Forms: 3–6 vestiarie, 4 vestiare, 5 vestyarye, -iarye, 5– vestiary. [a. OF. vestiarie, vestiaire, vestyaire, etc. (mod.F. vestiaire, = Pr. vestiari, Pg. and It. vestiario), or ad. L. vestiārium clothes-chest, wardrobe, neut. sing. of vestiārius adj., f. vesti-s clothing, vesture. Cf. VESTUARY.]
I. 1. A vestry of a church. Now rare or Obs.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 455. A lodlich cloth he bouȝhte for fif panes; to þe bischope he gan it bringue. Þe bischop eode into þe vestiarie; is Cope he gan of strepe.
1427–8. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 69. For a plomer on þe vestyarye.
1448. Hen. VI., Will, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 354. The vestiarie to be sette oon the north syde of the saide Quere.
1503. in Blyth, Hist. Notices & Rec. Fincham (1863), 57. My bodye to be beryed in the vestiary of Sent Martyns Chirche.
1551. T. Wilson, Logike (1580), 57 b. The Church, the pulpite, the vestiarie, the chauncell.
1668. T. Smith, in Phil. Trans. (1697), XIX. 604. Toward one end of the English Church, just by the Vestiary.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Vestiary, a Vestry or Dressing-Room.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 212. And monie ane that day did herrie Braw spulyie frae the vestiary.
1841. Gresley, For. Arden (1842), 61. The service being al length finished,… he returned to the Vestiary.
1866. Mrs. R. T. Ritchie, Village on Cliff, xvii. The curé … walked through his wild overgrown wilderness to the vestiary.
b. A room or building, esp. one in a monastery or other large establishment, in which clothes are kept. Also, a cloak-room (quot. 1893).
c. 1450. Capgrave, Life St. Aug., 45. I haue do mad ȝou clothis & hosyn and schon … which I wil þat þei be kept in a comon vestiary, þat euery man may haue part as him nedith.
1467–8. Rolls of Parlt., V. 596/2. Davy Chirke, Yoman of oure Vestiarye of oure Houshold.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vestiary, a place in a Monastery, where the Monks Cloaths are laid up; the Friers Wardrobe.
1860. W. H. Ainsworth, Ovingdean Grange, 157. The room … being used, at the present day, as a vestiary.
1862. Sir H. Taylor, St. Clement’s Eve, II. i. Go to the vestiary, wherein thou’lt find Provision of all garbs for the masqued ball.
1893. McCarthy, Red Diamonds, II. 161. ‘All right,’ said Granton,… turning to the vestiary for his light overcoat.
† c. (See quot.) Obs.–0
1656. Blount, Glossogr. (copying Cooper), Vestiary,… a Wardrobe, Press, or Chest, where apparel is laid. [Hence in Phillips, and recent Dicts.]
† 2. = VESTIBULE 1. Cf. VESTRY 1 b. Obs. rare.
1382. Wyclif, Exod. xxxv. 17. The tentis in the ȝatis of the vestiarie [L. in foribus vestibuli]. Ibid. (1382), 2 Sam. xvii. 18. Thei wenten in a swift paase in the hows of a maner man in Bahurym, that hadde a pit in his vestiarye.
II. 3. Clothes, dress, garments. rare–1.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. I. 467/1. Thy versicoloured and cloudlike vestiary, puffed and effuse, rustling and rolling.
