
| 1882 J. Green Tales & Ballads Wearside (1885) 223 He had commenced to cast at two o'clock in the morning. |
† 29. To dig or clear out (a ditch or the like), throwing the soil up on the edges. Obs.
| 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (1841) 21 For casting the poondes at Wysnowe vj.s. viij.d. 1522 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Paied for castyng of xxj roddis of dykyng. 1576 Act 18 Eliz. x. §7 No Person..shall cast or scour any Ditch and throw or lay the Soil thereof into the Highway. 1579 Twyne Phis. agst. Fort. i. xc. 111 b, Thou hast planted trees, thou hast cast ryuers, thou hast plashed hedges. 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely A iij a, I will not draine the fenne, or stand casting the ponde. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World v. vi. §7 A newe ditch lately cast by Perseus. |
† 30. To form by throwing up, to raise (a mound, bank, earthwork, or the like). Obs. See cast up (83 e).
| 1593 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Introd. 36 Payde for casting the causey iijs. jd. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 526 He commanded..the broken passages to be cast even. 1608 Shakes. Per. i. i. 100 The blind Mole cast Copt hills toward heauen. 1611 Bible 2 Kings xix. 32 The king of Assyria shall not come into this city..nor cast [Coverdale dygge] a bank against it. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 675 Pioneers..to trench a field Or cast a rampart. |
V. To put, or place, with haste, violence, force, or power, so that the effect resembles throwing.
31. a. To lay, place, put, with an action of force, decisiveness, or haste. (Now usually throw.)
| a 1300 Cursor M. 3152 Þe child he kest a-pon an ass. Ibid. 5441 He kest a-boute þam aiþer arm. a 1300 Havelok 2448 [They] keste him on a scabbed mere. 1526 Tindale Matt. xxvi. 12 She casted this oyntment on my body. 1535 Coverdale Acts xii. 8 Cast thy mantle aboute the, and folowe me. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 87 Against that man who hath cast a Dam or Pile into the Sea an Interdict is allowed him who..may be endamaged thereby. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 286 His ponderous shield behind him cast. 1837 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. III. v. 117 To be cast on the world, and to see life..is a variety. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1609 She cast her Arms about him. 1861 S. Wilberforce Agathos, Tent in Pl. (1865) 151 My guide cast on my shoulders a beautiful mantle. |
b. fig. Of care, blame, or the like.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 82 Who..þat in þe last our of his deþ kastiþ not al his bisines & his affeccoun in to God. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour F vij, Sentence of dethe was cast on her. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 7 b, Businesse..which they would be lothe to beare themselves, they cast all uppon his backe. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 253 Casting ungratefully on Moses all their misadventures. 1751 Jortin Serm. (1771) II. ii. 34 Let us cast our cares upon him. 1842 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. ix. 137 Do not fancy..that I cast the slightest blame on my..father. 1883 Law Rep. 11 Queen's B. 593 The imputation cast upon Mr. M. was altogether unfounded. |
32. To throw or put into prison.
| a 1225 St. Marher. 4 Ant het hire casten into cwarterne. a 1300 Havelok 1784 Þe oþre shal ich kesten In feteres. a 1300 Cursor M. 13072 In prisoun heroude dud him cast. 1566 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 383 The ane was escaipit, and the uthir in vyle preassoun cassin. 1608 Golding Epit. Frossard's Chron. i. 34 The Pope..cast this fryer in prison. 1611 Bible John iii. 24 John was not yet cast into prison. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 513 They were being taken away to be cast into hell. |
† 33. a. To put, or cause to fall, into (a state or condition, e.g. sleep, rage). Obs. or arch.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 10100 Þis caitif casten in care. Ibid. 12941 In glotoni he wend him cast. c 1400 Destr. Troy 11311 The kyng at his karping cast was in ire. c 1440 York Myst. xvi. 36 Be they kyngis or knyghtis, in care ȝe þaim cast. c 1555 Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 289 Being cast in love with a wanton maid. 1611 Bible Ps. lxxvi. 6 Both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleepe. 1650 T. Vaughan Anthrop. Theom. 37 His Fall..did cast asleep his Intellectuall Faculties. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. xix. 500 Our continuing wet for the last two days, cast us all into Fevers. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 79 ¶1 This cast him into such a rage, that he threw down the table. |
† b. To deliver, set free, bring out of (a state).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 5289 He has me cast of al mi care. Ibid. 25705 Has kyd þi merci mare To man-kind for to cast o care. |
† 34. To set (a person) to (upon) some action. Also refl. To set oneself with resolution. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶624 He that..casteth hym to no bisynesse..shal falle in-to pouerte. c 1430 Lydg. Chichev. & Bycorne, Bycorne castith hym to devoure Alle humble men. 1470–85 Malory Arthur (1816) II. 371, I cast me never to be married. 1533 Bellenden Livy i. (1822) 48 In time of pece, he kest him to find occasioun of weir. c 1565 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot., Jas. II, The Earl of Douglas cast himself for to be stark against the King. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Feb. 189 To this this Oake cast him to replie Well as hee couth. 1662 More Antid. Atheism ii. vi. (1712) 57 It cast them with more courage upon attempting the virtue of those (plants). |
† 35. To add, throw in, as an addition to. Obs.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 274 Þis childhede is betere ȝif vertues be castid þerto. c 1449 Pecock Repr. v. viii. 528 A religion caste to the lawe of kinde. 1528 More Heresyes ii. Wks. 197/2 All other thinges..shal be cast vnto vs. 1554 Philpot Exam. & Writ. (1842) 365 Not so bold that he would cast anything to the institution of Christ. |
36. To bestow, confer, allot. arch. or obs.
| 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. 285 God..wil cast learning vpon them so far as shall be good. a 1626 Bacon Use Com. Law (1635) 25 Leaving it to goe (as the law casteth it) upon the heire. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v. Descent, An heir is he upon whom the law casts the estate immediately on the death of his ancestor. |
VI. To reckon, calculate.
37. To count or reckon, so as to ascertain the sum of various numbers, orig. by means of counters, to the manipulation of which the word probably refers. a. intr. Formerly in the phrases to cast in or at accounts. Now, to add a column of figures.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 135 If any man in dede wille keste in a countes. c 1340 Cursor M. App. (Edinb. MS.) 20834 Qua wel can caste sal finde it euin. a 1360 Song Yesterday 66 in E.E.P. (1862) 135 And in vr hertes acountes cast Day bi day. 138. Antecrist in Todd 3 Treat. Wyclif 138 To cast at þe countes. 1842 Tennyson Audley Court 43 Who would cast and balance at a desk? 1884 Law Times 25 Oct. 419/2 A resort to the court in order that..a mistake in casting be corrected. |
b. trans. To reckon up, sum up; now technically, to add up (a column of figures or amounts).
| c 1305 St. Edmund 223 in E.E.P. (1862) 77 His figours drouȝ aldai & his numbre caste. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 248 Þei..Examend þam & cast ilk amountment. c 1340 Cursor M. 22062 (Fairf.) To be laused atte þe laste quen þa þousande ȝere ware caste. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. xxv. 62/1 They that calculen & casten yeres dayes & monethes. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 133 The marchaunt..vseth euery nyght to cast his boke. c 1590 Marlowe Jew Malta i. ii, This ten years tribute..we have cast, but cannot compass it. 1624 Bedell Lett. xii. 161 Review it, and cast it ouer againe. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iv. 240 Archangels fail'd to cast the mighty sum. 1805 Naval Chron. XIV. 341 The books were cast and..adjusted. 1886 Law Times LXXX. 165/2 Every column cast before the bill is left for taxation. |
c. esp. in to cast accounts, originally to sum up or reckon accounts (so to cast reckonings); now, to perform the ordinary operations of arithmetic.
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles iii. 279 Caste all þe countis þat þe kyng holdith. 1529 More Supplic. Soules Wks. 294/1 Folke that will learn to cast accoumpt. 1530 Palsgr. 477/1, I caste an accomptes, after the comen maner, with counters, je compte par ject. 1565–78 Cooper Thesaur., Abaculus..a counter or other like thing, that men doe use to cast reckenings with. 1574 Hellowes Gueuara's Ep. (1584) 85 The count being wel cast, the wood costes as deare as the dressing. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 44 b, You cast your accomptes amisse in your numbryng. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. 26/1 Counters used in casting accounts..sometimes stand for a great number, sometimes for a lesser. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xi. (1857) 66 They can read, write, and cast accounts. 1871 Ruskin Fors Clav. iv. 3 To be taught to read, and write, and cast accounts. |
† 38. a. To reckon, calculate, estimate. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 8775 Þe king did cast wit scantliun, And did mak al þe timber bun. 1475 Bk. Noblesse 39 After as it may be cast it was .cc.iiijxxxj. yere. 1542–75 Recorde Gr. Artes 78 Then will I caste the whole charge of one monethes commons at Oxforde. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] tr. Ivstine 2 a, Wisely casting the inconuenience that might redound hereby vpon himself. a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 341/2 He must be..perfect in Casting the Tides. 1666 Pepys Diary 29 Oct. |
† b. absol. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1313 Of fiue and twenty yeer his age I caste. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 48 Yoor iewellers by their Carrets let them cast. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. i. 115 It is as proper to our Age To cast beyond our selves in our Opinions. 1633 Ford 'Tis pity i. ii, You need not cast upon the dearth of flesh. |
39. a. To calculate astrologically, as to cast a figure, horoscope, nativity, etc.; also absol.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 25 [He] cast, and knew in good plyte was the Mone To do viage. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. vi, She gan anone to casten and deuyse When that the moone on heauen would aryse. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 511 Or cast a figure for a bishoprick. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. (1676) 36/1 For casting a Nativity. 1667 Dryden Sir M. Mar-all Epil., We by tomorrow will our Fortune cast. 1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 257 Casting figures and preventing the butter from coming when they churn. 1841 Brewster Mart. Sc. iii. ii. (1856) 181 Drawing an income from casting nativities. 1855 E. Smedley Occult Sc. 312 Cardan..has cast the horoscope of our Saviour. |
† b. To interpret (a dream). Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. xli. 15, I sawȝ sweuens, ne there is that opnith, the which I haue herd the most wiseli to caste. |
† 40. to cast water: to diagnose disease by the inspection of (urine). Also fig. Obs. or dial.
| 1580 Lyly Eupheus (Arb.) 296 An Italian [physician] ..casting my water..commaunded the chamber to be voyded. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 35 Able to cast his disease without his water. 1599 W. Goddard Mastiff-Whelp xlvi. D ij b, Your vrine..I'le truly cast, and tell you your disease. 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. iii. 50 If thou could'st Doctor, cast The Water of my Land, finde her Disease. 1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady (T.), I had it of a Jew, and a great rabbi, Who every morning cast his cup of white-wine With sugar. 1647 Cleveland Char. Lond.-Diurn. 2 It casts the water of the State, ever since it staled bloud. 1706 Hearne Collect. (1883) I. 189, I don't cast Water now, but Accounts. 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) s.v., A person is said to cast another's water who pretends to discover diseases by the inspection of urine. |
† 41. To calculate or conjecture as to the future; to anticipate, forecast: a. intr. (sometimes with subord. clause). to cast beyond the moon: to conjecture wildly; to indulge in wild conjectures.
| c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 1148 Thoo gan I in myn hert cast That they were molte awey with hete. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 137 As fer forþ as we conne caste. 1530 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 92 As far as may be cast or imagiened. 1559 Mirr. Mag. 529 Beyond the moone when I began to cast..what place might be procur'd. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 158 He casth beyonde the moone . great diuersitie Betweene far castyng and wise castyng, may be. 1588 Greene Pandosto (1843) 8 [She] began to cast beeyond the moone..which way she should offend her husband. 1599 Montgomerie Cherry & Sl. 524 He sall nevir schaip to sayle the se, That for all perrils castis. 1607 Heywood Woman kild Wks. 1874 II. 138 But oh, I talke of things impossible, And cast beyond the moone. 1658 Ussher Ann. 309 Every man cast in his mind, that Eumenes would be all in all. |
† b. trans., as in to cast danger, peril, the worst.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 259 He..the kynges couetous cast not before. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xi. 53 Thanne perel is castid. 1494 Fabyan vi. clxxxii. 181 The kynge, castyng no parell, thanked hym of his kynde request. 1530 Palsgr. 476/2 It is wysdome to cast afore what may come after. 1532 G. Hervet Xenophon's Househ. (1768) 22 Man can not caste theym afore hande. 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 9 To caste the worste, yf they should perishe in this viage. 1627 E. F. Hist. Edw. II, 126 With a world of melancholy thought he casts the danger. |
VII. To resolve in the mind, devise, contrive, purpose, plan.
† 42. To revolve in one's mind, debate with oneself, consider, ponder, deliberate. Obs. or dial. a. intr. often with subord. clause.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xiii. 2 Þai kast & studis how þai moght doe in dede þat þai haf wickedly thoght. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 161 He caste and hath compassed ofte, How he his prince might plese. c 1449 Pecock Repr. v. vi. 518 Thei schulen desire and caste and..be constreyned to abide. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxiii. 199 They caste..how they myght breng hym out of prison. 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par. Phil. i. 23, I haue cast what is best for me. 1600 Holland Livy x. xlv. 385 Men began to cast in their minds..how they should do. a 1634 Chapman Alphons. Wks. 1873 III. 202 They ward, they watch, they cast, and they conspire. 1678 Wanley Wond. Lit. World vi. xxvii. §4. 611/2, I lay still..casting and discoursing with my self, whether I waked or was in a dream. |
† b. trans. Obs. or dial.
| 1530 Palsgr. 477/2, I have caste many thynges in my mynde, sythe the mater began. 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619) 168 The Judge, casting doubts with himselfe. c 1590 Marlowe Faust. v. 26 Cast no more doubts. a 1719 Addison (J.), I have lately been casting in my thoughts the several unhappinesses of life. |
43. To machinate, contrive, devise, scheme. † a. intr. Const. with inf. (or clause). Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1455 To compas and kest to haf hem clene wroȝt. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 439 Ante⁓crist haþ cast to be knyttid wiþ kyngis. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 143 [Thei] Caste þat þe comune sholde hure comunes fynde. c 1450 Lonelich Grail lvi. 150 Oure londis they casten to wasten ful pleyn. 1590 Marlowe Edw. II, v. ii, Edmund casts to work his liberty. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 77, I thought I should haue gone madde, with casting and deuising. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King & No K. iii. 48 A strange Land, where mothers cast to poyson Their only Sons. 1612–5 Hall Contempl. O.T. xx. Athaliah & J. 16 She straight casts for the kingdom of Judah. 1653 Walton Angler iv. 109 Before you begin to angle, cast to have the wind on your back. |
b. trans. To contrive or devise (an action, etc.).
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. xlii. 11 Ne thi seruauntis eny thing casten [1388 ymaginen] of evil. c 1420 ― Esther Prol. (MS. M.) He [Aman] castide the deeth of Mardochee. c 1440 Bone Flor. 2181 Be hyt nevyr so slylye caste. c 1590 Marlowe Jew Malta v. ii, I'll set Malta free; And thus we cast it. 1613 Beaum. & Fl. Captain ii. ii, To cast A cheape way how they may be all destroyed. 1833 Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Poems (1850) I. 184 Do not cast Ambiguous paths, Prometheus, for my feet. |
† c. Phrase. to cast counsel.
| c 1460 Play Sacram. 224 After ward more counselle among vs shall [be] caste. 1596 Spenser State Irel. 1 Good plottes devised, & wise Councels cast already. |
† 44. a. To design, purpose, intend, determine (to do a thing). Obs.
| 138. Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 104 No man doiþ ouȝt in hiddis and ȝit he castiþ to be in apert. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. xii. (Tollemache MS.), I wonder þat þou castes [1535 purposeste] to fyȝte with women. c 1430 Hymn Virg. (1867) 106 He þat casteþ, wiþ conscience clere, To kepe, wel Cristes Comaundement. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 1444 Whan I am more of elde I cast my armes forto welde. 1567 Drant Horace's Epist. i. ii. C v, That owner..hauing riches competent, doth cast to vse theim well. 1653 Walton Angler iii. 70 That has made me and my friend cast to lodge here too. 1660 R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. 67 We cast to be there at the solemne entry, which this Duke made for his new Spouse. 1808 Scott Marm. iv. xvii, The marshall and myself had cast To stop him. |
† b. to cast oneself, one's advice: to form a design, purpose. Obs.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur (1817) II. 61 As yet I caste me not to marye in this countrey. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccccxlvii. 789 This lorde of Destornay dyde cast his aduyce to get agayne Andwarpe. |
VIII. To put ‘into shape’ or into order; to dispose, arrange.
(Some senses originally belonging here, have prob. been subsequently influenced by IX since that became a leading sense of the vb.)
† 45. To put into shape, dispose, arrange, or order; to lay out in order, plan, devise: a. a piece of ground, piece of work, or other thing material.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9947 A tron of iuor graid, Craftili casten wit compass. c 1320 Sir Beues 4610 A faire chapel of marbel fin, Þat was ikast wiþ queint engin. c 1320 Cast. Love 807 Þreo bayles.. i-cast w{supt} cumpas and walled abouten. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 1170 Ne coude casten no compace Swich another for to make. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 63 Caste warke or dysposyn, dispono. 1563 Shute Archit. B iij b, Ye must furst haue knowlaige how to cast your ground plotte. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 162 b, Let your nestes and lodginges, both for laiyng and brooding, be orderly cast. 1596–7 S. Finche in Hist. Croydon App. (1783) 153 The measure of the ground..that the plotte might be caste square. 1611 Bible Pref. 8 They did not cast the streets, nor proportion the houses in such comely fashion. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 276. |
† b. things not material. (Cf. 52.) Obs.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1976 Þan byhoved us our lyf swa cast Als ilk day of our lif war þe last. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 2310 So thei can here iournes cast. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 18 The sermon is not yet cast. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 151 Y⊇ musicke is so to be cast as the point bee not offensiue. |
46. a. To dispose or arrange in divisions; to divide or ‘throw’ into divisions.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 432 Alle mans lyfe casten may be..in þis partes thre. 1622–52 Heylin Cosmogr. iii. (1673) 62/1 Constantine cast it into three provinces. 1689 Burnet Tracts I. 69 They were cast into little States, according to the different Valleys which they inhabited. 1710 Steele & Add. Tatler No. 253 ¶4, I shall cast what I have to say under Two principal Heads. 1835 T. Walker Original ii. (1887) 21 By casting them into other distinctions to abolish the first and great distinction. |
b. To ‘throw’ into a (particular) form.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 5 ¶6 Casting into an Opera the Story of Whittington and his Cat. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xx. (1857) 437 Casting my facts..into a series of letters. |
47. Painting. † a. To arrange or dispose (colours). Obs.
| 1567 Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 274 M. Harding casteth his colours to shadow that thing, that will not bee hidde. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 37 Cunning Painters who for the whitest worke, cast the blackest ground. 1596 Spenser F.Q. i. vii. 1 Cast her colours To seeme like Truth. 1633 T. Adams Comm. 2 Peter i. 5 Some painters are so skilful in casting their colours, and can paint a fire so lively, that at the first blush you would think it to be a fire indeed. |
b. To dispose (the draperies in a painting).
| 1706 Art of Painting (1744) 30 To set or cast a Drapery. 1813 Examiner 8 Feb. 90/2 The draperies are cast with much ease. |
48. a. Theatr. To allot (the parts of a play) to the actors; to appoint (actors) for the parts.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 219 ¶12 Our parts in the other world will be new cast. 1737 Fielding Hist. Reg. III, Apollo. Is there anything to be done? Prompter. Yes, Sir, this play to be cast. 1809 Malkin Gil. Bl. (Rtldg.) 372 They..wanting a boy..to personate the young King of Leon, cast me for the part. 1864 Realm 30 Mar. 8 The piece is very strongly cast, and..was most creditably performed. 1866 M. Lemon Wait for End xxviii. 365 She had been cast (as it is called in the language of the stage) a most interesting mother. 1875 Macready Remin. 125 The part of Hermione was cast to Mrs. Egerton. |
b. ? transf.
| 1763 Chesterfield Lett. ccclxxii. IV. 192 You will have known..from the office, that the departments are not cast as you wished. |
IX. To cast (molten) metal; to found. Now one of the most used literal senses.
† 49. To throw (anything plastic or fluid) into a particular shape. Obs. in general sense.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 22941 Þe potter..whenne he fordoþ his new vessel he casteþ soone al in a bal a bettre for to make. 1693 J. Beaumont On Burnet's The. Earth i. 23 A fluid mass always casts it self into a smooth and spherical Surface. |
50. To form (metal, or the like) into a shape, by pouring it when melted or soft into a mould, where it is allowed to cool or harden.
| 1512 Act 4 Hen. VIII, viii. §7 Untrue or deceivable Metal..of Tin or Pewter..wheresoever it be cast..or wrought. 1546 in W. H. Turner Select Rec. Oxford 182 For takyng doune the leade..and castyng hit into sowes. 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 29 They..melte it & caste it fyrste into masses or wedges. 1581 Act 23 Eliz. viii. § 2 Every Piece of Wax..so melted and cast. 1728 Woodward Fossils (J.), It..will not run thin, so as to cast and mould. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 694 The several Species of Metals, cast and wrought here. 1814 Lett. fr. England III. lxxv. 341 A large collection..have..been cast into candlesticks and warming pans. |
51. To form (an object) by running molten metal, etc. into a mould; to found.
| 1496 in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot. I. 285 To the man that castis the chameris to the brassin gun. 1535 Coverdale Ex. xxv. 12 Cast foure rynges of golde. 15.. Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. 112 Seven Canons, called the Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick, the Master-Gunner. 1668–9 Pepys Diary 1 Mar., Did bring home a piece of my face cast in plaister. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 35 You must Cast a Nut of Brass upon the Spindle. 1753 Hogarth Anal. Beauty 10 A figure cast in soft wax. 1834 Lytton Pompeii i. ii, Buckets of bronze, cast in the most graceful shapes. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. ii. ii. 345 A mould of serpentine..and another of granite intended to cast ornamented celts of two sizes. |
52. fig.
| 1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. Pref. ii. §8 All cast according to that mould which Calvin had made. 1606 Day Isle of Gulls iii. i. 24 Let's cast our inventions in a new mould. 1671 Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 230 Hereafter to cast it into other languages. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 40 ¶1 Several of the celebrated Tragedies of Antiquity, are cast in the same Form. 1844 Emerson Ess. Self-Reliance Wks. (Bohn) I. 28 Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? 1876 ― Lett. & Soc. Aims, Poet. & Imag. III. 158 Our habit of casting our facts into rhyme to remember them the better. |
X. To turn, twist. [Parallel to warp:—OE. weorpan to throw, and throw:—OE. þráwan to twist, turn.]
53. Of timber, etc.: To warp. a. intr.
| 1544 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 28 My goode bowe clene cast on the one side. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 112 When oake cometh to dry, it will shrink, cast, drawe a nayle. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 239 If you lay them in the Sun or Wind, they chap, or shrink, or cast. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 110 Stuff is said to Cast, or Warp, when by its own Droughth or Moisture..or other Accident, it alters its flatness and straightness. 1881 Eng. Mechanic 23 Dec. 368 In consequence of the liability of this wood to cast. |
b. ? trans. (only in pa. pple.)
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 122 To prevent them [theire pikes] from beinge casten. 1717 Tabor in Phil. Trans. XXX. 551 They [bricks] were very firm, and not in the least Warp'd or Cast in Burning. 1726 R. Neve Builder's Dict. (ed. 3) s.v., A Piece of Timber..is said to Cast or to be Cast when..it alters its Flatness. 1824 Carlyle in Froude Life (1882) I. 237 The old tile roof is cast by age, and twisted into all varieties of curvature. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 497 Cast, warped—said of sprung timber. |
† 54. a. intr. To turn in one's course. Obs.
| c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 336 in Babees Bk. (1868) 309 Noþer to harme chylde ne best, With castyng, turnyng west ne est. 1600 Roxb. Ball. (1887) VI. 404 The birds of Heauen the nearest way haue flowne, And under earth the moules doe cast aright. |
b. Naut. To veer, turn.
| 1671 Lond. Gaz. No. 580/2 Which causing a mistake at Helm, the ship cast a contrary way. 1798 Capt. Miller in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. Introd. 159 We cast so as to open the view of our broadside to her. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 199 Prepare for casting to port. 1885 W. C. Russell Strange Voy. I. xiv. 208 The wind has so got hold of her that she won't cast one way or the other. |
c. trans. To bring (a ship) round.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Jib.. It's effort in casting the ship, or turning her head to leeward is very powerful. 1836 Marryat Three Cutt. i, Her foresail is loose, all ready to cast her. |
55. To turn (the scale or balance). Obs. or arch. Cf. casting-vote.
| 1597–8 Bacon Faction, Ess. (Arb.) 83 When matters have stuck long in ballancinge, the Wynning of some one man casteth them. 1637 Rutherford Lett. ccliii. (1862) I. 355 One grain-weight less would have casten the balance. 1667 Naphtali (1761) 139 Such advantages do preponderate and cast the scales. 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke sig. I, He cast the Scales against Arrius. 1837 J. H. Newman Proph. Office Ch. 112 Nor can we cast the balance between the outward advantages and disadvantages. |
† 56. intr. To have an inclination; to incline, slope, slant; to lie away. Obs.
| 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 193 Their Countries casting so much as they doe towards the North are out of his way. 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 66 After some sudden rain, or breaking up of a great snow in winter, you will plainly see which way the ground casts. |
XI. † 57. To cover by casting (mortar, or the like) on; to plaster, daub. Obs. Cf. rough-cast.
| 1577 Harrison England ii. xii. (1877) i. 233 They..cast it all ouer with [thicke] claie to keepe out the wind. 1663 Spalding Troub. Chas. I, II. 63 (Jam.) Our minister..kest with lime that part where the back of the altar stood, that it should not be kent. |
XII. Senses of doubtful position, and phrases.
† 58. To tie or make (a knot): also to catch (in a cord, etc.), to entangle. Obs.
| 1591 Drayton in Farr S.P. (1845) I. 133 The bar'd steed with his rider..Whose foot in his caparison is cast. a 1605 Montgomerie Sonn. xxxvii, I can not chuse; my kinsh is not to cast. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 320 Of hurts in the legs, that cometh by casting in the halter or collar. 1637 Rutherford Lett. cxxii. (1862) I. 304 When Christ casteth a knot, all the world cannot loose it. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1704) 316 Cast a strait Ligature upon that part of the Artery. 1825 Jamieson Dict. s.v. Kinsch, To cast a kinsch, to cast a single knot on the end of a rope, or of a web; a term commonly used by weavers. |
59. Hawking. to cast a hawk: in various senses: cf. V, III, and see quots.
| c 1430 Bk. Hawkyng in Rel. Ant. I. 296 Ye shull say cast your hawke thereto [to her game], and say not lete flee. 1486 Bk. St. Albans A ij b, Bere thi hawke home on thi fiste and cast hir on a perch. Ibid. A vj b, Ye shall say cast yowre hawke to the perch, and not set youre hawke vppon the perch. Ibid. B vj, Whan she is cast to a fowle, she fleith a waywarde as thogh she knewe nott the fowle. 1615 Latham Falconry Gloss., To cast a Hawke, is to take her in your hands before the pinions of her wings, and to hold her from bating or striuing, when you administer any thing vnto her. 1623 Fletcher Maid in Mill iii. ii, If you had..handled her as men do unman'd hawks, Cast her, and mail'd her up in good clean linen. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Eyess, It will be proper to shew how to Seel a Hawk..Casting your Hawk, take her by the Beak, and put the needle through her Eye-lid. |
60. a. Hunting. intr. Of dogs (or huntsmen): To spread out and search in different directions for a lost scent. Cf. cast about.
| 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Hare-hunting, So will they [Greyhounds] soon learn to cast for it at a doubling or default. 1846 R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs xiii. (1883) 36 Whenever check'd, whenever crost, Still never deem the quarry lost; Cast forward first..Cast far and near, cast all around, Leave not untried one inch of ground. Ibid. xliv. 129, I can only backwards cast, or Blow my horn and take 'em home. 1863 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators I. 233 Like a hound..casting forward upon a vague speculation. 1885 Beaufort & M. Morris Hunting (Badm. Libr.) ii. 80 When they [harriers] come to a check..let them swing and cast;..only when they are utterly non-plussed should the huntsman go to their assistance. Ibid. 87 In casting, do not be afraid to cast forward in the first instance. |
b. transf. and fig. to cast about one: to look about (mentally).
| 1823 Scott Peveril vii, I cast round the thicket. 1825 in Hone Every-day Bk. I. 292, I remember the old squire and his sporting chaplain casting home on spent horses. 1867 Howells Ital. Journ. 277 Spinabello cast about him to find a suitable husband for her. 1879 Browning Pheidippides 28 Gravely they turned to take counsel, to cast for excuses. 1885 Law Times LXXIX. 190/1 He casts about him for the wherewithal to meet the..expenditure. |
c. N.Z. Of a trained dog: to make a wide sweep when mustering sheep. Also, to direct a dog to make such a sweep. Cf. cast n. 41 c.
| 1911 W. H. Koebel In Maoriland Bush v. 77 He must acquire the art of ‘casting’ a sheep-dog. 1947 P. Newton Wayleggo (1949) 153 It is instinctive for a heading dog to cast when running out i.e. to make a wide detour so as to get round his sheep without disturbing them. 1966 Weekly News (N.Z.) 6 Apr. 45/5 She cast out very wide and then she spotted the sheep on the huntaway course. |
61. trans. to cast hounds: to ‘throw off’, put on the scent.
| 1781 P. Beckford Hunting (1802) 163 When he casts his hounds, let him begin by making a small circle. |
62. intr. (Sc.) Of the sky: To clear of clouds. Cf. overcast.
| 1768 Ross Helenore 58 (Jam.) The sky now casts an' syne wi' thrapples clear, The birds about begin to mak their cheer. |
63. trans. to cast loose: to unfasten or let loose with force or decisiveness, set adrift; said esp. of a boat, or the like; also to cast adrift. Also fig.
| 1582–8 Hist. Jas. VI (1804) 85 All the people were cassin sa louse, and were become of sic dissoluit myndis. 1660 J. Guthrie in Life (1846) 249 The Lords Day disregarded and casten loose. 1751 Adm. Hawke in Naval Chron. VII. 464 Instead of daring to cast the squadron loose. 1805 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. III. 353 The captain ordered the boat to be cast loose. Ibid. 354 The boat..turned bottom upwards, her lashings being cast loose. Ibid. IV. 27 The boat was veered astern, and soon after cast adrift. 1856 Dove Logic Ch. Faith v. i. ii. 284 The smallest possibility of error on the part of God would cast the universe loose from its moral obligation. 1884 Mehalah ii. 27 She..cast loose, and began to row. |
† 64. to cast clean: to cleanse. to cast open: to open suddenly, ‘throw open’; also to open a way through. Obs.
| 1522 World & Child in Hazl. Dodsley I. 256 From sloth clean you cast. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 474 Therefore will I cast open the frontiers of Moab. 1663 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1792) I. 126 (Jam.) The watchword..being heard, the gates are casten open. |
65. † to cast (any one) in the teeth: to reproach or upbraid him (with, that) obs.; later construction to cast (a thing) in one's teeth.
| 1526 Tindale James i. 5 Which geveth to all men..with⁓outen doublenes, and casteth no man in the teth [1611 upbraideth not]. 1530 Palsgr. 764/2, I caste him in the tethe or in the nose. 1563 Homilies ii. Repentance iii. (1859) 346 That we shall never be cast in the teeth with them. 1578 Timme Calvin on Gen. 254 He casteth the Jews in the teeth that their fathers served strange Gods. 1642 Rogers Naaman 30 He cast them in the teeth with their former injurious casting him out. |
| b. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 36 Deuiseth to cast in my teeth Checks. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 125 The trecheries of his parents..will be cast in his teeth. 1611 Bible Matt. xxvii. 44. 1675 Brooks Golden Key Wks. 1867 V. 328 God..will never hit him in the teeth with his former enormities, nor never cast in his dish his old wickednesses. 1716 A. Horneck Crucif. Jesus 33 Strangers cast it in his Teeth so often, Where is now thy God? 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 101, I would not have you cast in my teeth that I am a haughty Aexonian. |
† 66. to cast one's wits: to exercise or apply one's wits. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 11428 Þan þai comynd in the cas, castyn hor wittes. 15.. Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot., Cast his ingine to set a remedy thereto. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 236/2 If the enterprise bee great, he must cast all his wit y{supt} way. |
† 67. to cast their heads (together): to unite in consultation. Obs.; now put, lay heads together.
| 1535 Coverdale Prol. Bible, Occasion to cast their heads together, and to make provision for the poor. 1577 Patericke Agst. Machiavell 318 They of the nobilitie all casting their heads, and employing their abilities for their gentleman. |
68. to cast eggs: a. to beat them up; b. ‘to drop them for the purpose of divination’ (Jam.).
| a 1825 MS. Poem (Jam.) By..casting eggs, They think for to divine their lot. a 1825 Receipts Cookery 7 (Jam.) Mix with it ten eggs well cast. Ibid. 8 Cast nine eggs and mix them with a chopin of sweet milk. |
69. to cast a clod between (Sc.); to widen the breach between. † to cast galmoundis (Sc.): to cut capers. to cast a (point of) traverse: (see quots.). † to cast stones against the wind: to labour in vain. Also to cast ambs-ace, cast anchor, cast a bone, cast cantraips, cast cavel, cast a damp, damper, cast an essoin (excuse), cast lots, cast a spell; for which see those words.
| 1529 Lyndesay Compl. King 181 Castand galmoundis with bendis and beckis. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 43, I grew weary of casting stones against the wind. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn., Cast a Point of Traverse, in Navigation, signifies, to prick down on a chart the Point of a Compass any Land bears from you, or to find on what Point the Ship bears at any instant, or what way the Ship has made. 1768 Ross Helenore 105 (Jam.) Betweesh them sae by casting of a clod. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., To cast a traverse, to calculate and lay off the courses and distances run over upon a chart. |
XIII. In combination with adverbs.
70. cast about. a. trans. See simple senses and about adv.
| 1648 Herrick Hesper. (1885) 36 Sighs numberless he cast about. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. iv. 73 Begin..to cast about Thy Infant Eyes. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Subj. for Paint. 69 She cast about her eyes in thought profound. |
b. intr. To turn about. Naut. To change the course, to go on the other tack. Cf. 54.
| 1591 Raleigh Last Fight Rev. (Arb.) 19 Perswaded..to cut his maine saile, and cast about. 1611 Bible Jer. xli. 14 The people..cast about and returned, and went into Johanan. 1635 Ld. Lindsey in Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 335/1 If I cast about in the night, I will shoot a Piece of Ordnance. a 1716 Sc. Pasquils (1868) 277 Prone to cast about to th' other shore. |
c. To go this way and that in search for game, a lost scent, etc., orig. a hunting locution. Cf. 60.
| 1575 Turberv. Venerie xl. 120 Huntesmen may caste about in the moste conuenient moyst places, and..vnder some bushe or shade. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 111 Dogs..will cast about for the game, as a disputant doth for the truth. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. vii, There is nothing for it but to cast about for the scent. 1879 Stevenson Trav. Cevennes 166, I began to cast about for a place to camp in. |
d. fig.
| 1677 Sir M. Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 22, I cast about for all circumstances that may revive my Memory. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §32 They who cast about for difficulties will be sure to find or make them. 1875 E. White Life in Christ iii. xix. (1878) 252 Casting about for some explanation of the Atonement. |
e. To consider, contrive, devise means, lay plans. Const. with inf. or clause. Cf. 42, 43.
| c 1590 Marlowe Jew Malta ii. ii, Like a cunning Jew so cast about, That ye be both made sure. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 428 The Turkes being mo in number, cast about to han encloased them. 1677 A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 18 Now he casts about how to preserve himself from the Storm. 1704 Swift Batt. Bks. (1711) 248 She cast about to change her Shape. 1712 Spect. No. 524 ¶9, I was casting about within myself what I should do. 1861 S. Wilberforce Agathos, Tent in Pl. (1865) 141, I cast about in my mind how I should speak to him. |
71. cast aside. a. trans. See simple senses and aside.
| 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 803 For on entering He had cast the curtains of their seat aside. |
b. To throw aside from use, discard.
| a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 319 He..cast our holy cristen feithe aside. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 35 Worne now in their newest glosse Not cast aside so soone. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 664 A Snake..has cast his Slough aside. 1885 Manch. Exam. 11 Nov. 3/3 Purchased for railway reading and then carelessly cast aside. |
72. cast away. a. trans. See simple senses and away.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1954 Lok þai cast a way þe blod. 1388 Wyclif Gen. xxi. 15 Sche castide awei the child vndur a tre. 1549 Compl. Scot. iii. 28 The file..is vorne ande cassin auaye. 1885 Stevenson Dynamiter 125 To cast the bag away from him. |
b. esp. fig. To put from one, part with forcibly, dismiss, reject.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 25675 (Gött.) Mi soru i cast away. 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xvi. 45 Thi modir, which castide a wei hir husboond and hir sones. 1535 Coverdale Jer. xxxiii. 24 Two kynreddes had the Lorde chosen and those same two hath he cast awaye. 1613 Answ. Uncasing of Machiav. F b, All Cards and Dice..discard and cast away. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 1 ¶10 Hope is not wholly to be cast away. 1812 Landor Ct. Julian ii. iv. 27 Egilona..casts away, Indifferent or estranged the marriage-bond. |
† c. To thrust, push, turn or drive away. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 5688 Come hirdes and awai þam kest. c 1340 Ibid. 14332 (Trin.) Þe graue lid awey þei kist. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour vi. 9 Her husbonde kiste away his herte from his wyff. |
d. To throw away, i.e. in waste or loss; to spend uselessly, waste wantonly, squander, ruin.
| 1530 Palsgr. 477/1 Thou wylte caste away thyselfe and need nat. 1595 Shakes. John ii. 334 France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? 1629 Shirley Wedding v. ii, What d' ye mean To cast yourself away? 1713 Addison Cato v. ii, Our father will not cast away a life So needful to us all. 1885 Wingfield B. Philpot I. iii. 43 Never with my consent shall you thus be cast away. |
e. To wreck (a ship); to throw upon the shore, to strand. Also transf. and fig.
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. i. 105 Anthonio..Hath an Argosie cast away comming from Tripolis. 16.. Sackville (J.) Our fears tempestuous grow, And cast our hopes away. 1667 E. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. (1684) 141 Goods floating on the Sea, and Goods cast away by the Sea on the Shore. 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1988/1 The Capitana of the Gallies of Naples..was in a great storm cast away. 1717 Act 4 Geo. I, xii, If any owner..shall..wilfully cast away burn or otherwise destroy the ship. 1779 Arnot Hist. Edinb. 98 The very next day, the vessel was cast away in the Forth. 1810 Naval Chron. XXIV. 474 Our fatigue has been very great, being cast away on a barren place. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast xvii. 47 The small Mexican brig which had been cast away in a south-easter, and which now lay up, high and dry. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 714 Enoch, poor man, was cast away and lost. |
73. cast back. a. trans. See simple senses and back. † b. ? To put or thrust back, repulse, defeat (obs.); ? to leave behind. † c. To throw behind, hold or drag back, impede (obs.). d. intr. To go back over the same course, revert.
| c 1450 Boctus, Laud MS. 559 fol. 9, ij, That in here lawe were holden wys For to despute with Sidrak, But he caste hem all a bakke And ouercome all here reasoun. 1622 R. Preston Godly Man's Inquis. ii. 47 Crooked wayes, and crooked feete will cast backward. 1671 Milton Samson 337 Mine [feet], cast back with age, Came lagging after. 1862 Mrs. J. H. Riddell City & Suburb 197 (Hoppe) You cast back for hundreds of years, and rake up every bit of pleasure I ever had in my life. Ibid. 202, I think there must have been a dreadful misalliance somewhere in our genealogy, and that you have cast back to it. |
74. cast behind. a. trans. See simple senses and behind. b. ‘To leave behind in a race’ (J.).
| 16.. Dryden (J.) You cast our fleetest wits a mile behind. 1714 T. Ellwood Autobiog. (1765) 85 We were so far cast behind the Trooper that we had lost both sight and hearing of him. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 464 Tho' far he cast the ling'ring Pack behind. 1850 Browning Easter Day xxvii, The mind So miserably cast behind To gain what had been wisely lost. |
† 75. cast by. To throw aside from use. Obs.
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 100 Verona's ancient Citizens Cast by their Graue beseeming Ornament. 1647 W. Browne Polex. ii. 319 That great heart..cast by the scepter of Gheneoa. 1690 Locke (J.) Men..cast by the votes and opinions of the rest of mankind as not worthy of reckoning. |
76. cast down. a. See senses 11–13 and down.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23720 Dame fortune turnes þan hir quele And castes vs dun. a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxx. 3 Pride kastes men down. 1530 Palsgr. 477/1 Who wolde have thought that so lytell a felowe coulde have caste him downe. 1535 Coverdale Lament. ii. 1 As for the honore of Israel, he hath casten it downe from heauen. 1565–78 Cooper Thesaur s.v. Abjiceo, He..cast himselfe downe a long in the grasse. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §15. 101 The blocks which had been cast down from the summit. 1885 Creighton Age of Eliz. 22 Henry VIII delighted to show that he could cast down and could raise up. |
b. trans. To overthrow, demolish (a building).
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 5 And warpeð eauer toward tis tur for to kasten hit adun. c 1300 Cursor M. 16705 Þou said þat þou suld cast it [þe temple] dun and ras it þe thrid dai. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. viii. 90 The castelle than on Twedmouth made..Wes tretyd to be castyn down. 1572 Lament. Lady Scotl. in Sc. Poems 16th C. II. 247, I se ȝour tempills cassin downe. 1637 S. Rutherford Lett. cxlv. (1881) 267 Bulwarks are often Casten down. |
c. To bend and turn downward (the head, face, the gaze of the eyes).
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. i. 7 Þus þis compaygnie of muses I-blamed casten wroþely þe chere adounward to þe erþe. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon li. 172 Huon..spake no worde but cast downe his hede. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 190 ¶1 Every eye was cast down before him. 1873 Black Pr. Thule iv. 60 Sheila cast down her eyes, and said nothing. |
d. To deject in spirits, disappoint, dispirit. Chiefly in pa. pple. = downcast.
| 1382 Wyclif Job xl. 28 And alle men seende he shal ben kast down. 1605 Shakes. Lear v. iii. 6 For the oppressed king I am cast downe. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 256 ¶8 How often is the Ambitious Man cast down and disappointed, if he receives no Praise where he expected it? 1775 Sheridan Rivals v. iii, Come, Mrs. Malaprop, don't be cast down. 1853 G. Rawson Hymn ‘In the dark & cloudy Day’, Comfort me, I am cast down. |
77. cast forth. a. trans. See simple senses and forth.
| 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 889 The gates..like a Furnace mouth cast forth redounding smoak and ruddy flame. 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 114, I caused the Lead to be cast forth, but could not get ground at eighty Fathom. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. s.v. Withering, This will not only cause her to cast forth her latter Burden, but dead Calf. |
b. To throw or put out of doors, company, etc., expel, eject.
| 1382 Wyclif Jer. xxxvi. 30 His careyn shal be cast forth at the hete bi the dai. 1593 Shakes. Rich, II, i. iii. 157 To be cast forth in the common ayre. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. xii. 15 That litle Infant..which forth she kest. 1611 Bible Nehem. xiii. 8, I cast foorth all the houshold stuffe of Tobiah out of the chamber. |
† c. To throw out (roots, branches). Obs.
| 1611 Bible Hosea xiv. 5 Hee shall grow as the lillie, and cast foorth his rootes as Lebanon. |
78. cast in. a. trans. See simple senses and in. b. fig. To throw in (as an addition, or something extra).
| 1688 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. ii. i. 86 We shall treat of the Dugs of Women, casting in between while, wherein those of Men differ therefrom. 1682 Dryden Relig. Laici 283 'Twere worth both Testaments, and cast in the creed. |
c. to cast in one's lot among or with: to become a partner with, to share the fortunes of.
| 1535 Coverdale Prov. i. 14 Cast in thy lott amonge us. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xx, Numbers of these men..prepared to cast in their lot with the victors of Loudon-hill. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. (L.) Baxter cast in his lot with his proscribed friends, refused the mitre of Hereford, quitted the parsonage of Kidderminster. |
† d. To choose partners at cards. Obs.
| 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 259 We cast in, and Miss Boroughs and my master were together. |
79. cast off. a. trans. See simple senses and off. b. To throw off (clothes or anything worn).
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 12661 Palomydon..cast of his clothis cantly & wele. c 1400 Mandeville v. 41 A woman myghte wel passe there, withouten castynge of of hire Clothes. 1609 Bp. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 274 Them hee casteth off as the fellow..did his spectacles. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. vii. 165 In a weeks time the Tree casts off her old Robes. |
c. fig. To throw off as clothes, a yoke, etc.
| 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxviii. §6 The Christian religion they had not utterly cast off. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 786 To cast off this Yoke. 1690 Locke (J.) Disown and cast off a rule. 1751 Jortin Serm. (1771) V. i. 11 Casting of the belief of the true God. a 1876 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. I. i. iv. 179 National habits and opinions cannot be cast off at will without miracle. |
d. fig. To put from one, discard, abandon, disown.
| 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xvi. 45 Thy mother..that hath cast of hir houszbonde and hir children. 1611 Bible Ps. lxxi. 9 Cast me not off in the time of old age. 16.. Dryden (J.) To cast off my father when I am great. 1713 Addison Cato iii. vii, When I have gone thus far, I'd cast her off. 1850 H. Martineau Hist. Eng. Peace II. v. xvii. 455 [The Prince] did make the other [Brummell] the fashion, and then cast him off. 1875 E. White Life in Christ i. viii. (1878) 72 To be cast off by God may be to perish. |
e. Hawking and Hunting. To throw off (the couplings of hounds); to slip (dogs); to let fly (hawks).
| 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. v. (Arb.) 32 Another company of houndes..had their couples cast off. 1611 Cotgr., Ajetter un oiseau, to cast, or whistle, off a hawke; to..let her flie. 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. i. (1706) 42 You may then cast off your young Hounds. 1725 De Foe Voy. round W. (1840) 274 Just as a huntsman casts off his hounds. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 107 He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleas'd he could whistle them back. 1826 J. S. Sebright Observ. Hawking (1828) 26 When a magpie is seen at a distance, a hawk is immediately to be cast off. |
† f. To throw off, as vapour, or the like; to run off melted metal. Obs.
| 1674 Ray Smelt. Silver 115 The Lead..is cast off by the blowing of the bellows. 1692 ― Discourses xi. (1732) 80 The ocean doth evaporate and cast off to the dry Land. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Calaminaris, They cast not off above twice in 24 hours. |
g. Naut. To loosen and throw off (a rope, sail, etc.), to let go, let loose; to loosen (a vessel) from a mooring. Also intr. for refl.
| 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 17 It is like to over-blow..cast off the Top-sail Sheets. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 146 On the 2{supd} there being little Wind and variable, we cast off the Gloucester, and the next Day took her again in Tow. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 252 Cast off, and rowed down the river. 1805 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. IV. 29 One of the crew..jumped on shore and cast off the stern-fast of the boat. 1806 ― Nelson 30 La Minerve..cast off the prize. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xvi. (1856) 124 We cast off again about 7 a.m. 1855 Russell War 47 The gaskets cast off the fore topsail. |
h. Dancing.
| 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xxviii, She..makes one in a country dance, with..one of the chairs for a partner, casts-off round a joint stool, and sets to a corner-cupboard. |
i. Knitting. To take the work off the wires, closing the loops and forming a selvedge. Cf. 58.
| 1880 Plain knitting, &c. 11 To cast off which is done by knitting two loops and pulling the first made loop over the last. 1887 Fancy Work-basket No. 4. 62 Cast off 5 stitches in the usual way. |
j. Printing. To estimate how much printed matter will correspond to (a piece of MS. copy). Also absol. (Cf. cast-off n.1 2.)
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxii. ¶ 9 Casting off Copy..is to examine..how much..of Printed Copy will Come-in into any intended number of Sheets..; or how much Written Copy will make an intended number of Sheets..: Therefore if I shew you how the Compositer Casts off Written Copy, I do at the same time inform you how to Count off Printed Copy. 1784 B. Franklin in Ann. Reg. (1817) Chron. 389 The compositors in your chapel do not cast off their copy well. 1808 C. Stower Printer's Gramm. 135 To cast off manuscript with accuracy and precision, is an essential object. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 89 To cast off manuscript..is a task of a disagreeable nature. 1892 Oldfield Man. Typogr. xii. 97 Sometimes copy is so badly arranged that it is almost impossible to cast-off accurately... In casting-up allowance must be made for chapter-heads, &c. |
80. cast on. a. trans. To throw on (a plaid, or shawl); to put on (clothes).
| 1813 W. Beattie Fruits of Time (1871) 25 The young man now cast on his plaid. |
b. To make the initial loops or stitches on the wires in knitting. Cf. 58.
| 1840 in Westmrld. Gloss. 1887 Fancy Work-basket No. 4. 62 Cast on 83 stitches. Mod. Will you cast on a stocking for me? |
81. cast out. a. trans. See simple senses and out.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 177 Þe se flouweð þe hi casteð ut þat water of hire stede into þat lond. 1535 Coverdale Lament. i. 17 Sion casteth out hir hondes, and there is no man to comforte her. 1674 Ray Allom Work Whitby 139 After the second water is drawn off they cast out the Mine. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. iii. 64 When we see them we cast out a Line and Hook. a 1719 Addison (J.) Why dost thou cast out such ungenerous terms against the lords. |
b. To drive out forcibly, to expel, make an outcast. lit. and fig.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 375 He caste oute of hom & hous of hys men gret route. c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 17 When all vayne lufe and drede, vayne joy and sorowe es casten owte of þe herte. 138. Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 67 Þei token Crist and kesten him out of Jerusalem. 1382 ― Mark ix. 37 Maistir, we syȝen sum oon for to caste out fendis in thi name. 1488 Caxton Chast. Goddes Chyld. 42 Yf thou cast us out sende us in to a herde of hogges. 1637 Rutherford Lett. lxxxv. (1862) I. 217 Christ now casten out of His inheritance. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 37 His Pride Had cast him out from Heav'n. 1884 Chr. World 9 Oct. 766/3 Fear casts out love, just as constantly as love casts out fear. |
c. To throw out of one's house, one's keeping or preservation; to fling away; to thrust out of doors, society, etc.
| 1388 Wyclif Matt. v. 13 To no thing it is worth ouere, no but that it be cast out. 1535 Coverdale Jer. xxxvi. 30 His deed corse shalbe cast out. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxiv. §5 Whom the cruelty of unnatural parents casteth out. 1730 Thomson Autumn 47 Raiser of human kind! by Nature cast Naked, and helpless out amid the Woods. 1887 Academy 4 June 391 A sorceress..cast out by her own father for her infamous conduct. |
† d. To set forth by power, set free, deliver. Obs.
| a 1300 Fall & Pass. 96 in E.E.P. (1862) 15 Of þe pit vte he ham cast an broȝt ham to heuen lyȝt. c 1400 Mandev. Voy. xxi. 225 God..wolde casten hem out of servage. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon ix. 226 Good lorde..that dydest cast danyell out fro the lyons. |
e. To eject from the mouth, to vomit. Also transf. and absol. Cf. 25. arch.
| 1388 Wyclif Job xx. 15 He schal cast [v.r. spue] out the richessis, which he deuouride. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 306/3 What he ete or dranke alweye he vomyted and casted oute. 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 15 a, He that hath a drye cough and doth not caste out. 1611 Bible Isa. xxvi. 19 The earth shall cast out the dead. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Casting, In the morning she [the hawk] will have cast them [pellets of cotton] out. |
f. intr. To disagree, quarrel, fall out. Sc. and north. dial.
| 1730 A. Ramsay Mercury in Q. Peace, The gods coost out, as story gaes. 1851 Mrs. Oliphant Marg. Maitland 180 To be together but one week..and to cast out in the time. 1861 Ramsay Remin. vi. (ed. 18) 213 He's gane to mak four men agree Wha ne'er cast out. 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) They cast out wi' one another six year sin'. |
82. cast over. See simple senses and over. a. trans. To turn over in one's thought. dial.
| 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) I've been castin' ower i' my heäd what you said. |
83. cast up. a. trans. See simple senses and up.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1192 Ho..stel to his bedde Kest vp þe cortyn & creped with-inne. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lix. [lx.] 4 A token..y{supt} they maye cast it vp in the treuth. Ibid. Ruth iii. 2 Boos oure kynsman..casteth up barly now this night in his barne. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 181 b, A little dust cast up on hie. |
† b. To vomit. Cf. 25. Obs. or dial. (to cast up one's accounts is used humorously in this sense.)
| 1484 Caxton Curial 6 We ete so gredyly..that otherwhyle we caste it vp agayn. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 96. 1629 Earle Microcosm. (Arb.) 80 As in a nauseeating stomacke, where there is nothing to cast vp. 1633 Rogers Treat. Sacraments ii. 12 A penitentiall triall, by which a beleever..searches himselfe and casts up his gorge that he might..return to God. 1704 Worlidge Dict. s.v. Bear, Which she eats and casts up again to her young ones, and so feeds them. 1735 M. Poole Dial. 128 The very Body of Christ..may be cast up by Vomit. 1808 R. Anderson Cumbrld. Ball. 26 The breyde she kest up her accounts In Rachel's lap. |
c. Said of the action of the sea.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xlvii. (1495) 569 Some precyous stones ben cast vp out of the grete see. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (1852) 46 Grete men and women of Spanyarddes..ware drownyd and lost and gast up. 1611 Bible Isa. lvii. 20 The troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast vp myre and dirt. 1883 Manch. Guard. 18 Oct. 4/7 Yesterday the body of a man..was cast up at Southport. |
d. To throw, turn up or raise suddenly (the eyes, the head; formerly also, the nose, arms, etc.).
| c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 935 Now quod he thoo cast vp thyn ye. 1535 Coverdale Ezek. viij. 17 Purposely to cast vp their noses vpon me. 1590 Lodge Euphues Gold. Leg. (1887) 21 Casting up his hand he felt hair on his face. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. s.v. Bridle, To make him Rein well and not cast up his Head. 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock 39 His eyes..cast up to count the peaches on the wall. |
e. To throw up (with a shovel), to form by this means, to raise (a ridge, mound, rampart, etc.).
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turkes (1621) 737 To cast up new fortifications within. 1611 Bible Isa. lvii. 14 Cast yee vp, cast yee vp; prepare the way. 1618 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 17 The way..was cast up by the Patriarchs. 1721 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 99 Two hundred [men] had orders to cast up a large ravelin. 1783 Watson Philip III (1839) 67 Casting up entrenchments to secure his troops. 1881 Russell Haigs ii. 35 To cast up a barrier between them and the aggressive inhabitants. |
† f. To dig up, to dig. Obs.
| 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 100 This he onely did by casting up their nests. |
† g. To shake or toss up. Obs.
| 1557 F. Seager Sch. Vertue 62 in Babees Bk. (1868) 338 To cast vp thy bed It shalbe thy parte, Els may they say that beastly thou art. 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 75 The hearb sodden with oyle, and after cast vp in glister forme, doth put away the paines. |
† h. To ‘throw up’; give up, abandon. Obs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 478/2 She hath ben his soverayne lady, this tenne yeres, and nowe he casteth her up. 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) N j, Men have dispised & cast them [mistresses] up. 1663 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1792) II. 115 (Jam.) His wife cast up all labouring. |
i. To rake up and utter as a reproach; to cast in one's teeth. Sc. and north. dial. (or in lit. Eng. by northern writers).
| 1604 Glasgow Kirk Sess. Rec. in Hist. Glasgow xvii. (1881) 149 To speak ill of the dead or to cast up their demerits. 1609 Bp. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 12 To cast vp such a disastrous example in his Maiesties teeth. 1725 Ramsay Gentl. Sheph. iii. ii, Unless ye may cast up that she's but poor. 1823 Ann. Reg. 21 Mar., No one shall cast up to me, that I killed my father. 1848 Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton xxv, But we shall ne'er cast it up against you. 1864 Tennyson North. Farmer (Old Style), But a cost oop, thot a did, 'boot Bessy Marris's barne. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. II. xxxi. 274 It was to be hoped that he would never cast it up to her that she had been going out as a governess. |
j. To add up, reckon up, calculate.
| 1539 Househ. Ord. in Thynne's Animadv. (1865) Introd. 33 The Clerke of the Greencloth shall..cast up all the particular Breifments of the House. 1600 Holland Livy xxxiii. xlvii. 850 After he had cast up the bookes. 1660 Pepys Diary 10 Dec., Did go to cast up how my cash stands. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v. Abacus, sometimes signifies..a Table of Numbers for casting up Accounts. 1849 Grote Greece ii. lxviii. (1862) VI. 149 An arithmetician, may..cast-up incorrectly, by design. 1873 Act 36 & 37 Vic. lxxi. §30 The returning officer..shall..cast up and ascertain the number of valid votes given to each person. |
k. intr. To ‘turn up’; emerge into view; to come up as it were accidentally. Sc. and north.
| 1723 Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 16 It will be strengthening to our brethren to have our sentiments on what casts up among them. 1753 Stewarts' Trial App. 128 If Allan Breck did not soon cast up in the country. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet Let. xi, If the money cast up. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. II. ii. 183 Another countryman, and Jesuit priest now casts up. |
l. Of the weather, the day: to clear up (cf. 62); also, of clouds: to gather for a storm, etc. Sc.
| 1825 Jamieson s.v., It's castin' up, the sky is beginning to clear, after rain. Mod. It's casting up for a storm. |
▪ III. cast, ppl. a.
(kɑːst, -æ-)
[See cast v.]
1. a. Thrown, that has been thrown. (See the vb.) cast shadow, in painting, a shadow cast by an object within the picture, and serving to bring it out against the objects behind it.
| 1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 24 Her liveless hands did, by degrees, Raise her cast body. 1849 J. D. Harding Less. Art liii, In shading this Lesson care must be taken to make the cast shadow GHF darker at the points G and F, and also sharp on the edge. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 196 An eclipse is a vast cast shadow. 1890 Adeline's Art Dict. 362/1 The cast shadow is always darker than the shadow, properly so called, if the body casting the shadow and the surface receiving it are of the same tonality. |
b. Cf. cast v. 12.
| 1877 Trans. N.Z. Institute 310 Sheep that were ‘cast’ were soon attacked by the blow fly. 1947 R. B. Kelley Sheep Dogs v. 69 She [sc. a ewe]..was ‘cast’, that is, lying on her back in a depression, unable to rise. 1953 Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles I. 15 A ‘cast’ sheep, whether healthy or sick, is always in danger, the eyes being torn from the sockets [by crows]. |
c. Austral and N.Z. cast-for-age, see quot. 1965.
| 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch) 30 Sept. 15/7 Cast for age, etc., means ‘culled’ for etc. This term is used for stud sheep rather than flock sheep. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 217/3 Cast-for-age ewes..are sold in late summer or autumn. 1965 J. S. Gunn Terminol. Shearing Indust. i. 13 Cast for age, a term to describe sheep that are got rid of..because they are too old. |
† 2. Condemned; beaten in a law suit. Obs.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 865/2 About foure of the clocke he was brought as a cast man to the Tower. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. (1851) 258 Sitting..upon his poore cast adversaries both as a Judge and Party. |
3. Cashiered, dismissed from office (obs.); discarded, cast off. (cast captain was app. orig. cassed captain; this led to other uses.)
| 1607 Dekker Northw. Hoe v. Wks. 1873 III. 74 A new trade come up for cast gentlewomen. 1622 Fletcher Span. Cur. i. i. 25 The Sonne Of a poore cast-Captain. 1636 Healey Theophrast. 33 Some cast Captaine, or cassierd Souldier. 1672 Dryden Secret Love i. ii, If thou should'st prove one of my cast mistresses. 1755 Walpole Corr. (1837) I. 258 It is sung by some cast singers. |
4. Of horses, etc.: Rejected, as unfit for service, broken down.
| 1580 North Plutarch 291 To keep cast Horses. 1653 H. Cogan Pinto's Trav. x. §1. 30 Put a grasing like a cast horse. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 376 The sale of Cast Horses. |
5. Of garments: Thrown aside, discarded, no longer worn. Now usually cast-off.
| 1597 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. iii. i. 967 A moste lousie caste sute of his. 1611 Jer. xxxviii. 11 Old cast cloutes. a 1719 Addison Drummer i. i, A wardrobe for my Lady's cast cloaths. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxx, It is not for Rothsay to wear your cast garments, Sir John. |
6. gen. Thrown off, disused, worn out, abandoned, forsaken. Now usually cast-off.
| 1597 Bp. Hall Sat. vi. i, In Margent of some old cast bill. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, IV. i. 23 With casted slough, and fresh legeritie. 1600 ― A.Y.L. iii. iv. 17 A paire of cast lips of Diana. |
7. Thrown up with the spade.
| 1487 Newminster Cartul. (1878) 263 An olde casten dike. 1593 Tell-trothe's N.Y. Gift 42 Fortified with deepe cast⁓rauelinges. |
8. a. Of metal, etc.: Made by melting, and leaving to harden in a mould. See also cast-iron.
| 1535 Coverdale Isa. xlviii. 5 My carued or cast ymage. 1544 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camd.) 19 Item, for xx li. of cast lede..xx d. 1692 in Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. xiv. 111 A Cast-Bullet of Iron. 1765 Univ. Mag. XXXVII. 84/1 Cast copper or brass. 1794 Rigging & Seamansh. I. 154 Sheaves are made of cast metal. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 20 Proposal for a Cast-metal King. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 18 (Hoppe) Before cast glass was so common. |
b. cast stone: a manufactured substance resembling stone.
| 1925 Pop. Mechanics Mag. May 743 (title) Making cast stone; a new building material from marble. 1938 Archit. Rev. LXXXIII. 223 The photograph shows the rough texture of the facing bricks which contrasts with the smooth white cast-stone trim of the fenestration. 1956 Gloss. Terms Concrete (B.S.I.) 9 Cast stone, a building material manufactured from cement and natural aggregate, for use in a manner similar to and for the same purpose as natural building stone. |
9. Cookery. ‘Whipped’, curded.
| 1597 Bk. Cookerie 46 How to make caste creame. |
† 10. Calculated, planned. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 10448 He..Neuer kyld no kyng..but with cast treson. |
11. Like the verb, it may be used with many adverbs. See also castaway, cast-by, cast-off.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 321 With smiling and cast-vp looke. 1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 183 A cast-down mourner. 1653 H. Cogan Pinto's Trav. li. §1. 201 With cast down looks, and tears in their eyes. 1834 Marryat Jac. Faithf. iii, Cast up wrecks. |
▪ IV. † cast, a. Obs.
[ad. L. cast-us.]
Chaste.
| c 1430 Lydg. Lyfe St. Albon (1534) C ij, To serue Diana that was the cast goddesse That Venus had with them non intraunce. |