Also 7–8 in anglicized form lunet(t. [a. F. lunette, dim. of lune moon.]
† 1. A little moon, a satellite. Obs.
1645. Bp. Hall, Peace-Maker, x. 81. Our predecessors … could never have believed, that there were such Lunets about some of the Planets as our late Perspectives have described.
† 2. The figure of a crescent moon. Also attrib.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., II. p. iv. Juno Samia Selenitis, standing in a lunette, and crowned with a lunette.
1787. M. Cutler, in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888), I. 278. In this rock a flight of steps is cut, in a winding or kind of lunette form, from the road to the top of the hill.
3. Farriery. A horse-shoe consisting of the front semicircular portion only. Also lunette-shoe.
1580. Blundevil, Curing Horses Dis., clii. 65. Pull off his shooes and shooe him with half Moone shooes called Lunette.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 324/2. A Lunet shooe … is used for Horses that have weak Heels.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, II. (1738), 256. The cure is … to shoe him with Lunets, or Half-Moon shoes.
1753. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1816. Sporting Mag., XLVII. 27. A shoe in the form of the old lunette, or La Fosse’s shoe.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
4. Arch. a. An arched aperture in a concave ceiling for the admission of light.
1613–39. I. Jones, in Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 39. The manner of Arches are … a Rotonda G, a Lunette P, and a Conca N and K.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 114. Lunettes are used in large rooms or halls, and are made either in waggon-headed ceilings, or through large coves, surrounding a plane ceiling.
1842–59. Gwilt, Archit. (ed. 4), Gloss., Lunette, a cylindric, cylindroidic, or spherical aperture in a ceiling.
b. A crescentiform or semicircular space in a ceiling, dome, etc., decorated with paintings or sculptures; a piece of decoration filling such a space.
1722. Richardson, Statues Italy, 117. The pictures are painted in a sort of Lunettes, formd by a Semicircle within a Tall Arch ending in a Point, and [etc.].
1853. Ruskin, Stones Ven., III. ii. 74. The painting which filled the lunette behind it [a sarcophagus].
1857. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. of Madonna, Introd. (ed. 2), 60. It is comprised in five lunettes round the ceiling.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, I. 36. Above at a vast height there was a lunette with frescoes of the labours of Hercules.
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, III. 210. The lunette over the entrance-door [of the Fitzwilliam Museum].
5. Fortif. A work larger than a redan, consisting of two faces, and two flanks (Voyle, Mil. Dict.).
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Lunettes in Fortification, are Envelopes, Countergardes, or Mounts of Earth cast up before the Curtain.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lunette … In Fortification, a small Work generally rais’d before the Courtin in Ditches full of Water: It consists of two Faces making a Re-entring Angle, and serves to dispute the Passage of the Ditch.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4883/2. His Grace … has given Orders for making several Lunettes in the Front of our Camp.
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., II. 200. An embattled Wall, with Lunets hanging over the River.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Sandown Castle, Kent, N. of Deal,… consists of four lunets of very thick arched work of stone…. In the middle is a great round tower.
1834–47. J. S. Macaulay, Field Fortif. (1851), 11. The lunette, like the redan, is frequently open at the gorge.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 263. A Lunette has two faces, similar to the redan, and also two flanks.
6. A blinker for a horse.
1652. Bp. Hall, Invis. World, III. § 12. Make earthly things, not as lunets to shut up our sight, but spectacles to transmit it to spiritual objects.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl., Lunette is also the name of two small pieces of felt made round and hollow, to clap upon the eyes of a vicious horse.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
7. † a. pl. Spectacles. Obs.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 53. Then answered the whole croud, Bidding him read it out aloud. Seeking his Lunets [etc.].
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., Refl. Agric., 49. One day Lunetts and Microscopes may possibly be Invented, whereby these Pores may plainly be seen and distinguished.
1796. Mod. Gulliver’s Trav., 75. Fearful of more mistakes, for want of my useful lunettes, I made my bow of depart.
b. Given as the name for a special kind of concavo-convex lens for spectacles.
1855. in Ogilvie, Suppl.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
8. A watch-glass of flattened shape. Also lunette (watch-) glass.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., ix. 233. Lunette glasses.
1849. Dana, Geol., ix. (1850), 466. The curvature of a lunette watch-glass.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 156. Lunette, the usual form of rounded watch glass.
9. In the guillotine, the circular hole which receives the neck of the victim.
1859. F. E. Paget, Curate of Cumberw., 238. When the victim’s head is fixed in the lunette.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 20 Oct., 6/2. His head had to be thrust into the lunette by two warders.
10. Glass-making. = LINNET-HOLE.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 587. The founding or melting furnace is a square brick building,… at each angle of this square a small oven or arch is constructed … vaulted within, and communicating with the melting furnace by square flues called lunettes.
11. Antiq. A crescent-shaped ornament.
1865. Athenæum, 22 July, 119/1. A pair of golden gorgettes or lunettes.
12. A forked iron plate into which the stock of a field-gun carriage is inserted.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
13. (See quot.)
1884. R. F. Burton, Bk. Sword, 124. This hilt-plate has dwindled in the French fencing-foil to a lunette, a double oval of bars shaped like a pair of spectacles.
14. Eccl. A circular crystal case, fitting into an aperture in the monstrance, in which the Host is placed for exposition.
1890. in Century Dict.
1893. in Catholic Dict.
