a. and sb. Also 6 exteryor, 6–7 exteriour. [a. L. exterior, compar. of exter-us outside. Cf. F. extérieur.]
A. adj.
1. Outer; pertaining to or connected with the outer portion or outside of anything; visible or perceptible on the outside; external. (In many uses not clearly distinguishable from the sb. used attrib.)
Exterior angle (Geom.): the angle included between any side of a triangle or polygon and the production of the adjacent side; also, an angle included between a straight line falling upon two parallel lines and either of the latter on the outside. Exterior † polygon, screw, side, slope (see quots.). † Exterior epicycloid: see EPICYCLOID.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., * b. Things Naturall, of the sense exterior, ar hable to be perceiued.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), 30. The sinne of the heart … bursteth not foorth into exteriour action.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., Induct., Frame your exterior shape To hautie forme of elate majestie.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 6. Not th’ exterior, nor the inward man Resembles that it was.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Exterior Polygon, the Out-lines of all the Works drawn from one outmost Angle to another.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxxii. 219. His exterior concurrence with … the prosecutions.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Diss. Roast Pig (1867), 160. What a sacrifice of the exterior tegument!
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872), I. 47. Whose exterior front is covered.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xii. 300. Beatrice possesses a fund of hidden tenderness beneath her exterior gaiety.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Exterior side. The side of an imaginary polygon, upon which the plan of a fortification is constructed. Exterior slope. In fortification, that slope of a work towards the country which is next outward beyond its superior slope.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 819/1. Exterior-screw. One cut upon the outside of a stem or mandrel.
† b. Concerned with externals. rare.
1541. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 341/2. What more exteriour honour can you deuise then this is? and yet you doe say yt you honour no stockes nor stones.
1797–1803. Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), I. 164. Why was the Jewish dispensation so strange, so exterior, so inadequate?
2. Situated outside or without (an object); coming from without; concerned with what is without; external, extrinsic. Const. to.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, II. xxiv. (1572), 38 b. The exteriour ayre which compasseth the body.
1538. Starkey, England, I. ii. 50. Exteryor thyngys—frynds, ryches, and abundance of necessarys … are … requyryd.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 336. Without exterior help sustaind.
1780. Cowper, Table-T., 247. Happiness depends … less on exterior things than most suppose.
1815. Jane Austen, Emma, II. xiii. 226. Giving particulars of his journey and feelings … and describing everything exterior and local.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., iv. (1849), 32. The attraction of a sphere on any exterior body.
1885. Leudesdorf, Cremona’s Proj. Geom., 219. If the conic is a hyperbola … the centre is a point exterior to the curve.
† b. Foreign. Obs. rare.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 14. This realme of England and any other exteriour potentates.
B. sb. (Not in Johnson.)
1. The adj. used absol.: An exterior thing: rare in sing. In pl. Outside parts, features, habits, manners, trappings, etc.; externals.
1599. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611), F ij. I speake not only for eies priuiledge, The chiefe exterior that I would enioy.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iii. 72. She did course o’re my exteriors with … a greedy intention.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., To Rdr. Philologers and Criticall Discoursers, who look beyond the shell and obvious exteriours of things.
1712. J. Henley, Lett., in Spect., No. 518. Without producing a suitable Revolution in his Exteriors.
1784. J. Barry, Lect. Art, i. (1848), 76. Riches, dignities, and all … showy pompous exteriors.
2. a. The outward surface, the outside. b. That which appears outside; outward aspect or demeanor.
a. 1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, i. 3. Nor … did I neglect the exteriour or Surface.
1853. Sir H. Douglas, Mil. Bridges (ed. 3), 28. Wooden frames, covered on the exterior with sheet copper.
b. 1801. Han. More, Wks., VIII. 99. The engaging exterior of urbanity.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. 464. Under this ridiculous exterior however lay a man of much natural ability.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., xiv. 280. These were covered by the most pious exterior.
