Also 4 bylde, bulde, 5 bild. [f. BUILD v.: cf. BUILT sb.]
† 1. A building. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A 726. On þe bylde. Ibid., 962. Bryng me to þat bygly bylde.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. II. 71. Buldes … in þe manere of Rome [ædificia Romano more].
1394. P. Pl. Crede, 157. Swich a bild bold, y-buld opon erþe heiȝte Say I nouȝt in certeine siþþe a longe tyme.
2. Building; style of construction, make: a. lit. of a ship, a carriage, etc. (rarely, if ever, of a house or other work of masonry).
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 253. The difference in the build of ships now and heretofore. Ibid. (1668), 30 Oct. He finds most infinite fault with it [my coach] … and so I do resolve to have one of his build.
1842. De Quincey, Philos. Herodotus, Wks. IX. 207. The awkwardness of their build for fast sailing.
b. transf. and fig.
1833–48. H. Coleridge, North. Worthies (1852), I. 1. Andrew Marvell a patriot of the old Roman build.
1839–47. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 523/1. The build of the fibre is … of no importance.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxii. (1856), 175. In build he [a bear] was very solid.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 3 (1882), 67. The peasant … recalls the build and features of the small English farmer.
