[f. prec. sb.] trans. a. To furnish with as a FRONTISPIECE (senses 3, 4), put a frontispiece to. b. To represent on the frontispiece. c. To put as a frontispiece.
1715. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. Pref. 12. Those two Clementin Epistles … wherewith … Cotelerius frontispiec’d his Collection of Apostolick Remains. Ibid. (1716), II. 297. His insolent Sermon, Sawcily frontispiec’d, Non-Resistance without Priestcraft, &c.
c. 1811. Byron, in Dowden, Shelley (1887), II. 364. I have advised him to frontispiece his book with his own head, Capo di Traditore, the head of a traitor.
1831. Fraser’s Mag., III. 201. [He] is frontispieced most abominably, in a sort of caricature of the Freischutz. Ibid. (1836), XIII. 34. Poole’s Sketches … are frontispieced with an engraving.
1894. Speaker, 19 May, 560/2. Let him frontispiece a good map.
Hence Frontispiecer, one who supplies a frontispiece.
1828. Lamb, Lett. to Barton, 5 Dec. I esteem thy verses … honour thy frontispicer, and … reverence thy … dedicatee.
