Also 7 corredor, curridore, 7–9 corridore. [a. F. corridor (16th c., also courridour), ad. It. corridore (also corridoio) a long passage in a building or between two buildings, f. correre to run. Cf. Sp. corredor in same sense.
The It. corridoio (from -orio, L. -ōrium) is the original type, the primary meaning being ‘running-place.’ In the form in -ore it is confused with corritore, corridore a runner.]
† 1. A passage, covered walk, or avenue between two places. Obs. in Eng. use.
1620. E. Blount, Horæ Subs., 366. From thence a Curridore, or private way, to his Castle of Saint Angelo.
1673. E. Brown, Trav. Germany (1677), 102. There is also a House of Pleasure in the Mote, into which there is no other passage but through a high Corridore.
1739. Gray, Lett., 9 Dec. (Bologna), From one of the principal gates to a church of the Virgin, runs a corridore of the same sort.
1814. Sir R. Wilson, Priv. Diary, II. 300. On descending I passed by the church of S. Maria del Monte and its magnificent corridor or piazza, on the declivity of a hill.
† 2. Fortif. The continuous path that surrounds the fortifications of a place, on the outside of the moat and protected by the glacis; the covered way. Obs.
1591. Garrard, Art of Warre, 326. To mount upon the Corridor of ye Counterscarpe.
1604. E. Grimstone, Hist. Siege Ostend, Map, No. 54. The Gallery or Corredor … to the Counter-scarfe.
1706. Phillips, Corridor … In Fortification, the Covert-way above the Counterscarp, lying round about the Compass of the Place, between the Moat and the Pallisadoes.
[¶ b. Applied to the curtain.
A Dictionary error handed down from Cotgr.
[1611. Cotgr., Corridor, a curtaine, in fortification.]
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.
1658. Phillips, Corridor, a Term in fortification, otherwise called Cortina, or Curtain. So 1678.]
3. An outside gallery or passage round the quadrangle or court of a building, connecting one part with another.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 1 April (Palace of Luxemburge), The court below is formed into a square by a corridor, having over the chiefe entrance a stately cupola, covered with stone.
1755. Johnson, Corridor, a gallery or long isle round about a building, leading to several chambers at a distance from each other.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 23 April. If … there had been a corridore with arcades all round, as in Covent Garden.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. lvii. Richly caparison’d, a ready row Of armed horse … Circled the wide-extending court below; Above, strange groups adorn’d the corridore.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 288. Those glazed corridors are pleasant to walk in, in bad weather.
4. A main passage in a large building, upon which in its course many apartments open.
1814. Byron, Corsair, III. xix. Glimmering through the dusky corridore, Another [lamp] chequers o’er the shadow’d floor.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt (1868), 16. They passed along a corridor lit from above, and lined with old family pictures.
1881. Goldw. Smith, Lect. & Ess., 198. Finding themselves adrift in the corridors of Windsor.
fig. 1872. Liddon, Elem. Relig., vi. 205. We do well to traverse all the corridors of history.
5. Comb., as corridor-train.
1892. Daily News, 8 March, 5/3. The Corridor Train is so named from a narrow passage which runs from end to end.
