sb. Also 8 fachine, 9 facine. [a. F. fascine, ad. L. fascīna, f. fascis a bundle.]
1. Mil. A long cylindrical faggot of brush or other small wood, firmly bound together at short intervals, used in filling up ditches, the construction of batteries, etc. Usually in pl.
a. 1688. Sir T. Morgan, Relat. Progr. France (1699), 14. The major-general … ordered the two battalions … each man to take up a long fascine upon their musquets and pikes.
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2807/2. Orders are given to provide a great number of Fascines, in order to storm the Castle of Ebernburg.
1776. C. Lee, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 158. They are employed in making fascines, and preparing other materials for constructing three redoubts.
1801. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., I. 361. They ought to be provided with facines to fill a part of the ditch.
1880. Kinglake, Crimea, VI. ix. 241. Of round-shot, of gabions and fascines.
b. transf. in various non-military uses, esp. in Civil Engineering.
1712. E. Cooke, A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World, 412. An Arm of the Sea obstructed his Access to them, to cross the which, he, with wonderful Industry, made a Sort of floating Island of Fascines, Earth, and other Materials, on which he wafted over his Men, and defeatd his Enemies.
1723. Pres. State Russia, I. 351. A large Dike or Peer made of Fachines and Earth.
1852. Burnell, Rudim. Hydraulic Engineering, II. 94. The lower part of the majority of wooden jetties is … covered either by a mass of concrete, of loose stones, or of fascines.
1866. Lee, trans. Keller’s Lake Dwell. Switz., 70. The upper beds of fascines … lock into one another at the ends and form one continuous mass.
2. transf. and fig.
1844. H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), III. 121. This fascine of citations, however ingeniously interwoven, is in truth nothing to the purpose.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., iv. 70. On the mountain heights, too, in the united strength of its serried phalanxes, the pine is a natural fascine or fortification against the ravages of the elements.
3. attrib. a. Suitable for fascines, as fascine-stick. b. Consisting or made of fascines, as fascine-battery, -bridge, -platform; fascine-dwelling, a lacustrine habitation supported on fascines; hence fascine-dweller; fascine-horse (see quot.).
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxxiii. (1804), 213. A body of sailors who made themselves masters of … the *fascine batteries.
1857. S. Osborn, Quedah, xii. 150. When clearing away the jungle to construct the fascine battery, we observed that they spared four or five lofty trees.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. iv. 82. It was then projected to throw a *fascine bridge over the marsh, by the troops.
1882. R. Munro, Anc. Scot. Lake-dwellings, 12. The civilisation of the *fascine-dwellers.
1866. Lee, trans. Keller’s Lake Dwell. Switz., 69. The *fascine dwellings seem only to have been adopted in lakes of small depth and extent.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, The Artillerist’s Manual (ed. 9), 254. A *fascine horse is formed with two pickets … driven about 1 foot obliquely into the ground, so as to cross each other at right angles 2 feet above the surface of the earth; and they are fastened together at their point of meeting with cord.
1866. Lee, trans. Keller’s Lake Dwell. Switz., 72. This gentleman … noticed … parts of a *fascine platform.
1870. Daily News, 18 Oct. The country … affording withies for binding and *fascine sticks to any extent.
Hence Fascine v. trans. to fill up with fascines.
1870. Daily News, 29 Nov. The pioneers had … fascined the track.
