Stove sb.¹

Forms: 6 stofe, stouf(fe, stowf(f)e, 6–7 stoave, stoove, 7 stouph(e, stouve, 5– stove. See also STOW sb.³ [OE. had stofa wk. masc., hot air bath (once, as gloss on balneum), and the related stuf-bæð (Leechdoms, III. 92, 132) in the same sense. The word, however, seems not to have survived, but to have been taken up afresh in the 15–16th c. from MLG. or MDu. stove fem. (Du. stoof) = OHG. stuba fem. (MHG. stube heated room, mod.G. stube sitting-room) ON. stofa, stufa fem. (Sw. stufva, stuga cottage, Da. stue room); the Scandinavian words are prob. adopted from LG. The relation between the WGer. *stuƀ- and the late L. or Rom. stūfa, stūfāre (see STEW sb.² and v.², STUFE) is uncertain.]

  † 1.  A hot air bath; a sweating-room: = STEW sb.² 3, STUFE. Obs.

  In the second quot. the pl. is used with sing. construction.

1456.  Sir G. Haye, Gov. Princes, Wks. (S.T.S.), II. 142. Here declaris the noble the maneris of baithis and of stovis. Ibid., 143. Thare mon be grete consideracioun to make wele a bathis or a stovis.

1562.  Bullein, Bulwark, Bk. Sick Men (1579), 24 b. Idle bodies … are made warme, by … Oyle, bathing in warme water, or going into y^e Stoue.

1579.  J. Louthe, in Narr. Reform. (Camden), 58. This was to hym in stede of a stowffe called Laconicum.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch, Cimon (1595), 525. As they were rubbing of him with oile in his stooue or hotte house.

1587.  Harrison, England, II. x. 187/2, in Holinshed. As for stooues we haue not hitherto vsed them greatlie, yet doo they now begin to be made in diuerse houses of the gentrie…, who build them not to worke and feed in as in Germanie and else where, but now and then to sweat in.

1595.  Duncan, App. Etym. (E. D. S.), Vaporarium, a hot stofe.

1599.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., IV. viii. You shall sweat there with … losing your monie at primero, as well as in all the stoves in Sweden.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 864. Neither used they the stouph or bath together.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 517. The dung … of mice … rubbed vpon the head of any one who is troubled with the scurfe or skaules thereon in a bath or stoue, will presently expell and driue them quite away.

1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., IV. 304. The Pentecosts prepar’d at Carleon in his Court, her Temples and her Groues, Her Palaces, her Walks, Paths, Theaters, and Stoues.

1629.  H. Burton, Truths Tri., 293. That riuer in hell … is now become a hot dry stoue, called Purgatory.

1658.  W. Burton, Comment. Itin. Antoninus, 213. This I guess to be a Stouphe or hot-house to bath in.

1683.  Digby’s Chym. Secr., II. 200. When the Patient is Sweating in the dry Stove.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 8 Feb. 1645. Neere to this cave are the natural stoves of St. Germain.

1715.  Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 101. A lukewarm Room … from which they enter’d into the hot stove.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 230. You may have … more or less vapor … which can not be done in the common suffocating stoves at the Hummums.

  † b.  A closed basket for ‘stoving’ or sweating a gamecock. Obs.

1631.  Markham, Country Contentm., I. xix. (ed. 4), 111. You must haue deepe straw baskets made for the purpose,… and there let your Cocke stoue and sweate till the Euening. But before you put him into the stoue, you shall [etc.].

  † 2.  A sitting-room or bedroom heated with a furnace. Chiefly with reference to Germany, the Low Countries, Scandinavia or Russia. (Cf. STEW sb.² 2.) Obs.

1545[?].  Brinklow, Complaynt, 36 b. Euen the porest man … may boldly come into their hall or stoue, thei being at dynar.

1559.  Morwyng, Evonym., 70. Certaine of the Germaines that lyve in stouffes, that is hot houses, the winter time, make in them lowe fornaices.

1600.  Hakluyt, Voy., III. 392. Here they found houses of foure stories high,… and in most of them were Stooues for the Winter season.

a. 1608.  Dee, Relat. Spir., I. (1659), 212. In the excellent little Stove, or Study of D. Hageck his house lent me, by Bethlem in old Prage.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., III. 77 (bis) In stead of fier they vse hot stoues…, which are certaine chambers or roomes, hauing an earthen ouen cast into them. Ibid., 103. All the passengers lie together in the warme stoaue, with those of the Family, both Men and Weomen.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. IV. v. (1624), 136. How tedious is it to them that liue in Stoues & Caues halfe a yeare together; as in Island, Muscovy, or vnder the Pole it selfe.

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1898), 68. Hee busles better through a world of cold in a frost-paved wildernesse, than the furred Citizen in his warmer Stoave.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. ix. 86. When a certain Frenchman came to visit Melanchthon, he found him in his stove with one hand dandling his child…, and in the other hand holding a book.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 23 Sept. 1680. All the inhabitants retiring to their stoves.

1706.  Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, III. ii. I might have marry’d a German Princess, worth fifty thousand Crowns a Year, but her Stove disgusted me.

  3.  A hothouse for plants.

1695.  Phil. Trans., XIX. 395. A new black Maiden Hair … now growing in his Majesty’s Stoves at Hampton Court.

1739.  P. Miller, Gard. Dict., II. 5 B 2 b. A Catalogue of such Plants as should be placed in a Stove.

1793.  R. Steele, Ess. Gardening, 115. A General Stove, 160 feet in length, and of proper width and height, is capable of containing a prodigious collection of plants.

1804.  Charlotte Smith, Conversations, etc. I. 65. In the stove the natives of the torrid zone; in the conservatory the inhabitants of milder regions.

1869.  A. R. Wallace, Malay Archipelago (1890), 85. In our stoves these varied conditions can be supplied to each individual plant.

1895.  Amherst, Gardening, 282. The climbing plants which adorned the stove.

  4.  A heated chamber or box for some special purpose.

1640.  T. Brugis, Marrow of Physicke, II. 142. So set your Plate in a warme Stove, or Oven.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Stove.… Among Confectioners, it is a little Closet well stopt up on all Sides; where there are several stories or rows of Shelves, one above another, made of Wires, to hold the Sweet-meats that are to be dried.

1769.  Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 245. When they are cold take them out and lay them on glasses, put them into a stove, and turn them every half hour.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., V. 168. The artificial method of hatching chickens in stoves, as is practised at Grand Cairo.

1811.  A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 241. They are … killed by the steams of boiling vinegar, and dried either by the sun or in a stove.

1835.  Ure, Philos. Manuf., 146. When all the wool is gathered on the teeth, the comb is placed with its points in the stove.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 660. A stove, is a kind of kiln for warping timber in.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Stove, the oven in which the blast of a furnace is heated.

1885.  Hummel, Dyeing Textile Fabrics, 112. The sulphur stove—a spacious brick chamber which can be charged with sulphur dioxide.

1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 969. The drawing or emptying of ‘stoves’ is regarded as the most dangerous part of white-lead making.

  5.  An apparatus for heating (orig., for heating a ‘stove’ in sense 1 or 2). Cf. STEW sb.² 1 b.

  a.  A closed box or vessel of earthenware, porcelain, or (now more usually) of metal, portable or fixed, to contain burning fuel.

  Often with defining word, indicating the purpose for which the stove is used, as in cooking stove, or the kind of fuel employed, as anthracite, coal, gas, oil stove.

  Quots. 1562 and 1591 perh. do not belong to this sense.

[1562.  Bullein, Bulwark, Bk. Sick Men (1579), 6. Make a fyer of Charcoales, or a stoue, which is a fyer secret felt, but not seene.

1591.  G. Fletcher, Russe Commw., ii. 4. In the extremitie of winter, if you holde a pewter dishe … in your hand … (except in some chamber where their warme stoaues bee) your fingers will friese faste vnto it.]

a. 1618.  Rates of Merchandizes, H 4. Iron Stoues the peece, xl.s.

1623.  T. Adams, Barren Tree, 4. A Candle is made to light vs, not to heate vs: a Stoue is made to heate vs, not to light vs.

1624.  in Archæologia, XLVIII. 138. In your closet a litle chare, the marble morter, the stove, your owne cabinet and bookes, a target, [etc.].

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. xii. 39. Though there be no fire seen outwardly, as in the English chymnies, it may be hotter within, as in the Dutch stoves.

1691.  J. Gibson, in Archæologia, XII. 181. In one of the lesser gardens is a large green house divided into several rooms, and all of them with stoves under them, and fire to keep a continual heat.

1693.  Evelyn, De La Quint. Compl. Gard., Cult. Orange-trees, 21. The Heat of Char-coal … in some hidden Stove, or Earthen Pan.

1702.  S. Sewall, Diary, 16 Jan. A good fire in the stove warm’d the room.

1715.  Lond. Gaz., No. 5325/4. Stoves fix’d to the Chimneys.

1735.  Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Stove, a small close Fire, sometimes used for drying Sugars, Sweet-meats, &c.

1747.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, ii. 26. Do it over a Stove or slow Fire till the Rice begins to be thick.

1816.  T. L. Peacock, Headlong Hall, viii. 116. With pickaxes and gunpowder, a hanging-stove and a poker.

1833.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 173. The close fire-places, or stoves properly so called, the principle of which is the emission of hot air.

1853.  Soyer, Pantroph., 248. Place them on the stove or gridiron, and you will, by these means, obtain a delicate and tempting dish.

1853.  Mrs. Moodie, Life in Clearings, 373. I have seen the grandmother in a wealthy family ironing the fine linen, or broiling over the cook-stove, while her daughter held her place in the drawing-room.

1854.  Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 216. Chamber stoves are constructed to disseminate heat by the direct contact of air with the heated surface, which is obtained by burning fuel on a grate, closely surrounded on all sides except below the bars, by a good conducting or absorbing material.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 395/1. On the Continent … the … scarcity of fuel … early led to the introduction of the hot-air stove.

1909.  Mission Field, June, 60. There is at present no heating system of any kind in the school beyond the old-fashioned stoves in each room.

  b.  Applied to the metal structure of a more or less open fireplace; a ‘grate.’

  This use, common in England, appears to be unknown in the U.S.

a. 1756.  Mrs. Haywood, New Present (1771), 252. To rub the stove and fire-irons.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, x. On the next morning Emily ordered a fire to be lighted in the stove of the chamber where St. Aubert used to sleep.

1817.  W. Beloe, Sexagenarian, II. 143. He would … offend the delicacy of his hostess by contaminating … the brightness of her stoves … with the distillations of tobacco.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, viii. An empty room … made ghastly by a ragged fireplace without any stove in it.

1861.  T. L. Peacock, Gryll Grange, xxii. It would not suit the stoves of our modern saloons.

  † c.  Naut. (See quot.) Obs.

1750.  Blanckley, Nav. Expositor, Stoves are square Boxes made of Plank filled with Bricks, and when fitted with an Iron Ring and small Bars, are for burning Charcoal, in order for the Cook to dress the Admiral’s or Captain’s Victuals on.

  d.  A foot-warmer containing burning charcoal, such as is used in the Low Countries [Du. stoof].

1716.  Gay, Trivia, II. 338. The Belgian stove beneath her Footstool glows.

1883.  Olive Schreiner, Afr. Farm., I. v. Under her feet was a wooden stove.

  6.  attrib. and Comb.: in sense 2, as † stove-window; in sense 3, as stove-flower, -heat, -plant, -shrub, -thermometer; in sense 4, as stove-dry vb., whence stove-dried adj.; in sense 5, as stove-brush, -chimney, -coal, -door, -fitter, -fitting, -grating, -maker, -manufacturer, -piping, -setter, -setting; stove-heated, -warmed adjs. Also † stove-fire (see quot. 1769); stove-glass (see quot.); stove-grate (a) = sense 5 b; (b) see quot. 1875; stove-house = sense 3; stove-polish, black lead or other substance used for polishing stoves; † stove-pot (see quot. for stove-fire); stove-room † (a) = sense 2; (b) = sense 4; stove-truck (see quot.); stove-tub = sense 4.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stove-brush, a housemaid’s polishing-brush, for blackening or shining a grate.

1730.  Inventory R. Woolley’s Goods (1732), 8. A *Stove Chimney.

1736.  Ainsworth, Eng.-Lat. Dict., A blower (in a stove chimney) ferreum ignis suscitabulum.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Stove-coal.

1895.  Daily News, 15 Oct., 3/5. Stove coal 15s.

1868.  Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 188. Having a door resembling an ordinary *stove-door.

1766.  Complete Farmer, s.v. Moth, As this corn (which had not been *stove-dried) was old and dry enough, it was but seldom ventilated.

1752.  Gentl. Mag., XXII. 348. (Porcelain) Rooms for throwing, turning, and *stove drying the ware.

1769.  Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1805), Descr. Plate, The Plate is the design of three *stove-fires for the kitchen, that will burn coals or embers instead of charcoal…; the coals are burnt in cast iron pots,… CC Stove pots in which the fire is made.

1903.  Daily Record & Mail, 22 Aug., 2. George Morrow … a *stovefitter.

1870.  Disraeli, Lothair, xxxi. She held … a vast bouquet entirely of white *stove flowers.

1891.  Century Dict., s.v. Glass, *Stove-glass, sheets of mica used in the fronts of stoves, etc.

1730.  Inventory R. Woolley’s Goods (1732), 8. In the Dining-Room…. A *Stove Grate.

1753.  Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, viii. 43. Those branches fixt to the sides of common old-fashion’d stove-grates by way of ornament.

1841.  in Inquiry, Yorks. Deaf & Dumb (1870), 26. Jos. Fellows, stove-grate fitter, Rotherham.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. No. 5971. Wholesale ironmonger and stove grate manufacturer.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2412. Stove-grate, the grid or series of bars on which the fuel rests in a stove.

1890.  W. W. Merry, in More Echoes Oxf. Mag. (1896), 96. By the *stove-grating I can see the stoker.

1852.  Gladstone, Glean., IV. 184. The growth of those democratic principles which the present system is forcing with *stove-heat to maturity.

1894.  C. L. Johnstone, Canada, 67. The heat of the stove-heated kitchen prevented me from sleeping.

1860.  Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist. (1866), 178. Choice plants that I have been used to see fostered and tended in pots in our *stove-houses at home.

1843.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 422/2. This is a stigma on the *stove-makers of London.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stove-maker, a founder and caster of stoves and ranges, for grates and fire-places.

1843.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 422/1. As a *stove manufacturer, I have [etc.].

1838.  Penny Cycl., XI. 219/2. A communication … made of one or more ranges of iron *stove-piping.

1901.  J. Black’s Carp. & Build., Home Handicr., 64. An old piece of stove-piping.

1812.  New Botanic Gard., I. 10. A pleasing variety among other *stove plants.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 19. Hothouse plants, which may be either dry stove plants … or damp stove plants.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stove-polish, black-lead.

1905.  Daily Chron., 13 April, 5/3. The blacklead and stove-polish business.

1769.  *Stove-pots [see stove-fire].

1706.  S. Sewall, Diary, 27 Feb. (1879), II. 155. Passing out of the *Stove-Room into the Kitchen.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 239. Fowls here live in the same apartment or stove-room with the owners.

1825.  Gentl. Mag., XCV. I. 163. He went into a stove-room, in which sulphur, hay, &c. were burning at the same time.

1840.  Penny Cycl., XVIII. 473/1. Immediately behind him is the stove-room, in which the moulds are ranged on shelves.

1846.  G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., VI. 181. Sail-making. Besides the bleach-field there is … a ‘stove-room,’ in which the flax can be exposed to any required degree of temperature.

1898.  Daily News, 18 June, 9/4. Bricklaying, jobbing, drains, *stove setting, &c.

1850.  Florist, 202. A handsome *stove-shrub.

1786.  Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 354. The proper degree of heat … may be determinable by a *stove thermometer.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stove-truck, a truck employed in cannon-foundries for moving pieces of ordnance.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 433/2. They should be stoved in a stove by the heat of a flue, and not in a baker’s oven or a *stove tub.

1911.  H. H. Prichard, in Chamb. Jrnl., Sept., 566/2. Their wives have their duties in the close and *store-warmed houses.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 164. Lookynge downe out of the *stowffe wyndowe into the courte vnderneth.

1680.  R. L’Estrange, Twenty Sel. Colloq. Erasm., 60. The Master of the Inn puts his head out of the Stove window.