Also 7 chamfre. [app. ad. F. chanfrein, formerly also chamfrain, chanfrain, -frin, ‘a chanfering; or, a channell, furrow, hollow gutter, or streake, in stone-worke, &c.’ (Cotgr.), f. OF. chanfraindre to CHAMFER. It is possible that the Fr. chamfrain directly gave the Eng. CHAMPERING, and that from this, taken as a vbl. sb., chamfer vb. and sb. were educed.
The connection of the two senses is unexplained; sense 1 appears to be the earlier (cf. the vb. and derivatives).
(Gwilt, Archit., 928, cites sense 2 from a MS. of 1475, but apparently in error.)]
† 1. A small groove, channel, gutter, furrow, such as may be cut in wood or stone. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 442. The Alexandrine Figs are of the blacke kind, hauing a white rift or chamfre. Ibid. (1609), Ann. Marcell., XXIII. iv. 223. An yron full of chamfers and teeth [multifido ferro].
1664. Evelyn, Silva (1776), 197. Those pretty undulations and chamfers which we so frequently find in divers woods.
1706. Kersey, Chamfer or Chamfret,… a small Gutter, or Furrow upon a Pillar, &c.
2. The surface produced by beveling off a square edge or corner equally on both sides; if made concave, it is called a hollow or concave chamfer.
[Not in Phillips, Blount, Kersey, Bailey, Johnson or Todd.]
1842–76. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Chamfer.… The arris of anything originally right-angled, cut aslope, or bevel.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. xxii. § 8. You may see the straight chamfer on most lamp-posts, and pillars at railway stations, it being the easiest to cut: the concave chamfer requires more care, and occurs generally in well finished but simple architecture.
1851. Turner, Dom. Archit., II. ii. 30. It has a round moulding instead of the hollow chamfer.
1870. F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 82. The jambs are square, with a slight chamfer.
1881. Mechanic, § 346.
3. (See quot.)
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 50. The chamfering tool with which the aris is removed is often spoken of as a ‘chamfer.’
