Also 7 comode. [a. Fr. commode in Littré in senses 1 and 3), subst. use of adj. commode: see prec.]
1. A tall head-dress fashionable with women in the last third of the 17th and first third of the 18th centuries, consisting of a wire frame-work variously covered with silk or lace; sometimes with streaming lappets which hung over the shoulders.
a. 1688. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Milit. Couple, Wks. (1775), 128. At last the knight … struck off her commode.
1692. D’Urfey, Marriage Hater, Prol. 55. Wir’d Comode … Cock’d Three Stories high.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., I. X. 7. Stiff Commodes in Triumph star’d Above their Foreheads half a Yard.
a. 1717. Parnell, Allegory on Man, 28. Nor with long streets and longer roads Dangling behind her, like commodes.
1730. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. & Corr., I. 237–8. They may do well enough in the country, but they would be as awkward here as if I was to wear a commode.
1876. Planché, Cycl. Costume, I. 130. Commode. A very high head-dress, worn by ladies in the reign of William III., and of which the name was surely satirical, as anything more incommodious could scarcely be invented.
1882. Ashton, Soc. Life Q. Anne, I. xiv. 163. It [the ‘commode’] originated in the court of Lewis XIV., and was there called a fontange because it had been introduced by Mademoiselle Fontange.
† 2. [cf. COMMODE a. 2.] A procuress, bawd. Obs.
1721. Cibber, Cæsar, Epil. Was it not Bold … to … make the Tragic Muse commode to Love.
1753. Foote, Eng. in Paris, I. (1763), 23. A pretty Lodging we have hit upon; the Mistress a Commode, and the Master a—.
3. A piece of furniture with drawers and shelves; in the bedroom, a sort of elaborate chest of drawers (so in Fr.); in the drawingroom, a large (and gen. old-fashioned) kind of chiffonier.
1786. F. Tytler, in Lounger, No. 79, ¶ 5. A labyrinth of chests of drawers, commodes, cabinets and boxes.
1823. Scott, Lett., 29 Oct., in Lockhart. We did not open Mr. Baldock’s commode … Lady Scott, the party most interested in the drawing room, thinks mirrors … better things.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 353. An indescribable piece of furniture called a commode, consisting of three drawers of dark mahogany, perched upon long legs, and surmounted by four shelves enclosed within glass doors.
1862. H. Aïdé, Carr of Carrlyon, II. 171. A few rickety chairs and tables, beds, and commodes.
1890. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 25 Feb., 1/3. We place on sale a Bedroom Suit … It has the wide French bureau and the 1890 English commode.
4. A small article of furniture enclosing a chamber utensil; a close-stool.
1851. Times, 1 April, 11/4. Inodorous chamber commodes affording great comfort to invalids.
1877. Pall Mall G., 4 March, 11/2. At the corner of this passage … is a commode for the use of the women.
5. attrib. and Comb., as commode box.
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2832/4. A Commode Box with a Head-dress.
