earthenware
(ˈɜːθ(ə)nwɛə(r))
[f. earthen a. + ware; until 19th c. often written as two words.]
1. Vessels or other objects made of baked clay.
| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 29 The Town [Delft] is noted for good earthen Ware, as Stone-jugs, Pots, etc. 1727 De Foe Eng. Tradesm. xxvi. (1841) I. 267 Earthenware from Stafford, Nottingham, and Kent. 1792 Phil. Trans. LXXXII. 270 When earthen ware is mentioned in this paper, the cream-coloured or queen's ware is meant. 1879 J. J. Young Ceram. Art 30 The manufacture of earthen-ware. |
b. In pl. Kinds of earthenware.
| 1832 G. Porter Porcelain i. 19 Efforts..for improving the quality of common earthenwares made in Staffordshire. |
2. The material of which such vessels are made.
| 1799 Med. Jrnl. I. 295 Pour it into a jar of stone or earthen⁓ware. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) Introd. 40 A trough of earthen-ware, divided in its length by numerous partitions of the same material. 1873 Watts Fownes' Chem. 388 Earthenware is made from a white secondary clay. |
3. attrib. and in comb., as earthenware vessel, earthenware-dealer, earthenware-man.
| 1812 J. & H. Smith Rej. Addr. v. (1873) 41 England is a large earthenware pipkin. 1813 Examiner 24 May 329/1 J. Downes, High Holborn, earthenwareman. 1868 Geo. Eliot F. Holt 53 The light by which the minister was reading was a wax-candle in a white earthenware candlestick. |