[f. FILLET sb.1] Pples. filleted, filleting.
1. trans. To bind with or as with a fillet.
a. To bind or tie up (the hair) with or as with a fillet (see FILLET sb. 1); also with up.
1604, 1638. [see ppl. a.1]
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus’ Antiq., V. x. (1733), 127. That Experiment … of filleting and twisting up his Locks.
1821. Blackw. Mag., X. 513.
| For whom do you comb, brush, and fillet your tresses;— | |
| Whoever he be has not sorrows to seek; | |
| Thou daily shalt bring him a peck of distresses; | |
| Then kick him, and kiss a new gallant next week. |
1852. D. M. Moir, Remembered Beauty, Poet. Wks. II. 305.
| Her golden tresses, from her temples pale, | |
| And from her rounded alabaster neck, | |
| Were filleted up with roses and gay flowers, | |
| Wove like a garland round them. |
b. † To bind or tie up, to confine or swathe with a bandage (obs.). Also Surg. To bandage (a limb).
1633. Ford, The Broken Heart, V. ii. Quicke, fillet both his armes.
1740. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg., 301–2. All that you do is in vain, the Faintness still subsists, unless you stop the Blood, by placing your Finger upon the Orifice, or filleting the Arm.
1764. Hadley, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 8. The feet were filleted in the same manner; being first bound separately, and then wrapped together.
c. gen. To encircle or gird with an ornamental band; also with about.
1611. Bible, Ex. xxxviii. 28. He made hookes for the pillars, and ouerlaide their chapiters, and filleted them.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 400.
| There, like the visionary emblem seen | |
| By him of Babylon, life stands a stump, | |
| And filletted about with hoops of brass. |
1860. W. Thornbury, in All Year Round, No. 46, 459/1. Amber mouthpieces filleted with ‘sparklers,’ as the English cracksman affectionately calls diamonds.
transf. 1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 342. The great round roofe which couereth all that space of the church which is compassed with the aforesaid pillars being all enameled and fillited, with the pictures of Saintes.
2. Cookery. To divide (a fish) into fillets. Also, to cut the fillets out of (a fowl, etc.).
1846. Soyer, Gastron. Regen., 103. Fillet a brill by passing a good knife from the head to the tail of the fish close to the middle bone [etc.]…. Proceed in like manner until you have got off all the meat from the bones. Ibid., 332. Fillet a poularde by splitting the skin up the breast, and passing your knife down the bone, keeping close to the ribs until you have scooped them [i. e. the fillets] out.
3. Building and Carpentry. To close or cover the interstices between boards, slates, etc. with fillets. Cf. FILLET sb. 11 b.
1843. Hill, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IV. II. 358. In filleting, the under edge of each floor-board is cut away, and a fillet, one inch wide, and three-fourths of an inch thick, is introduced.
4. To mark or ornament with fillets; now chiefly in Bookbinding.
1621. Quarles, Argalus & P. (1678), 83.
| In robes of Needle-work, so rarely made, | |
| That he which sees them, thinks he doth behold | |
| Armors of steel, fair filletted with Gold. |
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxiv. 227. The second edition of the Temple by Zorobabel, as it was new forrelled and filleted with gold by Herod, was a statelier volume then that first of Solomon.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 250. Here he constituted his Argyraspides who had their Armour damasked and filletted with Silver.
1747. Franklin, Letter to Peter Collinson, 1 Sept. Wks. 1887, II. 91. Take a book whose covering is filleted with gold.
Hence Filleter, one who fillets: sense 4.
1884. Birm. Daily Post, 23 Feb., 3/4. Japanners—Wanted, a good Cash-box Filleter.
