[f. STAR sb.1]
† 1. intr. Of a planet: To be in the ascendant.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxvi. (1612), 172. Dull malcontented Saturne rulde the houre when I was borne. Had Iupiter then starr’d I had not liued now forlorne.
2. trans. (poet. nonce-uses.) To fix as a star in the heavens; to transform (a person) into a star. Also fig.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Tri., II. xxvii. The seeling gay, Starred aloft the guilded knobs embrave.
1632. [see STARRED ppl. a. 5].
1819. Wiffen, Aonian Hours (1820), 96. His love he told, A feeling pity in her eyes was starred.
3. To mark (a horse) with a star. (See STAR sb.1 9 b.)
1592. Greene, Conny Catch., II. 4. They will straight spot him by sundry pollicies, and in a blacke horse, marke saddle spots, or star him in the forehead.
4. To adorn with an ornament likened to a star or a number of stars; to bespangle as with stars. Also with over, round.
The verb is perhaps implied at an earlier date in some of the instances of STARRED ppl. a., q.v.
1718. Pope, Iliad, I. 326. His Sceptre starr’d with golden Studs around.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 562. Like a sable curtain starr’d with gold.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, Supplicants, 88. An herdsman … starr’d round with eyes…. The earth-born Argus.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., III. iii. 138. Blooms Which star the winds with points of coloured light.
1884. A. Lang, in Century Mag., Jan., 340/2. The primroses starred the banks.
1885. B. Harte, Maruja, iii. 67. Bare-headed pretty women, with roses starring their dark hair, wandered with childish curiosity along the broad veranda.
b. To decorate with the star of an order.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, IV. xi. And now he is a quasi ambassador, and ribboned, and starred to the chin.
5. To make a radiating crack or fracture in (a surface of glass, ice, etc.). Cf. STAR sb.1 11.
To star the glaze (Thieves’ slang): see quot. 1788.
1788. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 2), To Star the Glaze, to break and rob a jeweller’s show glass. Cant.
1813. Mrs. Piozzi, in Jrnls. & Corr. Whalley (1863), II. 364. The ice is starred, as skaters call it, by the fall of the French in Spain.
1824. Mechanic’s Mag., No. 19. 300. A pane of window-glass, perforated completely through … without the glass being, as it is technically called, starred.
1873. Chamb. Jrnl., 30 Aug., 547/2. The next [pebble] … not only hit the window, but starred one of the panes with a loud crash.
1884. Manch. Exam., 19 Dec., 5/2. As the granite around the hole is starred in all directions, it is Major Majendie’s opinion that a large quantity of dynamite was used.
b. intr. To become fractured in this way.
1842. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., V. 368/1. The iron of which vessels is composed has been found to become brittle in the course of years, so that … it will … star like glass when struck by a hard and sharp body.
1894. Athenæum, 3 March, 282/1. Sir J. Evans suggested that the meaning of this was ‘I will not star,’ or crack, like a glass bottle.
c. trans. (Geol.) To diversify (strata) by cracks or veins radiating from a center.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xx. 261. The highly inclined and dislocated strata of purple schist and sandstone … are starred through in many directions by veins of white crystallized quartz.
1842. Sedgwick, in Hudson’s Guide Lakes (1843), 227. In the progress of elevation, mountain masses were torn asunder and starred by diverging lines of ‘fault.’
6. a. trans. To produce the ‘stars’ on (antimony) in the process of refining. Cf. STAR sb. 9 d. b. intr. Of antimony: To form ‘stars’ when solidifying. (Webster, 1911.)
1889. Beringer, Text-bk. Assaying, 186. Briefly, the process consists of the three ordinary operations of—
(a) Singling or removing most of the antimony from the ore;
(b) Doubling;
(c) Refining or ‘starring.’
7. To distinguish (a written or printed word, name, etc.) by an affixed star or asterisk. Hence, to single out for special notice or recommendation.
1897. Daily News, 29 July, 3/1. He maintained that … if the Government meant to proceed with these Bills they ought to have ‘starred’ them, meaning that an asterisk should be placed by them on the Order Paper, as is the case with Bills in charge of Ministers. Ibid. (1897), 4 Nov., 7/1. The defendant complained that his name was not starred on the play bills and programmes, and he eventually refused to appear at the theatre on that ground.
1898. Q. Rev., July, 192. This recommendation amounts to ‘starring’ the several codices, just as individual charters have … been ‘starred’ by the editor of our first ‘Codex.’
1913. J. Morris Jones, Welsh Gram., p. xxvii. The form need not have been starred.
8. intr. Of an actor, singer, etc.: To appear as a ‘star,’ perform the leading part (see STAR sb.1 5 a); to make a tour in the provinces as the ‘star’ of a dramatic company. Also to star it. Also quasi-trans. to star the provinces. Chiefly in ppl. a. and gerund.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 36. The great actors, who came down starring … from London.
1825. New Monthly Mag., XV. 393. Mr. Fitzwilliam is ‘starring’ it among them.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xix. She … had starred the provinces with great éclat.
1891. R. Ford, Thistledown, xvi. 298. He attaches himself to a band of strolling players, and ‘stars’ it through part of the county of Fife.
b. said of any notable or distinguished personage when appearing in public. Also jocularly (see quot. 1852).
1852. Motley, Corr. (1889), I. v. 129. I don’t know where he [the sun] is, probably engaged elsewhere, starring it in some more profitable region.
1887. Huxley, in L. Huxley, Life (1900), II. 151. I have been ‘starring’ at the Mansion House.
1893. Bookman, June, 86/1. This Russian baroness … starring it in Russian embassies and Paris salons.
c. trans. To furnish with ‘stars,’ provide a run of ‘stars’ for.
1831. Lincoln Herald, 7 Oct., 4. We were extremely sorry to see so thin a house: sad encouragement for the manager in starring the season.
9. Billiards. In the game of Pool, to buy an additional life or lives (see STAR sb.1 13). Similarly in Dominoes. Also quasi-trans.
1850. Bohn’s Handbk. Games (1867), 609. (Rules of Pool) If the first person out refuse to star, the second person may do it,… and so on, until only two persons are left in the pool, in which case the privilege of starring ceases.
1870. Hardy & Ware, Mod. Hoyle, Dominoes, 100. He who ‘stars’ re-commences at the number which the player holds who is in the worst position.
1875. G. F. Pardon, in Encycl. Brit., III. 677/1. The first player who loses all his three lives can ‘star’; that is, by paying into the pool a sum equal to his original stake, he is entitled to as many lives as the lowest number on the marking board. Thus if the lowest number be two, he stars two; if one, he stars one.
