Body

Forms: 1 bodiʓ, 3 bodiȝ, 3–4 bodi, bode, 3–7 bodie, 4–6 bodye, 6 bodey, 3– body. [OE. bodiʓ neut., elsewhere in Teut. only in OHG. potah, botah, MHG. botich, -ech, potih str. masc. ‘body’; cf. mod.Bav. dial. bottech the ‘body’ of a chemise, Grimm. The word has died out of Ger., its place being taken by leib, orig. ‘life,’ and körper from Lat.: but, in Eng., body remains as a great and important word.

  Since Ger. botah, potah, with final h, is not the exact phonetic equivalent of OE. bodiʓ, there is ground for supposing that the word has been adopted in both from some foreign source. E. Müller connects botah with botahha fem., mod.G. bottich masc. ‘cask, tub, vat,’ identified by Wackernagel with med.L. butica = Gr. ἀποθήκη. But there does not appear to be any clear way of connecting the two words. (Fick’s conjectural derivation from bhadh ‘to bind’ is out of the question. Gaelic bodhaig is from Eng.)]

  I.  The material frame of man (and animals).

  1.  The physical or material frame or structure of man or of any animal; the whole material organism viewed as an organic entity. (In Biol. sometimes also used of plants.)

c. 890.  K. Ælfred, Bæda, III. xiv. (Bosw.). Wæs Oswine se cyning on bodiʓe heah.

  a.  c. 1200.  Ormin, 4773. Hiss bodiȝ … All samenn, brest, and wambe, and þes, and cnes, and fet, and shannkess [etc.].

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 869. Our bodis ar now al bare.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., lxxviii. 64. He shold come fyght with hym body for body.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. clv. 186. To fight body to body, or power to power.

1557.  F. Seager, Sch. Vertue, 676, in Babees Bk. (1868), 347. Thy bodie vprighte, Thy fete iuste to-gether.

1665–9.  Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. xi. (1675), 174. A Lark … lighted among some clods of Earth … of the colour of her Body.

1752.  Johnson, Rambl., No. 203, ¶ 10. A body languishing with disease.

1847.  Carpenter, Zool., § 870. The common Oyster … always appears inclined to adapt its shell to the form of the body.

1881.  Huxley, in Nature, XXIV. 346. The body is a machine of the nature of an army, not of that of a watch, or of a hydraulic apparatus. Of this army each cell is a soldier, each organ a brigade.

1875.  J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, viii. 214. Their bodies like those of plants … show tendencies to spiral modes of growth.

1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 222. The individual cells of which the body of the plant is made up.

  (In early use almost always applied to that of man: hence)

  b.  often contrasted with the soul.

a. 1240.  Lofsong, in Cott. Hom., 205. Þauh þet werc nere i þe bodie þe wil was in þe heorte.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. i. (1495), 345. The body meuyth as the soule woll.

c. 1450.  Lonelich, Grail, xlii. 112. Bothe body & sowle distroyed ȝe be.

1651.  Lett., in Proc. Parliament, No. 81. 1241. A great comfort to the godly, both to their soules and bodies.

1732.  Pope, Ess. Man, I. 268. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.

1864.  Tennyson, Aylmer’s Field, 377. The foul adulteries That saturate soul with body.

Mod.  ‘A hard struggle to keep body and soul together.’

  c.  The corporeal or material nature or state of man, the material body and its properties.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 15124. To clennsenn þeȝȝre bodiȝ swa Off all þe bodiȝ sinne.

1382.  Wyclif, 2 Cor. xii. 2. Wher in body, wher out of body, I woot not, God woot. 1611 ibid. Whether in the body, I cannot tell, whether out of the body, I cannot tell.

1580.  North, Plutarch (1676), 4. This Phœa was a woman robber … and naught of her body.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., vi. While we are yet in the body.

1869.  Goulburn, Purs. Holiness, ix. 78. By ‘the body’ is to be understood the mass of matter which we carry about with us, with all the various animal properties that belong to it.

  2.  Short (or euphemistic) for ‘dead body,’ corpse.

c. 1280.  Fall & Pass., 76, in E. E. P. (1862), 14. Iosep of arimathie … nem þat swet bodi adun, an biriid hir in a fair plas.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 14309. And quar haf yee his bode laid?

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 7150. Þai … brent vp the bodies vnto bare askis.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Kings xiii. 24. The lyon stode by the body [1382 Wyclif careyn, 1388 deed bodi].

1595.  Shaks., John, V. vii. 99. At Worster must his bodie be interr’d.

1619.  Crooke, Body of Man, 19. Choose a bodie that is sound and vntainted, and either hanged, smothered, or drowned.

1835.  T. Hood, Dead Robbery, ii. 25. Wks. 1920, 496/1.

1855.  Tennyson, Maud, I. i. 5. In the ghastly pit long since a body was found.

  3.  Applied symbolically or mystically to the bread in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

[1357.  Seven Sacr., in Lay-Folks Mass-Bk., 118. The sacrement of the auter, cristes owen bodi in likeness of brede.]

1382.  Wyclif, Matt. xxvi. 26. Take ȝee, and ete; this is my bodi.

1549.  Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Exhort., The holy communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ.

1562.  39 Articles, xxviii. The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner.

1579.  Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 82. He caried the Lords body in a wicker basket.

c. 1880.  J. S. Candlish, Sacraments, 98. All who believe in Him receive that one body that was broken for all.

  † 4.  Used in oaths and forcible ejaculations, as body of me!, body of our Lord!, God’s body!, by cocks body!, etc. Obs. Cf. BODIKIN.

c. 1530.  Redforde, Play Wit & Sc. (1848), 7. On the bodye of me! What kaytyves be those.

1573.  New Custom, II. ii. in Hazl., Dodsley, III. 32. Body of our Lord, is he come into the Country?

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 29. Gods body! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., V. ii. 22. Body a me: where is it?

1695.  Congreve, Love for L., II. v. 35. Body o’ me, I have a Shoulder of an Egyptian King, that I purloin’d from one of the Pyramids.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth (1860), 9. ‘Body of me’ exclaimed Simon, ‘I should know that voice!’

  II.  The main portion; the trunk.

  5.  The main portion of the animal frame, to which the extremities, etc., are attached; the trunk. Opposed to the members or limbs; also to the head, esp. as the seat of intelligence and guidance.

a. 800.  Epinal & Erf. Gloss., 947 (O. E. Texts). Spina, bodei. Ibid., Corpus Gl., 1891. Spina, bodeʓ.

c. 1000.  Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 265. Truncus, bodiʓ.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Minster Hom., 203 a, in Sax. Leechd., III. 355. He næfdon þæt heafod to þam bodiʓe.

1382.  Wyclif, Ephes. iv. 16. Crist the heed; of whom al the body sett to-gidere, and boundyn to gidere by ech ioynture of vndirseruyng.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., IV. vii. 26. When the Fox hath once got in his Nose, Hee’le soone finde meanes to make the Body follow.

c. 1600.  C’tess Southampton, in Shaks. C. Praise, 40. All heade and veri litel body.

1840.  Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lv. 86. A body without a head, unable either to act or to deliberate.

1867.  F. Francis, Angling, x. (1880), 364. Body, orange-yellow, merging into … burnt sienna at the shoulder.

  b.  The main stem, trunk, stock, of a plant or tree.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 133. Cut the boughe on bothe sydes a fote or two foote from the bodye of the tree.

1609.  C. Butler, Fem. Mon., ii. (1623), E j. Boughes hanging out alone from the bodies.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 183. Cucumers … With crooked Bodies, and with Bellies deep.

  † c.  The wood under the bark. L. corpus. Obs.

1603.  R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw., 167. The black rinde of a certaine tree … betweene the bodie and the barke.

  d.  fig. In biblical or theol. language, The body of Christ: the Church of which Christ is the head.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 1555. Swa þatt teȝȝ shulen alle ben An bodiȝ and an sawle And Jesu Crist himm sellf shall ben Uppo þatt bodiȝ hæfedd.

1382.  Wyclif, Ephes. iv. 12. And he ȝaf summe sotheli apostlis, summe forsoth prophetis … into the work of mynisterie, into edificacioun of Cristis body.

1535.  Coverdale, Col. i. 18. And he is the heade of the body, namely, of the congregacion.

1611.  Bible, 1 Cor. xii. 27. Now yee are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

  6.  The part of a dress that covers the body, as distinct from the arms; also the part of a woman’s dress above the waist, as distinguished from the loose skirt. A pair of bodies: see BODICE.

1585.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (1860), II. 114. One petticote of house-wyfe clothe … An upper bodye of durance.

1611.  in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 92. That none should wear … any body or sleeves of wire, whalebone or with any other stiffing.

1696.  J. F., Merchant’s Wareho., 38. Cut of Ell ¹/₈ off of one of the half bredths … which take for the body of your Shifts.

1698.  Lassels, Voy. Italy, II. 288. Twelve breast and back pieces (like womens close bodies).

1868.  Q. Victoria, Life in Highlands, 124. I and the girls [were] in royal Stewart skirts and shawls over black velvet bodies.

  7.  The main, central or principal part, as distinguished from parts subordinate or less important; the part round which the others are grouped, or to which they are attached as appendages, etc.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., I. 402. Nim þonne þæt sæd sete on þæs sules bodiʓ.

1595.  Shaks., John, IV. ii. 112. Neuer such a powre … Was leuied in the body of a land.

1670.  Cotton, Espernon, I. I. 35. The body of the Emblem was a figure of the Duke himself.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. xx. 355. He got into the body of the tree.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., 234. The body of all true religion consists … in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world.

1863.  H. Cox, Instit., II. x. 562. Crimes committed at sea, or on the coast out of the body of any County.

1874.  Boutell, Arms & Arm., ix. 173. The body of the blade.

  8.  spec. a. The middle aisle, or the whole nave, of a church. b. The part of a vehicle fitted to receive the load. c. In Fortification (see quot. 1862). d. The shaft of a pillar. e. The resonance box of a musical instrument. f. In Anat. The main portion of a bone, esp. of one of the vertebræ. g. The main portion of a document, as distinguished from the introduction or preamble, and esp. from an appendix, a codicil, or other supplementary matter.

1418.  E. E. Wills (1882), 30. To the werkis of the body of the Parisshe Chirche.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 5. The bodye of the wayne of oke.

1552.  Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Rubric, The Table … shall stand in the body of the church.

1559.  Abp. Hethe, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. II. App. vi. 7. The body of this acte touchinge the supremacy.

1580.  Baret, Alv., B 871. The bodie of a pillour, betweene the chapitre and the base.

1661.  Bramhall, Just Vind., iv. 80. The incroachments … mentioned in the body of that law.

1666.  Pepys, Diary (1879), VI. 68. There I do find a great many ladies sitting in the body of a coach.

1712.  Prideaux, Direct. Ch.-wardens (ed. 4), 24. In the City of London … the Parishioners repair the Chancel as well as the Body of the Church.

1736.  King, in Swift’s Lett. (1768), IV. 179. The tracts … may be printed by way of appendix. This will be indeed less trouble than the interweaving them in the body of the history.

1831.  R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 17. In every vertebra, there are distinguished a body, seven processes, four notches, and a hole.

1862.  Trollope, Orley F., i. (ed. 4), 2. The body of the will was in the handwriting of the widow, as was also the codicil.

1862.  F. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (ed. 9), 262. The Body of the place, (or Enceinte) consists of the work next to, and surrounding the town, in the form of a polygon, whether regular, or irregular.

1878.  H. H. Gibbs, Ombre, Pref. 7. Bringing the supplementary Chapter into the body of the Book.

  h.  Naut. The hull of a ship; the section of this as viewed from different positions.

1691.  T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 22. The whole Bodies of their Ships under Water.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), D ij b. The fore-body of the ship, i.e. before the midship-frame.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 99. The figure of a ship, abstractedly considered, is supposed to be divided into different parts,… to each of which is given the appellation of Body. Hence we have the terms Fore Body, After Body, Cant Bodies, and Square Body. Thus the Fore Body is the figure, or imaginary figure, of that part of the ship afore the midships or dead-flat, as seen from ahead…. The Square Body comprehends all the timbers whose areas or planes are perpendicular to the keel and square with the middle line of the ship; which is all that portion of a ship between the cant bodies.

  9.  The main portion of a collection or company; the majority; the larger part, the bulk of anything.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 287. The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1621), 1359. The bodie of the Turkes armie followed bihinde.

1678.  N. Wanley, Wonders, V. ii. § 64. 471/2. The main body of the Empire.

1732.  Neal, Hist. Purit., I. 19. The Body of the inferiour Clergy were disguised Papists.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 166. The great body of the people leaned to the royalists.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 66. Under Henry [VIII.] the body of the people were prosperous.

  † 10.  The vessel in which a substance to be distilled is placed; a retort. (There appears to have been a reference here to spirit.) ? Obs.

1559.  Morwyng, Evonym., 1. Moist thinges put into a body (for so do they cal the bigger vessel from whence the vapour is lifted up) by the force of heate are extenuated into a vapour.

1594.  Plat, Jewell-ho., II. 3. Put them into your pot, or body.

1641.  French, Distill., i. (1651), 28. Put this bread into a Glass-body, and distill it in Balneo.

1721–1800.  Bailey, Body (in Chymistry) is the Vessel which holds the Matter in distilling the Spirits of Vegetables.

  11.  Type-founding. The breadth of the shank of the type, which is the same throughout the font, while the thickness varies with the letter (e.g., I and W); hence, size of type.

1824.  J. Johnson, Typogr., II. ii. 11. The several bodies to which printing letters are cast … are nineteen in number.

  III.  Personal being, individual.

  12.  The material being of man, as the sign and tangible part of his individuality, taken for the whole; the person. Chiefly in legal phrases.

1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 208. She hath her owne body feigned, For fere as though she wolde flee Out of her londe.

1549.  Bk. Com. Prayer, Matrimony, With this Ring I thee wed … with my body I thee worship.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1621), 870. An armie … consisting of most choice bodies.

1652.  Proc. Parliament, No. 135. 2100. A Warrant in the nature of a Habeas Corpus … to bring without delay the body of the same prisoner.

1710.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4695/3. A barbarous Murder was committed on the Body of Mr. Henry Widdrington.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., A man is said to be bound or held in Body and goods; that is, he is liable to remain in prison; in default of payment.

1822.  Scott, Nigel, xxvii. Two pages of the body.

  b.  Heir of the body: an heir who is a direct descendant.

a. 1626.  Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law, 51. The heires males of his body.

1732.  Neal, Hist. Purit. (1822), I. 12. An act of Parliament for settling the crown upon the heirs of her body.

1768.  Blackstone, Comm., II. 114. As the word heirs is necessary to create a fee, so, in farther imitation of the strictness of the feodal donation, the word body, or some other words of procreation, are necessary to make it a fee-tail.

1788.  J. Powell, Devises (1827), II. 469. You here find a child described as an heir of the body.

  13.  A human being of either sex, an individual. Formerly, as still dialectally, and in the combinations ANY-, EVERY-, NO-, SOME-BODY, etc., exactly equivalent to the current ‘person’; but now only as a term of familiarity, with a tinge of compassion, and generally with adjectives implying this.

1297.  R. Glouc., 489. The beste bodi of the world in bendes was ibrouȝt.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 3360 (Fairf.). A better body drank neyuer wine.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 258. Ac blame þow neuere body and þow be blame-worthy.

1475.  Caxton, Jason, 90. Euery noble body ought soner chese deth thene to do … thing that sholde be ayenst their honour.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. xiii[i]. 1. The foolish bodyes saye in their hertes: Tush, there is no God.

1539.  Bury Wills, 137. I will that my executors gyve … in breade to iiij poore bodies j d.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., I. iv. 105. ’Tis a great charge to come vnder one bodies hand.

1653.  Walton, Angler, 56. It shall be given away to some poor body.

1693.  Locke, Educ., § 143. iv. One angry body discomposes the whole Company.

1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 201. The countess was a good sort of a body.

1777.  Sheridan, Trip Scarb., III. iv. Wks. 505. What do you din a body’s ears for?

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. ii. 17. His wife was a more tidy body.

  IV.  A corporate body, aggregate of individuals, collective mass.

  14.  Law. An artificial ‘person’ created by legal authority for certain ends; a corporation; commonly a corporation aggregate, but also applied to a corporation sole (cf. quots. 1641, 1642). Always with defining adj. body corporate, body politic.

1461.  Act 1 Edw. IV., i. § 4. Any Fraternitie, Guild, Companie, or Fellowship, or other bodie corporate.

1528.  Perkins, Prof. Bk., i. § 64 (1642), 30. A bodie politique, as a Maior and Comminaltie.

1641.  Termes de la Ley. Bodies Politique are Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deanes, Parsons of Churches, and such like, which have succession in one person onely.

1642.  J. M[arsh], Argt. conc. Militia, 27. The King is a body politick, for that a body politique never dieth.

1768.  Blackstone, Comm., I. 467. These artificial persons are called bodies politic, bodies corporate, or corporations.

1837.  Penny Cycl., VIII. 46/2. For the purpose of maintaining and perpetuating the uninterrupted enjoyment of certain powers, rights, property, or privileges, it has been found convenient to create a sort of artificial person, or body-politic, not liable to the ordinary casualties which affect the transmission of private rights, but capable, by its constitution, of independently continuing its own existence. This artificial person is in our law called an incorporation, corporation, or body-corporate.

  b.  Body politic has also the wider sense of ‘organized society.’

1634.  Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 185. To knit themselves together in a spiritual outward society or body politic.

1702.  C. Mather, Magn. Chr., I. vi. (1852), 82. With mutual consent they became a body-politick, and framed a body of necessary laws and orders.

1839.  Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., viii. 77. Associations and bodies politic within the church.

  c.  spec. The body politic: the nation in its corporate character; the state. (Orig. there appears to have been, in this use of body, a reference to the headship of the sovereign.)

1532–3.  Act 24 Henry VIII., xii. This Realm of England is an Empire … governed by one supreme Head and King … unto whom a Body politick, compact of all Sorts and Degrees of People … been bounden and owen to bear a natural and humble Obedience.

1593.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol. (Pref.) v. § 2. A law is the deed of the whole body politic.

1636.  Healey, Epictetus’ Man., xxxi. 40. But what place shall I hold then in the body politicke?

1782.  V. Knox, Ess. (1819), I. xii. 69. All conduct extensively injurious to individuals, is injurious to the body politic.

1874.  Reynolds, John Bapt., ii. 116. Radical changes in the body-politic.

  d.  (Cf. L. totum corpus reipublicæ.)

1570.  Act 13 Eliz., xviii. Pream., Beneficial Causes … to insue to the Body of this Common Wealth.

1625.  Burges, Pers. Tithes, 20. The Lawes … enacted by the King and the whole Body of the Kingdome.

  15.  A number of persons taken collectively, usually as united and organized in a common cause or for common action, as for deliberation, government, business; a society, association, league, fraternity.

1689.  Burnet, Tracts, I. 71. There are three different Bodies or Leagues.

1732.  Lediard, Sethos, II. IX. 271. The Governor … had not time to form a defensive body.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 165. It is seldom that a man inrolls himself in a proscribed body from any but conscientious motives.

1852.  Bright, Lett., in Speeches (1876), 552. Grants of public money to any public body.

1866.  Liddon, Bampt. Lect., i. (1875), 10. That little Body the disciples of Christ, and nucleus of His future Church.

1880.  Chr. Leader, 588/3. A preacher of the U. P. body.

  16.  An organized collection of fighting men acting together; a force. (The most general term that can be so applied.)

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 66. I thinke we are a Body strong enough (Euen as we are) to equall with the King.

1651.  Proc. Parliament, No. 84. 1278. Leaving moving bodies behind to prevent their designes.

1693.  Mem. Ct. Teckely, II. 151. Some pierced even to the Body of Reserve.

1769.  Robertson, Chas. V., V. IV. 390. Escorted by a body of horse.

1839.  Thirlwall, Greece, III. 117. The Athenians … sent a body of troops to garrison it.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 4. The bodies now designated as the first six regiments of dragoon guards, [etc.].

  17.  (more loosely) An assemblage of units characterized by some common attribute, and thus regarded as a whole; a collective mass: a. of persons.

1598.  Grenewey, Tacitus’ Descr. Germ., vi. 269. The Semnones … by their great body, they take themselues to be the head of the Sueuians.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 10. A whole Body (consisting of number of Persons).

1677.  C. Hatton, in Corr. (1878), 152. The clergy did not goe in a body.

1755.  Johnson, in Boswell (1831), I. 275. We might go and drink tea with Mr. Wise in a body.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, viii. 100. All formed in a body to go and meet the new arrivals.

  b.  of things.

1593.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. xiv. § 4. The entire body of the Scripture.

1796.  Burke, Lett. Noble Ld., Wks. 1842, II. 259. Since the total body of my services … have obtained the acceptance of my sovereign.

1874.  Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, x. 309. This large and respectable body of opinion.

1875.  Whitney, Life Lang., x. 181. The High-German body of dialects.

  18.  A comprehensive and systematic collection of the details of any subject; an arranged whole of information; hence, a pandect (cf. L. corpus juris); a text-book.

[Cf. 1593.  in prec.]

1647.  Cowley, Mistr., The Soul, iii. If she do near thy Body prize Her Bodies of Philosophies.

1652.  Needham, trans. Selden’s Mare Cl., 169. Whether they comment upon the bodie of Justinian.

1659.  Milton, Hirelings, 92. Som wholesom bodie of divinitie as they call it.

1699.  Bentley, Phal., 361. A Body of Laws.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 121, ¶ 8. I could wish our Royal Society would compile a Body of Natural History.

1830.  Herschel, Nat. Phil., III. vi. (1851), 352. Digests and bodies of science.

1860.  Abp. Thomson, Laws Th., Introd. 10. Science is a body of principles and deductions, Art is a body of precepts.

  V.  Transferred from the material part of man to matter generally as opposed to the immaterial.

  19.  A separate portion of matter, large or small, a material thing; something that has physical existence and extension in space: a. in common language and Physics.

  Heavenly bodies: (in modern use) the masses of matter that exist away from the earth, the sun, moon, planets, comets, meteors, stars, etc.; orig. a phrase of the astro-alchemists, applied to the seven ‘bodies celestial’: see 22 a.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, De Dot. Eccl., Sel. Wks. III. 437. Þe bemes of þe sonne … þat shyneþ freliche in bodyes.

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., 15. To knowe the altitude of the sonne or of othre celestial bodies.

c. 1568.  Coverdale, Hope Faithf., xiv. (1574), 91. A wal is a body.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., 19. A bodie is a masse or lump, which, as much as lieth in it, resisteth touching, and occupieth a place.

1642.  Rogers, Naaman, 348. Cannot the Lord … restraine the influence of the upper bodies from the lower at his pleasure?

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., Pref. The onely Principles of Bodies, are Magnitude, Figure, Site, Motion, and Rest.

1752.  Johnson, Rambl., No. 207, ¶ 9. All attraction is increased by the approach of the attracting body.

1754.  Sherlock, Disc. (1759), I. iv. 159. The Magnitudes and Distances of the heavenly Bodies.

1841.  Liebig’s Lett. Chem., vi. (1844), 88. The ultimate particles of bodies, or atoms, must occupy a certain space, and possess a certain definite form.

  b.  viewed metaphysically.

1656.  trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 102. A body is that, which having no dependance upon our thought, is coincident or coextended with some part of space.

1785.  Reid, Int. Powers, 186. What we call a body, is only a bundle of sensations.

1846.  Mill, Logic, I. iii. § 7. A body … may be defined, the external cause to which we ascribe our sensations.

  c.  spec. In Physiol. often forming the base of nomenclature, as pituitary body, pacchionian body.

1866.  Huxley, Phys. (1869), 143. Nothing certain is known of the functions of any of these bodies [the ductless glands]. Ibid. The spheroidal bodies called corpuscles of the spleen,… consist of a solid aggregation of minute bodies.

  † 20.  Geom. A figure of three dimensions; a solid. Regular body: one of the five Regular Solids. Obs. in modern Geometry.

1570.  Dee, Math. Pref., 3. A thicke Magnitude we call a Solide, or a Body.

1570.  Billingsley, Euclid, I. def. xvi. 3. A superficies being moued maketh a solide or bodie.

1635.  J. Babington, Geometry, 42. The cube … is accounted one of the five regular bodies.

1796.  Hutton, Math. Dict., I. 215. The five Regular Bodies…. These bodies were called platonic, because they were said to have been invented, or first treated of, by Plato.

1847.  trans. Weisbach’s Princ. Mech., I. i. 1 (W.). The path of a moving point is a line; that of a geometrical body, is another body.

  21.  A compact quantity or mass; amount; bulk; quantity.

1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, 388. Ezekiels Temple had not the same body with Solomons, but greater.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 38. A proportionable Body to the … weight it is to bear.

1772.  Town & Country Mag., 161. A large body of land, extending thirty miles up the Coofaw river.

1828.  Hutton, Course Math., II. 139. Body is the mass, or quantity of matter, in any material substance.

1849.  Murchison, Siluria, vi. (1867), 108. Another body of igneous rock lies subjacent.

1855.  Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 1 (1864), 224. A large body of light.

1878.  Huxley, Physiogr., 40. A body of cold air.

  22.  A distinct form or kind of matter:

  † a.  Alchemy and Astrol. The Seven bodies terrestrial: the seven ancient metals answering to the seven ‘heavenly bodies’ (the sun, moon, and five old planets). Obs.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Chan. Yem. Prol. & T., 267. The foure spirites and the bodies seuene. The bodies seuene eek loo hem here anoon, Sol gold is, and luna siluer, we threpe, Mars yren, Mercurie quik siluer we clepe, Saturnus leed, and Iupiter is tyn, And venus copir, by my fader kyn.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 84. The bodies, whiche I speke of here, Of the planettes ben begonne.

  b.  Chem. and Min. Any kind of ‘substance,’ simple or compound, solid, liquid or gaseous. Simple bodies: the chemical elements; Compound bodies: the substances formed by their combination.

1594.  Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 13. Niter, and other Aromaticall bodies.

a. 1682.  Sir T. Browne, Tracts, 12. A gummous body and dissoluble in water.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth (1723), 7. The said Metallick and Mineral Bodies.

1724.  Watts, Logic, 16. They supposed the heavens to be a quintessence, or a fifth sort of body.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, xxiii. 204. Crystallised bodies, such as nitre and arragonite.

1841.  Liebig’s Lett. Chem., iv. (1844), 63. The employment of symbols enables the chemist to express, in an exceedingly simple manner, the constitution of every compound body.

  23.  abstractly (in Metaphysics, formerly also in Physics). That which has sensible qualities, or is perceptible by the senses; matter; ‘substance.’

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., 413. Spirit. The Opposite to which … is Body.

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 49. He that will undertake to prove that there is something else in the World besides Body, must first determine what Body is, for otherwise he will go about to prove that there is something besides He-knows-not-what.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxiii. (1695), 164. The primary Ideas we have peculiar to Body, as contradistinguished to Spirit, are the Cohesion of solid, and consequently separable parts, and a power of communicating Motion by impulse.

1762.  Kames, Elem. Crit. (1833), 475. Every substratum of tangible qualities is called body.

1794.  J. Hutton, Philos. Light, &c. 288. Body in the abstract … must be inert.

1870.  Bowen, Logic, iii. 55. We cannot think of body without extension.

  † 24.  Substance, as opposed to representation, shadow, etc.; reality. Obs. or arch.

1382.  Wyclif, Col. ii. 17. Whiche ben schadowe of thingis to come; forsoth the body is of Christ.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Merch. T., 552. Parfourned hath the sonne his Ark diurne No lenger may the body of hym soiurne On thorisonte.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 26. To shew Vertue her owne Feature … and the verie Age and Bodie of the Time, his forme and pressure.

1702.  Eng. Theophrast., 327. Men suffer themselves to be enchanted with the shadow and appearance of a thing whose real body does not so much as affect them.

  25.  ‘Substance’ or substantial quality, as opposed to insubstantiality, thinness, weakness, flimsiness, or transparency: said of colors, wine, paper, textile fabrics, etc.

c. 1645.  Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 371. In Greece there are no wines that have bodies enough to bear the sea for long voyages.

1735.  Dict. Polygraph., s.v., To bear a body, a term us’d of painting colours … capable of being ground so fine, and mixing with the oil so intirely, as to seem only a very thick oil of the same colour.

1784.  J. Barry, Lect. Art, vi. (1848), 216. Those colours without body which are more immediately considered as transparent.

1851.  H. Mayo, Philos. Living, i. 66. The vintages, differ in fulness of body and lusciousness.

1859.  Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 10. Less liable to be affected by damp than colouring with more body or substance.

1862.  Times, 12 Aug., 9/3. Staffordshire cannot produce fine-grained iron equal to theirs in ‘body,’ i. e., in its power of ‘standing the fire.’

  fig.  1824–8.  Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), 80. I hate both poetry and wine without body.

1884.  Spectator, 4 Oct., 1304/1. Metaphor and language … meant to conceal the want of body in the thought and emotion beneath.

  26.  Main substance; fundamental constituent.

1787.  Winter, Syst. Husb., 109. Every soil must contain as sufficient a body for those manures to act upon.

1875.  Fortnum, Maiolica, i. 3. The characteristics of the soft wares are a paste or body which may be scratched with a knife.

  † 27.  Metaph. An entity, a thing that has real existence; an agent or cause of phenomena. Obs.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, ii. 21. To drawe some peculiar good … out of another bodies workes … as out of Poyson, health … from the night, rest.

1660.  Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 326/1. The Soul is a Body, because it maketh us to be living Creatures. Ibid., 326/2. Night and Day are Bodies. Voice is a Body, for it maketh that which is heard; in a word, whatsoever is, is a Body and a Subject.

  VI.  Comb. and Attrib.

  28.  simple attrib. Of body, physical, material.

c. 1200.  [see 1 c].

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 112. A fresh train of hangers on in the body kind.

  29.  General combinations: a. objective with pr. pple., vbl. sb., or agent-noun, as body-bending, -breaking, -curer, -killing, -maker, -making, -wearing; b. attributive: (a) pertaining to the human body, as body-armo(u)r, -being, -blow, -ease, -garment, -medicine, -play, -plague, -sin; (b) reserved for personal attendance or use, as body-carriage, -chariot, -coach, -coachman, -physician, -servant, -slave, -valet, also BODY-GUARD; (c) in various senses of body, as body-bolt, -girth, -lining, -scent, -wall; body-wise adv.

1828–41.  Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 322/2. A breastplate and back-piece, [etc.]… formed the *body-armour.

1850.  Louisville Daily Jrnl, 7 March, 2/3. Along the massive stone balustrade which surrounds its flat roof are ranged suits of body-armor, [etc.].

a. 1652.  J. Smith, Sel. Disc., IV. 105. If all *body-being in the world were destroyed.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, ii. That *body-blow left Joe’s head unguarded.

1886.  Ripon Chron., 4 Sept., 3/5. The *body bolt of the phaeton suddenly gave way, and the occupants were thrown out.

1533.  Frith, Answ. More (1829), 443. They believe not in his *body-breaking and blood-shedding.

1766.  Entick, London, IV. 54. Wheels of *body carriages.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4052/1. Her Majesty’s *Body Chariot. Ibid. (1702), No. 3862/1. Then Her Majesty, habited in Purple … in her *Body Coach drawn by 8 Horses.

1735.  Swift’s Lett. (1768), IV. 135. Were his majesty inclined to-morrow to declare his *body-coachman his first minister.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., III. i. 100. Soule-Curer, and *Body-Curer.

1546.  Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. (1550), iv b. Fournished the Clery there with such possessions and *body-ease.

1870.  Emerson, Soc. & Solit., i. 14. Dressed in arts and institutions as well as in *body-garments.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 135. Wrapped round her very tight, like a *body-girt to a horse.

1761.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. iv. 14. Your jerkin … and the *body-lining to it.

1611.  Rich, Honest. Age (1844), 37. Then haue we those that be called *Body-makers.

1884.  Birmingham Daily Post, 26 Jan., 3/3. Coachmakers.—Wanted, an experienced Bodymaker, for first-class work.

1544.  Latimer, Wks., 1845, II. 481. The popish consecration, which hath been called Gods *body-making.

1881.  Gentl. Mag., CCL. 163. Ready equally for mind-play or *body-play.

1875.  ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. vii. § 8. Few retrievers can hit off the *body-scent of a dead cock.

1760.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy (ed. 2), II. v. 34. Besides what he gained … as a *body-servant.

a. 1240.  Ureisun, in Lamb. Hom., 189. Wasche mine fif wittes of alle *bodi sunnen.

1847.  Ld. Lindsay, Chr. Art, I. 25. The *body-wall bulging out and lopping over.

1884.  Homiletic Monthly, April, 409. If … man were *body-wise related by descent to the brute creation.

  30.  Special comb.: body-bag, a bag to sleep in; body-chamber, the outer and largest chamber of a shell occupied by the body of the animal; body-cloth, a cloth, or rug, to cover horses or other animals; body-clothes, -clothing, clothes for the body; body-coat, a coat fitting more or less closely to the body, † a dress-coat; body-colo(u)r, a color that has consistency, or body, in distinction from a tint or wash (cf. 25); a color rendered opaque by the addition of white; body-hoop, a hoop securing the arris pieces of a made mast; body-horse (still dial.), a shaft-horse; body-lifter = body-snatcher; body-louse, a species of louse, Pediculus corporis, which infests the body of the uncleanly; body-plan, in Shipbuilding, an end elevation of a ship, showing the breadth, contour of the sides, timbers, etc.; body-snatcher, one who secretly disinters dead bodies in churchyards for the purpose of dissection, a ‘resurrectionist’; so body-snatching, -stealing; † body-stead, the nave of a church; † body-spirit = esprit de corps; body-tube, the main tube forming the body of an organ-pipe; body-whorl, the last and largest whorl of a shell, containing the body of the mollusk.

1885.  Harper’s Mag., April, 820/1. Retire to an ice-house, with … a fur overcoat and body-bag.

1854.  Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 79. The *body-chamber is always very capacious.

1685.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2021/4. Occasioned by the hindermost Buckles of a *Body-Cloth. Ibid. (1706), No. 4212/4. A white Streak down the Side, occasioned by *Body-Clothes.

1753.  Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. I. ix. 46. They cover their cows with *body-cloths.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, v. God-a-mercy, wench, it were hard to deny thee time to busk thy body-clothes.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xvi. 168. Blankets were served out as the material for *body-clothing.

1820.  T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. Introd. 62. His ring, his seal, his *body-coat, his perfume-box, his upper and under mantle.

1784.  J. Barry, Lect. Art, vi. (1848), 215. Employing stiff *body colour on a white ground.

1859.  Gullick & Timbs, Painting, 107. The difficulty of calculating when ‘wet’ the difference of tone the body-colour will assume when dry.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems, 201. A belfry for the *bodyfaunt.

1597.  Bacon, Coulers Good & Evill, x. (Arb.), 154. The *body-horse in the Cart, that draweth more then the forehorse.

1832.  Southey, in Q. Rev., XLVII. 517. Not coming from a professional *body-lifter.

1861.  Ramsay, Remin., Ser. II. 133. I have heard quiet and worthy men speak of the body-lifters, or ‘all-night-men,’ as they were wont to be called when their occupation was in vogue, with a ferocity in striking contrast to their ordinary bearing and character.

1575.  J. Still, Gamm. Gurton, II. iv. She went as brag as it had ben a *bodelouce.

a. 1652.  Brome, Crt. Beggar, Epil. As briske as a Body-lowse in a new Pasture.

1861.  Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. VI. i. 294. The Body (or Clothes) Louse … was for a long time confounded with the former [the Head Louse].

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 137. The plan of projection, commonly called the *body plan, which exhibits the outline of the principal timbers, and the greatest heights and breadths of the same.

1834.  Sir F. B. Head, Bubbles fr. Brunnens, 126. Any one of our *body-snatchers would have rubbed his rough hands … at observing that the lid of the coffin would be deposited scarcely a foot and a half below the sod.

1823.  Morning Chron., 25 Aug., 4/4. He had been … attendant to the Dissecting-room, at the Anatomical School of St. Thomas’s Hospital, and … presented himself … as bail for a man named Crouch, who was then in custody for *‘body-snatching.’

1863.  Reader, 22 Aug. At that time (1827–28) … *‘body-snatching’ became a trade.

1623.  Resol. Ch. Cartmell, in Sat. Rev. (1884), 5 July, 14. The *bodystead of the Church shall be decentlye repaired.

1794.  W. Taylor, in Month. Rev., XIII. 39. He endeavoured to inspire the senate with a *body-spirit.

1880.  S. Warren, Grave Doings, in Casquet Lit. (1877), V. 185/1. My … exploit in the way of *body-stealing.

1854.  Bushnan, in Circ. Sc. (1865), I. 283/2. The air … passes out in undulating movements from the *body-tube.

1854.  Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 101. The last turn of the shell, or *body-whorl, is usually very capacious.