Also 6 vayn, 6–7 veine, 8 vain. [Southern var. of FANE sb.1]
1. A plate of metal, usually of an ornamental form, fixed at an elevation upon a vertical spindle, so as to turn readily with the wind and show the direction from which this is blowing; a weather-cock.
Vanes are a common addition to the tops of spires or other pinnacles of buildings.
1425. in Kennett, Par. Antiq. (1818), II. 254. Cum ii ventilogiis, viz. vanys de Tyn emptis … ponendis super utrumque finem prædicti dormitorii.
1479–81. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 103. Item, for mendyng of the vane of the steple.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, B j. Be ye not like ne semblable the tortuse ne to the Crane which wynde their hede here and there as a vane.
1532. in E. Law, Hampton Crt. Pal. (1885), 364. A vayn servyng for the stone typis at the gabull ende of the Tennys play.
1572–3. Sarum Churchw. Acc. (Swayne, 1896), 287. Taking downe of the vane and mending of him.
1597. Middleton, Wisd. Solomon, xiv. 17. Like as a vane is turn’d with every blast.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 13 July 1654. These were adorn’d with a variety of dials, little statues, vanes, &c.
1785. Reid, Intell. Powers, II. xix. 325. When I see a spire at a very great distance there appears no vane at the top.
1826. Scott, Woodst., ii. One or two … venerable turrets, bearing each its own vane of rare device glittering in the autumn sun.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci. (ed. 6), xv. 138. Thus two alternations of north and south wind will cause the vane at any place to go completely round the compass.
1880. L. Morris, Ode of Life, 130. The old grey church, with the tall spire, Whose vane the sunsets fire.
transf. 1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., i. (1873), 3. The direction of the branches was N.E. by N., and these natural vanes must indicate the prevailing direction of the trade wind.
1859. Herschel, in Man. Sci. Enq., 136. The direction of the wind, as well as its force, should be registered at each observation; and for this it is well to have a small compass with a vane of card or thin and very moveable sheet brass.
b. fig. An unstable or constantly changing person or thing.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. i. 97. What plume of feathers is hee that indited this Letter? What veine? What Wethercocke?
a. 1611[?]. Beaum. & Fl., Four Plays, Wks. 1912, X. 303. My desire’s a vane, That the least breath from her turns every way.
1850. D. G. Mitchell, Reveries Bachelor, 133. Who is going to shift this vane of my desires?
c. Naut. A piece of bunting fixed to a wooden frame, which turns on a spindle at the mast-head to show the direction of the wind. (See also DOG-VANE.)
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 3. Some compare her [the ship] to a Commonwealth, and carry the Allegory from the Vane, down to the Keelson.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Mar., Vane, a thin slip of bunting hung to the mast-head, or some other conspicuous place,… to show the direction of the wind.
1863. Rep. Sea Fisheries Comm. (1865), II. 404/2. Do you [trawlers] carry any particular kind of vane?—Yes, until it blows away; we generally carry a red vane.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 709. A distinguishing vane denotes the division of a fleet to which a ship of the line belongs, according to the mast on which it is borne.
† 2. A metal plate having the form of a flag or banner bearing a coat of arms, esp. one supported by the figure of an animal. Obs.
Sometimes app. serving the purpose of a weather-cock.
1502. Marr. Pr. Arthur, in Antiq. Rep. (1808), II. 260. A red lyon rampand, holdyng a vane enpeynted with the armys of Englond.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 97. Ouer the gates wer arches with towers embattailed set with vanes and scutchions of the armes of the Emperor and the Kyng.
1574. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 351. For … coloringe the beasts and the vanes and the Quenes armes … with good colors and oyles.
3. a. A sail of a windmill.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 482. All thinges are carryed about in a certaine vehement whyrling unstablenesse, as it were the fleyng vanes of a windemill.
16[?]. Anc. Poems, Ball., etc. (Percy Soc.), 47. They have a castle on a hill, I took it for an old wind-mill, The vanes blown off by weather.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Windmill, Made with vertical Sails, like the ordinary Windmils,… placed on an Axis of a proportionable length to the length of the Vanes.
1754. J. Shebbeare, Matrimony (1766), I. 19. [She] took Occasion to utter three or four sighs,… each of which would have turned the vanes of a windmill.
1804. Charlotte Smith, Conversations, etc., II. 49. The miller shewed me the machinery … and how it works the mill by the action of those vanes or sails.
1864. Dasent, Jest & Earnest (1873), I. 182. The women with a curious cap with an erection on it like two vanes of a windmill flapping in the air.
b. A blade, wing or similar projection attached to an axis, wheel, etc., so as to be acted upon by a current of air or liquid or to produce a current by rotation.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 17. Each axis has four or more thin arms or vanes fixed into it; the vanes are similar in all respects, except in their position.
1824. R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 150. On the circumference of a wheel eight vanes or flaps are attached by joints.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 38. An upright shaft furnished with arms or vanes for the purpose of agitation.
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 211. Fans.—These instruments, with straight radial vanes, were abundantly used in the German mines … about 1550.
c. A revolving fan or wheel.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, x. 248. Ev’n the poor ventilating vane, that flew Of late so fast, is now grown drowsy too.
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, s.v., Vane is also synonymous with fly or fly wheel. Ibid., s.v. Vane, Electrical, When … the vane is placed near to it, the strength of the current will be sufficient to impel the vane forward, so that it will rotate on its centre.
4. A sight of a levelling-staff, forestaff, quadrant or other surveying instrument.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., VII. xvi. 326 b. Turne both your faces, and also the vane of the Transame towardes the Sunne.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. xiv. 85. Set the Vane G to a certain number of Degrees,… looking through the Vane F,… draw your Sight-Vane a little lower.
1674. Leybourne, Compl. Surveyor, 45. Upon the longer Sight is to be placed a Vane of brass, to be moved up and down at pleasure.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., Those Sights which are made to move and slide upon Cross-staves, Forestaves, Davis Quadrants, &c. the Seamen call Vanes.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. iii. 327. The quadrant was eagerly seized, but on examination, it unluckily wanted vanes, and therefore in its present state was altogether useless.
1845. Encycl. Metrop., XXV. 397/1. [In] Houghton’s staffs … the vane is circular inlaid with a diamond-shaped lozenge.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 710. The one opposite to the fore horizon-glass is the foresight-vane, the other the backsight vane.
5. The web of a feather.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., VII. i. 374. The Mechanism of the vanes or webs of Feathers.
1768. Phil. Trans., LVIII. 92. Their texture is equally extraordinary; the shafts broad and very thin; the vanes unwebbed.
1834. Mudie, Brit. Birds (1841), I. 14. The larger ribs of the webs or vanes of not a few are of considerable substance and strength.
1875. Blake, Zool., 94. The vane consists of barbs which proceed at right angles to the shaft.
6. attrib. and Comb., as vane-like adj., -pin, -spindle, staff, -surmounted adj.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants, I. 91. Versatilis, vane-like.
1844. in Noad, Electricity (ed. 2), 95. The balls from which arise the vane-spindles of the two churches.
1845. Encycl. Metrop., XXV. 306/2. The vane staff is more calculated for the purpose [than the levelling staff].
1848. Dickens, Dombey, ix. Then came rows of houses, with little vane-surmounted masts uprearing themselves from among the scarlet beans.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Vane-spindle, the pivot on which the masthead-vane turns.
1889. P. H. Emerson, English Idyls, 22. She was black from stem to stern, from keel to vane-pin.
