purfle

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Alternative forms 1.2 Etymology 1.3 Pronunciation 1.4 Noun 1.5 Verb 1.6 Related terms

[edit] English

[edit] Alternative forms

• purfyle (13th - 15th centuries)

[edit] Etymology

From Old French porfiler, from Latin pro- + filum (“‘thread’”).

[edit] Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈpəːfəl/

[edit] Noun

purfle (plural purfles)

1. An ornamental border on clothing, furniture or a violin; beading, stringing.

[edit] Verb

to purfle (third-person singular simple present purfles, present participle purfling, simple past and past participle purfled)

1. (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 Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol. 1:

     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.

[edit] Related terms

• purl