Inflected wainscot(t)ed, -ing. Forms: see the sb. [f. prec. Cf. Flemish † waeghenschotten (Kilian).]
1. trans. To line (a wall, roof, etc.) with panel-work of wood.
1570. Levins, Manip., 177. To Waynscotte, contabulare.
1599. Rutland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm., 1905), IV. 415. For waynscotting the roofes of his chamber, xxs.
a. 1650. Boate, Ireland’s Nat. Hist. (1860), 121. To mend this inconvenience the English did wainscot those walls with oak or other boards.
1676. Glanvill, Ess. Philos. & Relig., VII. 3. He led me into an handsome square Chamber wainscotted with Cedar.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., vi. 105. Of Wainscoting Rooms. Ibid., 106. In Wainscoting of Rooms there is, for the most part, but two heights of Pannels used; unless the Room to be Wainscoted be above ten foot high.
1730. W. Warren, Collect., in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 232. The Treasury … is wainscotted with Deal.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., vi. This apartment … was now beautifully wainscoted with dark foreign wood.
1839. Longf., Hyperion, III. iii. Pr. Wks. 1886, II. 162. It was a large room … wainscoted with pine.
1883. G. Moore, Mod. Lover, xiv. [The room] was wainscotted in light oak.
in fig. context. a. 1704. T. Brown, Quakers Grace, Wks. 1730, I. 107. That we … may live to be saw’d out into deal-boards, to wainscoat thy New Jerusalem.
b. To grain in imitation of oak.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Parish, iii. The house … was fresh painted and papered from top to bottom; the paint inside was all wainscoted.
2. transf. To line (the walls of an apartment) with marble, tiles or the like; to panel (a wall with mirrors or pictures).
1613–39. I. Jones, in Leoni Palladio’s Archit. (1742), II. 50. To wainscot their Buildings with rich Stones.
1620. Donne, Serm., 2 April (1661), III. 138. The Scriptures are as a room wainscotted with looking glass, we see all at once.
a. 1668. Lassels, Italy (1698), I. 93. Witness those chambers … wainscoted with great Looking-glasses and rich gilding.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 10 March. The winter apartment was wainscoted with inlaid work of mother of pearl.
1745. Pococke, Descr. East, II. II. i. 5. The east side of it within is wainscotted with jasper and beautiful marbles.
1775. Johnson, in Boswell, 14 Oct. The ladies’ closet wainscotted with large squares of glass over painted paper.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, XVIII. viii. (1826), 154. But enough … of Portraits; though, in truth, the walls are wainscotted with them.
Hence Wainscot(t)ed ppl. a.
1605. Erondelle, Fr. Gard., N 2 b. God grant me alwaies the key of the fieldes, I would like it better, then to be in bondage in the fayrest wainscotted or tapistred Chamber.
1694. Westmacot, Script. Herb., 40. Solomon and others … did build their Magnificent Houses,… and Wain-scotted Rooms therewith [Cedar].
1814. Scott, Wav., lv. The apartment of Colonel Talbot … was divided from his own by a wainscotted partition.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. The little wainscoted back parlour.
1866. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xiii. They were taken … into a wainscoted parlour.
transf. and fig. 1602. F. H[ering], trans. Oberndoerffer’s Anat. True Physit., I. This lost Companion [a quack], hauing a Foxes Head and an whorish and wainscotted Face.
