purfle
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Alternative forms
- purfyle (13th - 15th centuries)
[edit] Etymology
From Old French porfiler, from Latin pro- + filum (“thread”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
purfle (plural purfles)
[edit] Verb
purfle (third-person singular simple present purfles, present participle purfling, simple past and past participle purfled)
- (transitive, archaic) To decorate (wood, cloth etc.) with a purfle or ornamental border; to border.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:
- For kyng Ryons had purfyled a mantel with kynges berdes, and there lacked one place of the mantel, wherefor he sente for his berd [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:
- Purfled with gold of rich assay.
- 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad in The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol. 1:
- It came to pass on a certain day, as he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there stood before him an honourable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk, broidered with gold and bordered with brocade; her walking shoes were also purfled with gold and her hair floated in long plaits.
- 2003, Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito,
- Remembering the exchange now, Dickie smiled that winning southern-boy smile. Then he went glum again. He thumped the purfled sound board.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:
