[Fr., dim. of cuve (see above); applied to various basins: the use in Fortification shows shows some confusion (perhaps graphic) with cunette.]
1. Fort. = CUNETTE.
1678. trans. Gaya’s Arms War, II. 115. Cuvette, a little Ditch made in the middle of the great Foss.
1704. in J. Harris, Lex. Techn.
1706. in Phillips.
1721. in Bailey.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xxiv. Trim’s foot getting into the cuvette, he tumbled full against the bridge too.
2. An ornamental shallow dish or basin for holding water, etc.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Cuvet, (Fr.) a kind of Dish of an Oval Form. Cuvette, a Cistern for a Dining-room.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Oils, Putting the Cuvets on a Silver Dish, with a Silver Ladle therein, with which every one of the Guests may take out some Soop, when the Oil is set on the Table.
1887. trans. Sachs’ Lect. Physiol. Plants, 305. Glass vessels with parallel walls, and as large as possible (so called Cuvettes), were filled with the solutions, and fixed something like windows.
3. Glass-making. A large clay basin or crucible used in making plate glass (see quot. 1875).
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 199. The other crucibles, which are smaller, are called cuvettes.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 662. The cuvettes receive the melted glass … and decant it out on the table to be rolled into a plate.
[In Craig and some later Dicts., a mistake for curette.]
