Fixed

ppl. a. [f. FIX v. + -ED¹.]

  1.  Placed or attached firmly; fastened securely; made firm or stable in position.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 179 b. The fixed or standing Hives, bee discommodious.

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 313.

1647.  Cowley, Mistress, Inconstancy.

1694.  Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 51. Above the Ice the Air appears white, from whence we know where the firm or fixed Ice lies.

1805.  T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil (1808), 273–4. They are carried on the shoulders of two stout negroes, by means of two fixed pieces of wood, projecting from the upper part of the chair both before and behind.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 118. Fixed blocks. Those blocks that come through the sides and are bolted, as the sheet, tack, and brace blocks.

1882.  Minchin, Unipl. Kinemat., 71. When a body, M, rolls on a fixed surface, AB.

  b.  Her. Of a cross: Having its limbs attached to the edges of the escutcheon:= FIRME.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, I. v. § 45. A Cross Patee Entyre, (or Fixed or Firme)…. This term (Fixed, or Entyre,) must be added, to shew that contrary to their owne being, they are joyned to the sides of the Escochion.

1828–40.  Berry, Encycl. Her., I., s.v. Crosses which are usually borne in the centre of the escocheon without extending to the sides, when attached thereto are termed fixed, as a cross pattée fixed.

  2.  In immaterial sense: Firmly attached or implanted; securely established; secured against alteration or dislodgement. In early use often (now rarely) of persons: Firmly resolved; constant, steadfast; bent, set, or intent upon anything. Fixed idea: an idea firmly rooted in the brain, with a tendency to become unduly dominant [F. idée fixe]. Fixed fact: a well-established fact (U.S.).

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 632. Mindes certeinly fixed, to trie the matter by dint of sword.

1635–8.  trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., III. (1688), 385. A Lady fixed and constant in her Religion, of singular Piety towards God, invincible Magnanimity of Mind, Wisedome above her Sex, and admirable Beauty; a Lady to be reckoned in the List of those Princesses which have changed their Felicity for Misery and Calamity.

1627–77.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xlv. 71. How fixt he was to Jonathan?

1655.  Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 348. This man is much harkned after by Count Fuensaldania, and I am most confident a fast fixt Catholike, though proffessing nothing lesse.

1706.  Hearne, Collect., 7 March. He is also for printing a Catalogue of all printed Books in y^e Libraries at Cambridge. W^ch shows that he is a Man of no fixt Resolution, but is more for carrying on new Projects than finishing what he has in Hand.

1712–4.  Pope, Rape Lock, V. 5.

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 262.

1831.  Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. iv. (1858), 139. A deadly fear of Population possesses the Hofrath; something like a fixed-idea; undoubtedly akin to the more diluted forms of Madness.

1847.  Boston Post, June (Bartlett). That he did dispose of a large quantity of oil, and afterwards desert from the vessel are fixed facts.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 165. For all persecution he [William of Orange] felt a fixed aversion, which he avowed, not only where the avowal was obviously politic, but on occasions where it seemed that his interest would have been promoted by dissimulation or by silence.

1860.  Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 4. Philip the Prudent, as he grew older and feebler in mind and body seemed to become … more fixed in his determination to annihilate that monster Protestantism, which it had been the business of his life to combat.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. vii. 153. Thither then the two brothers determined to make their way, with the fixed purpose of raising forces to effect their own return and to avenge their father’s wrongs.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 28, Laws, Introduction. The lawgiver, though not a myth, was a fixed idea in the mind of the Greek,—as fixed as the Trojan war or the earth-born Cadmus.

  3.  a. Of a person’s eyes, thoughts, etc.: Steadily or intently directed towards or ‘fastened’ upon an object.

1552.  Huloet, Fixed, intentus.

1616.  Chapman, Musæus, 357.

1643.  Denham, Cooper’s H., 112.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XIII. 35.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, viii. He regarded her with a fixed attention.

1850.  Hare, Mission Comf., 124. You can hardly walk along the streets of a great city without seeing swarms rushing eagerly in chase of sin, although shame and scorn and outcastness and destitution and disease and death are glaring with fixt eyes upon them.

quasi-adv.

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., clxviii.

  b.  Of a person, his countenance, etc.: Made rigid or immobile (as by strong emotion or resolution, or in death).

1608.  D. T[wil], Ess. Pol. & Mor., 67. That Vertue is but weake … that cannot with a fixed countenance out-stare the threatening eye of Danger.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, I. iv.

1824.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. II., Blakesmoor in H—shire. With no disturbing emotions, no cross conflicting comparisons, drink in the tranquillity of the place, till thou thyself become as fixed and motionless as the marble effigies that kneel and weep around thee.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, x. 109. Those who were near him saw how the papers in his hand shook; but his countenance was fixed and his attitude firm.

1888.  W. Black, Lochaber, III. viii. And then it was that she opened her eyes again—which were fixed and staring; and she tried to lift her poor, helpless arm as if she would point to what she saw before her.

  4.  a. Deprived of volatility. † Fixed air: a name given by Black in 1754 to carbonic dioxide (carbonic acid); see AIR sb. 2.

1766.  Cavendish, in Phil. Trans., LVI. 141. By fixed air, I mean that particular species of factitious air, which is separated from alkaline substances by solution in acids or by calcination.

1810.  T. Thomson, A System of Chemistry (ed. 4), II. 208. To this species of air he [Dr Black] gave the name of fixed air, because it existed in these bodies in a fixed state.

  b.  Not easily volatilized; not losing weight under the influence of fire. Fixed alkali: see ALKALI 3, 6. † Fixed nitre = potassium carbonate.

1641.  French, Distill., v. (1651), 171. Note that hard things have their congelation from Salt armoniack, as hornes, bones and such like; for little fixed salt can be extracted from them, only volatile and armoniack.

1669.  Boyle, Contn. New Exp., II. (1682), 135. I put Aqua Fortis with fixed Nitre into a Receiver. Ibid. (1685), Salubr. Air, 111. The fixedest of Metals, Gold itself.

1688.  J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 944. The fixeder Saline Particles of the Marine Salt.

1727–51.  Chambers Cycl. s.v., Of all Metals, Gold and Silver alone are fix’d, i. e. on remaining a long time exposed to the most intense Flame; they alone lose nothing of their Weight.

1744.  Berkeley, Siris, § 8. Mr. Boyle and other later chemists are agreed, that fixed salts are much the same in all bodies.

1757.  A. Cooper, Distiller, I. i. (1760), 6. Only a fixed husky matter remains, incapable of being dissolved by either hot or cold water.

1830.  Faraday, Exp. Res., xxxiv. 207. Mercury is volatile at temperatures above 30° but fixed at temperatures below 20°.

  c.  Of acids and oils: That cannot be distilled or evaporated without decomposition.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. xlix. 215. Fixed oils.

1800.  W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 310. The only species of chalybeate waters which remains to be mentioned, is that in which the iron is held in union with a fixed acid, and this is always the sulphuric, in the very few of this class that are used medicinally.

1812.  J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs, 139. From the peculiar properties of different Oils, they are divided by Chemists into two kinds; fixed or fat oils, and volatile or essential oils.

1859.  Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 206. The Fixed Oils are viscous and greasy to the touch, and are so called because they do not almost entirely evaporate in drying.

  5.  Of a colour, photographic image, etc.: Fast, lasting, permanent. Said also of the photographic plate.

1791.  Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, I. Introd. 10. Mordants [serve] to render the colour more fixed.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 51, The Republic, Introduction. The colours which are dyed in this way become fixed, and no soap or lye will ever wash them out.

1888.  Abney, Instr. Photog., xxii. 190. The plate is known to be fixed by looking at the back of it, which should appear black, without any shade of green about it. Ibid., xxxv. 278. When the prints are fixed they will appear colourless in the whites, and free from red patches in the dark portions.

  6.  Definitely and permanently placed; stationary or unchanging in relative position. Fixed point: a place where a policeman is permanently stationed.

1559.  W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 19. Spoud. And is this Horizont a fixed Circle or not? Philo. It is fixed, and without motion.

1665.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 221. It is probable some of our European Cities are not less numerous in Houses and fixed Inhabitants, than those I named.

1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 668.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Fixed Line of Defence, in Fortification, is drawn along the Face of the Bastion, and terminates in the Courtine.

1848.  J. Curwen, Gram. Vocal Music (1866), p. xxiv. Unlike the ‘fixed Do’ of the old notation, the ‘movable Do’ … is no difficulty whatever.

1858.  Merc. Marine Mag., V. 30. A Fixed Red Light will be shown at the head of the … Breakwater.

  b.  Fixed star: a star which appears always to occupy the same position in the heavens (and so distinguished from a planet).

  Cf. FIX a., earlier used in the same sense.

Almanack for Year 1386 (1812), 8. Al planetys and sternes fyxt.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems, 153. Stelle eratice, nat fixed.

1561.  Eden, Arte Nauig., Preface. It shalbe better and more necessarie for all Pilottes that desyre to excell in their profession, to learne and obserue the principles of this Booke, whereby they may haue such knowledge of the Sphere, as may instruct them the making and vse of diuers goodly Astronomicall instruments pertayning to the arte of Nauigation, by knowledge of the moouings of the Sunne and Moone in their Spheres, and the other Planettes and fyxt Starres.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 207.

1812.  Woodhouse, Astron., viii. 51. The transits of fixed stars are used for regulating clocks.

  absol.  1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 481.

  c.  Fixed capital: see CAPITAL sb. 3 c. Fixed property: that which consists in immovables, as land and houses.

1845.  McCulloch, Taxation, I. ii. (1852), 74. Land and other fixed property.

1848.  Mill, Pol. Econ., I. vi. § 1. Capital which exists in any of these durable shapes, and the return to which is spread over a period of corresponding duration, is called Fixed Capital.

1863.  Fawcett, Pol. Econ., I. iv. (1876), 41. Fixed capital may continuously repeat the assistance which it lends to industry.

  7.  Definitely appointed or assigned; not fluctuating or varying; definite, permanent.

a. 1698.  Sir W. Temple, Misc., III. i. One loves fixed Laws; and the other Arbitrary Power: Yet the last, when they have gained enough by Factions and Disorders, by Rapine and Violence, come then to change their Principles with their Fortunes, and grow Friends to establish’d Orders and fixed Laws.

1741.  C. Middleton, Cicero (1742), II. VII. 201. He [Cicero] laid it down for the fixt rule of his administration, not to suffer any money to be expended either upon himself or his officers.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, III. 191. The rest was allotted to Attic colonists, to whom the Lesbians who were allowed to cultivate the land paid a fixt and uniform rent.

1861.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 47. A committee of nine members, in which every Hanse Town was in its turn represented, according to a fixed cycle.

1884.  Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Logic, 434. The sound instinct and sense of truth of Socrates, who called attention to the fact that the conceptions of good and bad, just and unjust, are fixed and unchanging, and cannot be determined now one way and now another at the pleasure of individuals, but that they have to be accepted as permanent and self-identical conceptions to which everyone has simply to subordinate his own ideas on these subjects.

  8.  Prepared, put in order. † Of a shell: Fitted with a fuse. ‘Fixed ammunition: a charge of powder and shot inclosed together in a wrapper or case ready for loading’ (Knight).

1638.  Of Penitential Confession, vii. (1657), 145. The Trent Fathers decree the same to be a matter of necessity, laid upon the necks of all sinners; and plant their fixt Canon, to discharge Anathema’s.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cc iv b. The fixed shell is placed upon the wad.