Forms: 4 filete, philett, 4–5 felet(t, 5 filett, 5–6 fi-, fylette, south. vylette, 6 fyllet(t, (6 fylet, fillott, 7 filot, 7–8 fillit(t), 6–7 phillet, 4–7 filet, 6– fillet. [a. Fr. filet = Pr. filet, Sp. filete, It. filetto, a Com. Romanic diminutive of L. fīlum thread.]
1. A head-band. a. A ribbon, string, or narrow band of any material used for binding the hair, or worn round the head to keep the headdress in position, or simply for ornament.
Also fig., esp. with reference to the vitta with which in classical antiquity the heads of sacrificial victims were adorned, or to the ‘snood’ formerly worn as a badge of maidenhood.
a. 1327. Pol. Songs (Camden), 154. Habbe he a fauce filet, he halt hire hed heȝe.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4338.
| Oure paramours vs to plese ne pride þaim bewenes, | |
| Nouthire ffurrers, filetts, ne frengs, ne frettes of perle. |
c. 1467. Paston Lett., No. 568. II. 298. She wuld fayne have a new felet.
1530. Palsgr., 220/1. Fyllet for a maydens heed, fronteau.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 18. Al that are of the Kinges bande, haue a silken fyllet of scarlet colour, tied about their heades.
1626. T. H[awkins], trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 93. Euen those, which haue yet the fillet of shamefastnesse vpon theyr browes, suffer themselues hastily to runne, after the torrent of Examples, & suppose to haue a portion in the fortune of Great men, when they haue a share in theyr vices.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 673.
| Ye sacred Muses, with whose Beauty fir’d, | |
| My Soul is ravish’d, and my Brain inspir’d: | |
| Whose Priest I am, whose holy Fillets wear; | |
| Wou’d you your Poet’s first Petition hear. |
1704. Pope, Windsor Forest, 177.
| She scorn’d the Praise of Beauty, and the Care; | |
| A Belt her Waste, a Ribband ty’d her Hair. |
1795. Burke, Lett. to Elliot, Wks. 1842, II. 241. These priests (I hope they will excuse me; I mean priests of the rights of man) begin by crowning me with their flowers and their fillets, and bedewing me with their odours, as a preface to their knocking me on the head with their consecrated axes.
1839. Mrs. Hemans, Poems, Lady of Castle.
| Those long fair tresses—they still brightly wore | |
| Their early pride, though bound with pearls no more— | |
| Bursting their fillet, in sad beauty roll’d, | |
| And swept the dust with coils of wavy gold. |
1879. J. Beerbohm, Wanderings in Patagonia, vi. 91. Their hair is kept from falling over their faces by a fillet tied round the head.
attrib. 1847. Emerson, Poems, Mithridates, Wks. I. 140.
| Ivy for my fillet band; | |
| Blinding dog-wood in my hand. |
† b. (See quot.) ? nonce-use (transl. Gr. διάδημα).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 3/1. Parts of a Crown. The Diadem, or Royal Fillet, is that part which compasseth the head, and is set with precious Stones.
c. In the harness of a horse (see quot.).
1607. Markham, Cavelarice, II. ii. 12. Cauezan, or any other binding fillet ouer the nose of the horse.
2. A strip of any material suitable for binding; a band or bandage; † the edging or list of cloth.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 259. The brims & borders of the sea, called for the resemblance of fillets or lists in a cloth, Tæniæ.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., X. xxxvii. 144.
| Her daintie breasts, like to an Aprill rose | |
| From green silk fillets yet not all unbound. |
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. II. i. 226. The body was swathed in lawn fillets, which were glued together with a kind of very thin gum, and then crusted over with the most exquisite perfumes.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 301. When it [a calf’s head] is almost cold bind it up with a fresh fillet, and put it in a pickle.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. ii. She will bind the door-posts of her husband with golden fillets.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, v. 114. One trains his long locks till they take the admired form of the buffalo’s horns; others prefer to let their hair hang in a thick coil down their backs, like that animal’s tail; while another wears it in twisted cords, which, stiffened by fillets of the inner bark of a tree wound spirally round each curl, radiate from the head in all directions.
transf. 1796. H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature (1799), I. 7. The yellow antheræ of flowers, suspended by fillets of white, exhibit to their eyes, double rafters of gold in equilibrio, on pillars fairer than ivory.
b. A surgical bandage.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., viii. (1805), 122. The fillet is almost always strapped across [a fracture] for the sake of giving firmness and strength to the bandage.
1807–26. S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 409. It consists of a pair of leather stays, and of a band, or fillet, which goes round the head.
c. Obstetr. (See quot. 1884.)
1753. N. Torriano, Midwifry, 35. In this Case a Fillet is necessary.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Fillet … a loop or noose used from very ancient times for the extraction of the head of the child.
3. A thin narrow strip of any material. In many mechanical applications, e.g., in Coining, the ribbon of metal out of which the blanks or planchets are punched; in the Carding-engine, a strip of card-clothing; ‘a perforated curb to confine the curds in making cheese’ (Knight); etc.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 15. Clap up a fillet of Lead.
1724. Swift, Prometheus.
| The Mixture [i.e., the metal for Wood’s halfpence] thus by chemic art | |
| United close in every part, | |
| In Fillets roll’d, or cut in Pieces, | |
| Appear’d like one continu’d Spec’es. |
1779. Bailey, Adv. Arts, II. 14. An iron Fillet [of a plough] six inches and a quarter long; its extreme breadth is two inches and a half, and three sixteenths of an inch thick.
1859. John Hollingshead, Change for Nuggets, in All Year Round, 2 July, 239/1. Fillets, or ribands of gold [for coining], after being subjected to another rolling process.
1893. Daily News, 9 June, 5/4. Some of them [coins] perhaps have been cut from the … cracked parts of the fillets.
† 4. In etymol. sense (after Fr. filet): A thread or string: a. fig. pl. The ‘threads’ of life. b. In plants: A fiber of the root; a rib or vein of a leaf; the pistil or stamen of a flower. c. The ‘string’ of the tongue. Obs.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur. (1599), 19.
| Seek not vnlesse as Alexander did, | |
| To cut the plough-swaines traces with thy sword, | |
| Or slice the slender fillets of my life. |
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 557. All other corne … haue many small fillets or strings appendant to the roots & otherwise branch not.
1660. Hexham, Ribbekens die door de bladers loopen, Fillets or Sprouts which run through the leaves of Trees or Hearbes.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. xxxiv. 287. To have the Fillet of her Tongue untied.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Filet is used to signify those threads that are usually found in the middle of flowers, as the Lily, Tulip, etc.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Fillet … in Anatomy, ’tis the Extremity of the Ligament under the Tongue, called the Frenum.
5. A band of fibre, whether muscle or nerve; a flap of flesh: † a. A muscle. Obs.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 85 b. Excessive multitude of humors … do extende the muscules or fyllettes.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., I. i. 1 b. A muscle is a membre compounde of synnowes, ligamentes, and fleshie fyllettes, or as it were, threads fylled wt fleshe.
b. (See quots.)
1840. G. Ellis, Anat., 27. A band of fibres is continued from its nucleus to the fibres of the lateral part of the medulla on which it lies; this band is the fillet of Riel.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Fillet, a tract of obliquely-curved white nerve-fibres seen on the surface of the pons Varolii, and occupying a triangular area at the side of the tegmentum.
† c. A lobe of the liver. Cf. FIBRE 1 a. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 402. The … fillets of the liver of a mouse.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann., VI. (1658), 279. He found that the liver of it had no filets.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus’ Antiq., III. ix. (1733), 70. The Fillets of the Liver.
d. pl. The fillets: the loins (of an animal, rarely of a man).
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1158. His [Arthur’s] flawnke and his feletez, and his faire sydez.
1483. Cath. Angl., 130. A Felett of þe bakke, pala.
1523. Fitzherbert, The Boke of Husbandry, § 76. The .ix. propertyes of an hare…. The .ix. to haue two good fyllettes.
1611. Markham, Country Content. (1649), 6. His [the hound’s] fillets would be thick and great.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, ii. 65. The Loynes … the fleshy parts on either side are called in Greeke ψόα, Pulpa á palpando, in imitation whereof wee call it the Fillet, as it were Feele it.
1737. H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 27. The Reins of a Horse, or what we commonly stile the Fillets, should be a good Breadth over.
1790. Burns, Lett. to Nicol, 9 Feb. She had been quite strained in the fillets beyond cure.
1892. Northumberl. Gloss., Fillets, the hollow between a horse’s ribs and haunch bones.
† e. (See quot.; app. a misunderstanding.)
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 154/1. The Fillets, are the fore-parts of the shoulders next the Breast.
Whence 1711 in Bailey.
6. Cookery. a. A fleshy portion of meat near the loins or ribs of an animal, easily detachable; the ‘undercut’ of a sirloin or rump of beef; a similar fleshy part in the body of a fowl. b. One of the thick slices into which a fish is easily divided; also, a thick slice of meat, tongue, etc.
The fillet of beef is sometimes cooked like the fillet of veal (sense c): see quot. 1747. In the above senses sometimes with Fr. spelling, filet.
c. 1420. Liber Cure Cocorum (1862), 31.
| Take filetes of porke and half hom rost, | |
| Smyte hom in peses with outene bost. |
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 49. Take lardeȝ of Venysoun, or a bere, or of a Bere, & kerue hem þinne as Fylettes of Porke.
1658. T. Mayerne, Archimag. Anglo-Gall., xiii. 7. The Phillets also of Beef for a need will serve very well.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Pike, A Pike Filets fry’d.
1737. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. ii. 174. Having raised an high Pye, cut a Fillet of Veal into 3 or 4 Fillets.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Art of Cookery, 21. To dress a Fillet of Beef. It is the Inside of the Surloin: You must carefully cut it all out from the Bone … roll it up tight; tye it with a Packthread.
1824. Byron, Juan, XV. lxvi.
| While great Lucullus’ robe triomphale muffles | |
| (There’s fame)—young partridge fillets, deck’d with truffles. |
1841. Thackeray, Misc. Ess. (1885), 385. The beefsteak cut from the filet, as is usual in France.
1846. Soyer, Gastron. Regen., 166. A small fillet of tongue. Ibid., 266. Take out the fillet from beneath a rump of beef. Ibid., 329. Carefully skin and bone the breast [of a turkey] without separating the fillets. Ibid., 360. Pass a knife down the back-bone [of a hare] … keeping it close to the ribs till you have extracted the fillet.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xvii. (1854), 130. The filet of a large Ivory one [sea-gull] is a morceau between a spring chicken and our own unsurpassed canvas back.
c. A ‘joint’ consisting of the middle part of a leg of veal, boned, rolled and tied with a string or ‘fillet’; a piece of beef, fish, etc. prepared in a similar manner.
1700. Dryden, Fables, 213.
| These Morsels stay’d their Stomachs; then the rest | |
| They cut in Legs and Fillets for the Feast; | |
| Which drawn and serv’d, their Hunger they appease | |
| With sav’ry Meat, and set their Minds at ease. |
1732. Fielding, Miser, III. iii. On one side, a fillet of veal roasted.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Art of Cookery, 93. To Roast a Fillet or Collar of Sturgeon. Take a Piece of fresh Sturgeon … take out the Bones, and cut in Lengths … then begin to roll it up as close as possible … and bind it round with a narrow Fillet.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 100. To stew a Fillet of Veal. Take a fillet of a cow calf, stuff it well under the elder, at the bone and quite through to the shank.
1835. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., III. i. We dine at half-past three—fillet of veal and bacon—don’t be too late for dinner.
attrib. 1841. J. T. Hewlett, The Parish Clerk, I. 125. Firmly united by a fillet-of-veal skewer.
7. Any object having the appearance of a fillet or band.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., I. xvi. 31/1. From a split cloue much like vnto Garlick, a white blewish Flowre shortly springeth; from whence Fillets of Saffron are gathered before the Sunne, and dried, are sold as spice with great gaine.
1696. Aubrey, Misc. (1721), 35. The two Filots, which cross the greater Circle [I presume they were Segments of a third Circle] were of a pale colour.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 247. Above the moon was a huge volume of deep black cloud, while a very thin fillet crossed the middle of the orb.
1862. Tyndall, Mountaineer., vi. 43. We once halted beside a fillet of clear spring water to have a draught. Ibid. (1863), Heat, v. § 193 (1870), 153. Every fillet of mercury freezes the water with which it comes into contact.
8. Arch. a. A narrow flat band used for the separation of one molding from another; a fascia. b. A small band between the flutes of a column.
[1379. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 101. Item fac. filetes et alia necessaria pro clo——— totam sept. 3.s.]
1473. Churchw. Acc. St. Mich. Cornhill, For sconcheons and a felet for the same pewes.
1563. Shute, Archit., D j b. At the toppe of the pillor lieth Astragalus and his fillet being half so high as the Astragalus.
1639. Contract, in Proc. Soc. Antiq., 8 June (1893), 374. The fillitts of the Moulds … fairly guilt.
1789. P. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 108. Reason would place the small fillet of the architrave upon the greater.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 107. A fillet, formed by stones projecting a very little from the wall.
1879. Sir G. G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 248. The heaviness of large roll mouldings was often relieved by fillets or by raised edges or ‘keels,’ by which diversity was gained without loss of mass.
9. Her. a. A horizontal division of a shield, one-fourth of the depth of a CHIEF. † b. A band running round near the edge of a shield, one-third or one-fourth of the breadth of a BORDURE or an ORLE (obs.). † c. A band usually drawn from the sinister chief across the shield; usually called fillet of bastardy (obs.).
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. b. A Fillet … conteyneth the fower parte of the cheefe.
1634. Peacham, Gentleman’s Exerc., III. 151. A Fillet the fourth of an Orle.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Fillet is also used for an Ordinary drawn, like the Bar, from the sinister Point of the Chief a-cross the Shield; in manner of a Scarf: tho’ it is sometimes also seen in the Situation of a Bsnd, Fess, Cross, &c.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 185. Two coats of Arms; one, three wheels and a sword; in the other two fillets and six balls.
1766. Porny, Heraldry (1787), 53. The Chief is an Ordinary…. Its Diminutive is a fillet, the content of which is not to exceed one fourth of the Chief.
1882. Cussans, Heraldry, iv. 57. I cannot recall to my memory any instance of a Fillet being employed in English Armory.
10. Ent. and Ornith. a. A colored band or stripe. b. In a spider: The space between the eyes and the base of the mandibles or cheliceræ.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 153. Grey plover … which hath a black fillet about the eyes, and a forked train.
1841. E. Newman, Hist. Brit. Ins., ii. 175. A fillet is a longitudinal stripe, and a band or fascia is a transverse one.
11. In various technical uses:
a. A raised rim or ridge on any surface, esp. ‘a ring on the muzzle and cascabel of a gun’ (Adm. Smyth); also, the thread of a screw.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 90. These Stones are let into each other with a fillet fram’d round about the cavity.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., v. 78. The wings of these javelin heads are rounded, and their sockets are prolonged and finished with a circular raised fillet, which is both elegant and effective.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Fillet. The rounded corner of a groove in a roll.
b. Carpentry. A narrow strip of wood fastened upon any surface to serve as a support, etc. or to strengthen an angle formed by two surfaces.
1779. Projects, in Ann. Reg., 101/1. These fillets will … form, as it were, a sort of small ledge on each side of all the joists.
1856. S. C. Brees, Terms, Fillets are also used as stops to room and closet doors.
1881. F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 1281. Nail or screw a fillet 1 in. square down the centre of the three rafters.
c. Bookbinding. A plain line impressed upon the cover of a book. Also, a rolling tool used for impressing the line.
1641. Camilton’s Disc., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), V. 111. Curiously bound up in leather or parchment, with fillets of silver or gold.
1880. Print. Trades Jrnl., XXXI. 13. The black outer level is surrounded in turn by a gilt fillet or line.
1890. Zaehnsdorf, Bookbinding, xxiii. (ed. 2), 118. Tools and Materials required for Finishing.—Rolls, fillets, pallets.
d. Printing. ‘A rule with broad or broad and narrow lines, principally used as a border’ (Knight).
e. Gilding and Painting. (See quots.)
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Fillets, a little rule or riglet of leaf-gold, drawn over certain mouldings, or on the edge of frames, pannels, &c.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages, II. Gloss., Fillet, a narrow painted border, not exceeding one inch broad.
12. attrib. and Comb., as fillet gutter, ‘a sloping gutter, with a learboard and fillet thereon, to divert the water’ (Gwilt); fillet-plane, a moulding-plane for dressing a fillet or square bead (Knight, 1874); fillet-swift (see quot.).
1861. Swinhoe, N. China Camp., 16. The anxious screech of the fillet swift (Cypselus vittatus).
