[f. LETTER sb.1]
† 1. trans. To instruct in letters or learning. Obs.
c. 1460. G. Ashby, Policy Prince, 648, Poems (E.E.T.S.), 33. Yf god sende you children … Do theim to be lettred right famously.
2. To exhibit or set forth by means of letters; also, to distinguish by means of letters.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., IV. iv. 440. It would be convenient, that every one of these Instances should be Philosophically Lettered.
1869. Tyndall, Notes Lect. Light, 46. Fraunhofer … lettered them and made accurate maps of them.
1877. Farrar, In Days of Youth, i. 3. He [God] letters it [his name] in fire amid the stars of heaven.
3. To affix a name or title in letters upon (a book, a shop, etc.); to inscribe (a name) in letters. Also, to inscribe with (something).
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 463, ¶ 7. I observed one particular Weight lettered on both sides.
1714. Lond. Gaz., No. 5225/3. The binding each Book will be … 4s. Letter’d on the Back.
1755. Johnson, Lett. to Warton, 20 March, in Boswell. I hope to see my Dictionary bound and lettered next week.
1844. E. Warburton, Crescent & Cross (1845), II. 420. The greater number of the shops are lettered in the same tongue [Italian].
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. xxxiii. There might be a hundred Ezra Cohens lettered above shop-windows.
1877. Act 40 & 41 Vict., c. 60 § 3. Every canal boat … shall be lettered, marked, and numbered in some conspicuous manner.
4. intr. In occasional uses. a. To carry letters. b. To write letters.
c. 1645, 1681, 1813. [see LETTERING].
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxiv. Our people go backwards and forwards … lettering, and messaging.
1861. Bp. Wilberforce, Diary, 22 Feb., in Life (1882), III. i. 15. Did not go out at night, but lettered.
