[Altered form of FIXURE, after the analogy of mixture.]
1. The action of fixing; the process of fixing or settling, or of becoming fixed or settled. ? Obs.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. iii. 67. Thou wouldst make an absolute Courtier, and the firme fixture [so F. 1 and Q. of 1630; the later Ff. have fixure] of thy foote, would giue an excellent motion to thy gate, in a semi-circled Farthingale.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 277. Employed in fixing and completing the fixture of the iron-work.
1797. Washington, Let., Writ. 1892, XIII. 430. We must, though very reluctantly, yield to the time she requires to prepare for her fixture here.
1817. G. S. Faber, Eight Dissert. (1845), II. 202. The ultimate fixture of the sacred floating island appears in the greek legend of Delos.
b. The condition of being fixed; fixedness, fixity.
1809–10. Coleridge, The Friend (1818), III. 235. It was the Roman instinct to appropriate by conquest and to give fixture by legislation.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., II. xv. 13. They [Wordsworth’s eyes] were like fires half burning, half smouldering, with a sort of acrid fixture of regard, and seated at the further end of two caverns.
c. concr. A means of fixing or setting fast.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 223. Two Lewis holes upon the upper surface of each stone, those served as temporary fixtures for the work of the succeeding course.
2. Anything fixed or securely fastened in position; anything made firm, stable, or immobile.
1812. Coleridge, in Southey, Omniana, II. 17. Features, which are looks become fixtures.
1831. De Quincey, Dr. S. Parr, iii. Wks. 1862, V. 139. Even the most absolute fixtures (to use that term) in an English structure, must often be unsettled, and the whole framework of the period be taken to pieces and recast in a thoroughly Latin composition.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Circles, Wks. (Bohn), I. 125. There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile.
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 125/1. The side cloths are in some Tulip-houses fixtures.
1878. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. civ. 5. The earth is so placed in space that it remains as stable as if it were a fixture.
b. U.S. in pl. Appendages, apparatus, ‘fixings.’
1854. Bartlett, Mex. Boundary, I. ii. 12. The blacksmiths and carpenters [were employed] in making many small fixtures to the wagons.
1874. Coues, Field Ornith., I. vi. 41. When travelling, your fixtures must ordinarily be limited to a collecting-chest.
3. Law. In plural, ‘Things of an accessory character annexed to houses or lands, which become, immediately on annexation, part of the realty itself’ (Wharton, Law Lex.).
1758. Gray, Lett. to Wharton, 21 Feb. I am much puzzled about the bishop and his fixtures.
1770. Junius Lett. xxxvi. 179. Like broken tenants, who have had warning to quit the premises, they curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw every thing into confusion, and care not what mischief they do to the estate.
1861. Kent, Comm. (1873), II. xxxv. 345. The right to what are ordinarily called fixtures or articles of a personal nature affixed to the freehold.
1882. E. Robertson, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 274/2. In respect of fixtures (which may be shortly defined as movables so affixed to the soil as to become part thereof), the tenant may sometimes remove them, e. g., when they have been brought on the premises for the purpose of being used in business.
transf. 1786–89. Bentham, Wks. (1843), II. 542. In civilized nations the greater part of mankind are glebæ ascriptitii, fixtures to the soil on which they are born.
4. A person or thing permanently confined to or established in a particular place or position.
1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 6 Nov. Miss Goldsworthy was a fixture at her side.
1811. Byron, Ch. Har., II. App. D j. All the Franks who are fixtures, and most of the Englishmen, Germans, Danes, etc. of passage, came over by degrees to their opinion.
1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, v. (1870), 128. His sentiments have very much the air of fixtures; he [Crabbe] gives you the petrifaction of a sigh, and carves a tear, to the life, in stone.
1871. Ticknor, Life, Lett. & Jrnl. (1838), II. ix. 162. From age and its infirmities she [Mrs. Grant] is a fixture, unable to leave her chair without help.
1889. Lowell, Lett. (1894), II. 376. Whitby is coming more and more into the great currents of civilization. We have a spasmodic theatre and an American circus that seems a fixture.
5. Athletic and Sporting, rarely Commercial. An appointment or date for a meet, race, etc.; hence, the meet, race, etc. itself. Also attrib. fixture-card.
1825. Sporting Mag., XV. 346. Appointments have been substantiated into fixtures. Ibid. (1826), XVIII. 111. Owthorpe—not the fixture of that name in Nottinghamshire.
1862. ‘Scrutator,’ (Horlock) Country Gentleman, 146. Our next fixture is made already for Frampton Wood.
1869. Times, 26 Feb., 10/2. Fixtures of the principal … yachting clubs.
1882. Daily News, 4 March. Bristol Wool Fair and the opening of the Colonial sales in London. These important ‘fixtures’ had been looked forward to.
1886. Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz., May, 173/1. A neat fixture card from the Dublin … Club.
