a. and sb. Forms: 1 féowerténe, -týne, Northumb. -téno, 2 fowertene, 3 feo(u)wertene, 3 furten, fourtine, south. vourtene, (6 fowertene), 4–6 four(e)ten, (4 faurten), 6–7 fourteene, 6– fourteen. [OE. féowerténe = OFris. fiuwertîne, OS. fiertein (Cu. veertein), OHG. fiorzehan (MHG. vierzehen, mod. Ger. vierzehn), ON. fiórtan (Sw. fjorton, Da. fjorten), Goth. fidwōrtaihun: see FOUR and -TEEN.] The cardinal number composed of ten and four, represented by the symbols 14, xiv, or XIV.

1

  A.  as adj.

2

  1.  In concord with the sb. expressed.

3

c. 950.  Lindisfarne Gospels, Matt. i. 17. From oferfaer babilones wið to crist cneuresua feower-teno.

4

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5491. Aboute vourtene ȝer · king þer after he nas.

5

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 6552.

        Bot omang alle þat þar has bene sene,
I fynde wryten paynes fourtene.

6

1490.  Caxton, Eneydos, xxxi. 117. Whan this foureten persones were come to Crete the kyng made theym to be putte wythin the forsayd house wyth his monstre, that deuoured theym full soone.

7

1538.  Wriothesley, Chron. (1875), I. 79. We ought to beleeve and doe as our fathers have donne aforetyme fowertene yeares past.

8

1611.  Bible, 1 Chron. xxv. 5. And God gaue to Heman fourteene sonnes and three daughters.

9

1751.  Affect. Narr. Wager, 24. Our ill-fated Vessel struck abaft on a sunken Rock, in fourteen Fathom Water.

10

1894.  C. W. Boase, Reg. Coll. Exon., p. xxxii. The fellowships were therefore, at the ouside, only tenable for rather less than fourteen years.

11

  † b.  (A) fourteen night (rarely fourteen day): a fortnight. Obs.

12

a. 1000.  Laws of Ine, § 55. Oþ-ðæt feowertyne niht ofer Eastron.

13

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 123. Easter dei þe nu bið to dei on fowertene niht.

14

c. 1205.  Lay., 28236.

        Ah feowertene niht fulle
Þere læi þa uerde.

15

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 65/406. And fourtene niȝt þare-aftur-ward he bi-lefte ȝuyt þere.

16

1477.  Surtees Misc. (1888), 27. The purpressures come in this day xiiij day.

17

1561.  Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 39. Do this a fourten night and it shall auoyde.

18

1726.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 15 April. I am but in an uneasy way myself; for I have been confined this fourteen-night to one floor.

19

  2.  With ellipsis of sb.

20

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxliv. 303. With other tounes fortresses and vyllages in to the nombre of xiiij.

21

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iii. 13–14.

          Nurse.  Ile lay fourteene of my teeth,
And yet to my teene be it spoken,
I haue but foure, shee’s not fourteene.

22

1685.  Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt., i. 14. I reduce them to fourteen in the recitation, for memory-sake and other reasons.

23

1818.  Scott, Heart Midl., viii. A tall gawky silly-looking boy of fourteen or fifteen.

24

  † 3.  = FOURTEENTH a. Obs.

25

c. 1300.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), App. xx. 261.

        In þe kinges fourteþe ȝere [v.r. fourtene ȝeer of þe kyng] hure sone henri com
Of king dauid of scotlond.

26

c. 1430.  Freemasonry, 245. The fourtene artycul … Scheweth the mayster how he schal don.

27

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhetorike (1567), 35 a. The fowertene of Julie.

28

  4.  Comb., as fourteen-foot a., fourteen feet in length; fourteen-gun a., (a vessel) carrying fourteen guns; † fourteen-shilling piece, the Scottish ‘merk’ (see quot. 1695).

29

1695.  Act Priv. Counc. Scot., in Cochran-Patrick, Rec. Coinage Scot., II. 252. The value of thretteen shilling four pennies was never put upon the merk peice after they were raised to fourteen shilling, neither were they tearmed therafter merk peices but fourteen shilling peices.

30

1862.  Ansted & Latham, Channel Isl., III. xvii. (ed. 2), 400. A fourteen-gun schooner, a four-gun cutter, some boats, and forty men constituted the authority by which the new custom-house or registry regulations were enforced.

31

1890.  Boldrewood, Colonial Reform. (1891), 120. Of course the wool’s a fine thing, but give me a mob of a couple or three hundred head of fat cattle on the road for market, with a good horse under ye and a fourteen-foot whip in your hand.

32

  B.  as sb.

33

  1.  The abstract number fourteen.

34

c. 1050.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 302. Twia seofon beoð feowertyne.

35

  † 2.  A fourteen shilling piece: see A. 4. Obs.

36

1693.  Sc. Presbyt. Eloq. (1694), 88. The Preacher seeing him in Church, took a Fourteen out of his Pocket, and held it up before the Congregation.

37

  3.  pl. Candles fourteen to the pound.

38

1883.  Goole Weekly Times, 14 Sept., 4/5. Dip Candles (Fourteens).

39