▪ I. entrance, n.
(ˈɛntrəns)
Forms: 6–8 enterance, 6–7 enter-, entraunce, 6– entrance; also 6 intraunce.
[a. OF. entrance, f. entrer to enter: see -ance.]
1. a. The action of coming or going in.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 93, I will answer you with gate and entrance, but we are preuented. 1612 Enchir. Med. 154 The dose is..to bee taken at the entrance into bed. 1628 Prynne Cens. Cozens 38 He hath prescribed vs a short Eiaculation..at our entrance into the Church. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton vi. (1840) 100 In the..first entrance of the waste, we were..discouraged. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, La Motte was interrupted by the entrance of the ruffian. 1839 James Louis XIV, II. 286 To witness the entrance of the Royal party. |
b. spec. The coming of an actor upon the stage.
| 1600 A.Y.L. ii. vii. 141 They haue their Exits and their Entrances. 1679 Dryden Tr. & Cr. Pref. A iiij b, After an Entrance or two he lets 'em [Pandarus and Thersites] fall. 1681–6 J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. vii. 193 Appearing and acting upon the Stage without either Entrance or Exit. 1874 Morley Compromise (1886) 126 Progress would mean something more than mere entrances and exits on the theatre of office. |
c. Eccl. [
transl. Gr. εἴσοδος]
Great Entrance and
Little Entrance: in the Eastern Church, the bringing in respectively of the elements and of the gospels, in the eucharistic service.
| 1855 P. Freeman Princ. Divine Service I. 147. 1859 Neale Liturg. Introd. xv. 1876 Dict. Christ. Antiq. s.v. |
† d. Words spoken, or ceremonies observed, on entering.
Obs.| 1693 Temple Mem. Wks. 1731 I. 396, I wou'd leave him there after the first Entrances were past. |
2. fig. a. Generally.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 1 b, After my entraunce to religyon, consyderynge to what I had bounde myselfe. 1535 Coverdale Wisdom vii. 6 All men then haue one intraunce vnto life, & one goinge out in like maner. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 399 This gave occasion to young David..to make a famous entrance into publique notice of the people. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 1 ¶2 Wishing that ceremonial modes of entrance [before the publick] had been anciently established. 1888 Spectator 28 Apr. 562/2 A measure for facilitating the entrance of Life-Peers into the House of Lords. |
b. esp. The entering
into or
upon (office, duties, etc.).
† Formerly also
absol. accession (of a sovereign, etc.).
| 1559 Hethe in Strype Ann. Ref. I. App. vi. 8 Paul the IVth of that name..ever since his first entraunce into Peters chayre. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Ep. Salut. 3 In the year of the great Plague at the first entrance of King James of blessed memorie. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 8/2 Before they made an entrance upon more solemn debates. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. xvi. (1739) 30 Kings furthermore bound themselves (at their entrance into the Throne) hereunto by an Oath. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xiii. 175 Not long from the beginning of the Queen's entrance upon her government. a 1891 Mod. The oath required to be taken by magistrates at entrance into office. |
† c. ‘Intellectual ingress’ (J.); initiation.
Obs.| 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. viii. 107 To attaine to make a more easie entrance, to that purity of the Latine tongue. 1625 Bacon Ess. Trav. (Arb.) 521 He that trauaileth into a Country, before he hath some Entrance into the Language, goeth to Schoole, and not to Trauaile. |
d. Short for
entrance fee,
money.
| 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 539 An entrance into a school or entrance money. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3807/4 To pay a Guinea and a half Entrance 4 Days before they Run. 1713 Ibid. No. 5131/4 Subscribers to pay One Guinea Entrance. 1887 C. D. Warner Their Pilgr. (1888) xi. 253 Paying their entrance, and passing through the turnstile..they stood in the Congress Spring Park. |
3. Power, right, or opportunity of entering; admission.
lit. and
fig.| 1576 Fleming Panoplie Ep. ¶3 It was my happie chance to have entrance into a goodly Gardene plotte. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 6 A Porter..Cald Malvenu, who entrance none denide. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iii. §1 (1723) 132 The Fissures whereinto it can get Admission or Enterance. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 124 The Nail (unless it have good entrance) will start aside. Ibid. 224 To find how great a Dy should have Entrance at a small Hole. 1798 Southey St. Patrick's Purgatory 29 The gates of Paradise unclose, Free entrance there is given. 1838 Lytton Leila ii. i. 17, I have your royal word, sire, for free entrance and safe egress. 1849 James Woodman vii, He retired a step or two to give him entrance. |
| fig. 1576 Fleming Panoplie Ep. 281 Upon these premisses, I see entraunce to this plaine conclusion. 1602 Davison in Farr S.P. Eliz. (1845) II. 323 That my cries may entraunce gayne. 1647 H. More Song of Soul ii. iii. iv. xviii, Gods lovely life hath there no enterance. 1722 Sewel Hist. Quakers (1795) I. 35 All these reasons found little entrance with priests, magistrates and others. |
† 4. a. The beginning or commencement (of a course or period of time).
b. The first part, the opening words (of a chapter or book).
Obs.| a. 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par. Philip. i. 5 Euer synce the fyrst entraunce of your profession, euen vnto this daye. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 545 This is scarce the enterance: what will be the successe? 1639 J. Saltmarsh Policy 70, I know no better Policy in the Preface or entrance upon a designe than, etc. 1658 Ussher Ann. i. 1 Upon the entrance of the night. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 32 At the Entrance of the Spring. |
| b. 1552 Latimer Serm. Lord's Prayer ii. 2 The entrance is this; Cum oratis, dicite, Paternoster, qui es in coelis. 1638 Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. iv. §43. 212 Adde to this place, the entrance to his History. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iii. xi. (1715) 100 As we learn from the very Entrance of the first Iliad, where he speaks of Achilles' Anger. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 219 This was observed in the entrance of the last chapter. |
5. concr. That by which anything is entered, whether open or closed; a door, gate, avenue, passage; the mouth (of a river). Also, the point at which anything enters or is entered.
| 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xl. 38 A chambre also, whose intraunce was at the dore pilers. 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 26 At the entraunce at the great desert. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 38 Achilles stands i' th' entrance of his Tent. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 33 The more Northerly enterance of Nilus..served instead of Bounds to the South part of the Land of Israel. 1719 De Foe Crusoe 69, I made up the Entrance, which till now I had left open. a 1849 Sir R. Wilson Life (1869) I. iii. 140 We were beating off the harbour's entrance. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §8. 60 The glacier is forced through the entrance of the trunk valley. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight iii. 38 This blind spot is at the entrance of the optic nerve. |
| fig. 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. i. 5 The euerlastinge commaundementes, are the intraunce of her [wyszdome]. 1592 Marlowe Jew Malta v. ii, And now, as entrance to our safety, To prison with the Governor. 1605 Camden Rem. 17 That these were the fowre entraunces into the church. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 270 The very entrance into eternal horror. |
6. Naut. The part of a ship that comes first (in the water); ‘the bow of a vessel, or form of the fore-body under the load-water line’ (
Adm. Smyth).
| 1781 Nelson 24 Aug. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) I. 43 She [the Albemarle] has a bold entrance, and clean run. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. v. 85 In ships which have a very fine entrance the breasthook plates are not run right forward to the stem. |
† 7. The action of entering (something) in a record;
concr. an entry.
Obs. (
cf. entry).
| 1588 Mellis Briefe Instr. D iiij, The enterance of these parcels. 1620 J. Wilkinson Of Courts Baron 190 The bailife..delivers to the Sherife a copie of the entrance of the court when the cause was removed thus. ? 1857 Mrs. Gaskell Let. ?Aug. (1966) 462 The contradiction..involved in the 3{pstlg} entrance..on the one page, and the 1{pstlg} entrance for clothes on the next. |
8. attrib., as
entrance-channel,
entrance-cue (
Theatr.),
entrance-door,
entrance-fee,
entrance-hall,
entrance-lodge,
entrance-money,
entrance-road,
entrance-way.
| 1839 H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall xv. 520 The *entrance-channel would be much better than at present. 1955 Friedman & Weisskopf in W. Pauli Niels Bohr 148 In the optical model, compound nucleus formation and absorption..represent the removal of the particle from the entrance channel. |
| 1901 C. Morris Life on Stage (1902) ix. 59 The canary breeches were always there, ready to..break a buckle just at the moment of my *entrance-cue. 1961 Bowman & Ball Theatre Lang. 124 Entrance cue, a cue for an actor to come onstage. |
| a 1817 Jane Austen Persuasion (1818) IV. viii. 149 As she ceased, the *entrance door opened again. 1880 ‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad 168 At the entrance-door up-stairs. |
| 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 4, I paid her *entrance fee. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 52 The children of those who could afford the small entrance fees were apprenticed to trades. |
| 1677 in M. M. Verney Verney Lett. (1930) I. iv. 55 Is there an *Entrance Hall?—No, but a wide passage that serves the purpose. 1841 J. W. Orderson Creol. xi. 111 He found his master seated in the entrance-hall. 1864 Pusey Lect. Daniel viii. 501 Thereon follows eternal life, to which death is the entrance-hall. 1970 N.Y. Times Mag. 25 Oct. 87 The neo-Gothic entrance hall is furnished with Victorian chairs and bench. |
| 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. I. 290 Nobody ever saw a man at an *entrance lodge. |
| 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 539 *Entrance money, which Schollars paid to the Master at their first coming to school. 1833 Marryat P. Simple v, And, as for entrance money, why I think I must not charge you more than a couple of guineas. |
| 1833 Brewster Nat. Magic iii. 45 Driving up the *entrance-road to the house. |
| 1883 H. H. Kane in Harper's Mag. Nov. 945/1 The *entranceway looked dirty. |
Add:
[8.] b. Special
Comb. entrance wound, a wound made by a bullet or other missile at the point where it enters a body (
cf. exit wound s.v. *
exit n. 6).
| 1853 J. Erichsen Sci. & Art of Surgery vii. 98 If it [sc. the bullet] [should] have nearly lost its momentum before it strikes, then the *entrance-wound will always be large and ragged. 1986 ‘M. Hebden’ Pel & Paris Mob ix. 77 There are two entrance wounds. One exit wound. There's a bullet still inside his head. |
▪ II. entrance, v. (
ɛnˈtrɑːns,
-ˈtræns)
Also 7
entraunch,
intranse, 6–8
intrance.
[f. en-1 + trance.] 1. trans. To throw into a trance.
| α 1608 Shakes. Per. iii. ii. 94 She hath not been entranced Above five hours. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 303 ¶4 The Nine Days' Astonishment, in which the Angels lay entranced..is a noble circumstance. |
| β 1667 Milton P.L. i. 301 He stood and call'd His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans't. Ibid. xi. 420 Adam..Sunk down, and all his Spirits became intranst. |
† b. transf. Obs.| 1686 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iii. 133 If you would restore any of these entranced [with drugged bait] Fowl to their former health. |
2. To throw into a state of mind resembling a trance; to put ‘out of oneself’; to overpower with strong feeling, as delight, fear, etc.
| α a 1599 Spenser (J.), With delight I was entranced and carried so far from myself. 1621 Quarles Div. Poems, Esther (1717) 16 So stand the Sea-men..Entraunch'd with what this man of God recited. 1634 Milton Comus 1005 Celestial Cupid..Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced. a 1765 Mallet To Dk. Marlborough (R.), Entranc'd in wonder at th' unfolding scene. 1820 Keats St. Agnes xxviii, So entranced, Porphyro gazed upon her empty dress. 1868 Helps Realmah vii. (1876) 158 Throughout that night, Realmah sat entranced in thought. |
| β 1598 Marston Pygmal. Sat. iv. 154 Fond Bryart..Intrance thy selfe in thy sweet extasie. 1743 J. Davidson æneid 25 Intranced in fear and wonder. 1771 Mackenzie Man Feel. xxxv. (1803) 69 He was too much intranced in thought, to observe her at all. |
b. To carry away in or as in a trance (
from,
to).
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 118 When a man is so..entranced from himselfe, with Wealth, Ambition, and Vaine-glory, that, etc. Ibid. 176 That reuerend Pastor, (entranced to hell in his thoughts for the distresse of his people). 1877 Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. i. 17 The Vita Nuova that entrances the young poet into its charmed circle. |
Hence
enˈtranced ppl. a. enˈtrancedly adv., in the manner of one entranced.
| 1686 [see 1 b]. 1768 Beattie Minstr. i. xxxiii, Sleep A vision brought to his entranced sight. 1837 Lytton E. Maltravers 25 Her entranced and silent lover. 1871 Macduff Mem. Patmos i. 12 The Evangelist..awaking from his entranced dream. 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-Cap 1610 So wrote entrancedly to confidant Monsieur L. M. |