Forms: α. 6 terries, 6–7 terrasse, (6 terres, 6–7 terris, 7 -ice), 7–9 terrass, -as, (8 -ase), 6– terrace. β. 6–7 tarrass(e, (tarris, -es), 6–8 tarras, -ace, 7 tarasse, (tarrase, taras), taris, tarries. [a. F. terrace (12th c.), also terrasse, tarrasse (15th c.), rubble, a platform, a terrace, = It. terraccia, -azza bad earth or soil, ‘filthie earth’ (Florio), also a terrace, later † terraccio, now terrazzo, Sp. terrazo, Pg. terraço terrace, med.L. terrācea, -ācia an earthen mound, a raised terrace, a flat roof, terrācium useless earth (Du Cange):—L. *terrācea fem. of *terrāceus adj., earthen, of the nature of earth, earthy, f. terra earth: cf. -ACEOUS. This suffix was in the Romanic langs. used to form sbs., similative, augmentative, or pejorative; hence the primary sense, useless earth, heap of earth or rubbish, whence earthen mound made for a purpose. See also TARRAS (formerly terras, terrace), a differentiated form of the same word in the sense ‘rubbish,’ ‘rubble,’ as in It. and OFr.]
1. A raised level place for walking, with a vertical or sloping front or sides faced with masonry, turf, or the like, and sometimes having a balustrade; esp. a raised walk in a garden, or a level surface formed in front of a house on naturally sloping ground, or on the bank of a river, as ‘The Terrace’ at the Palace of Westminster.
α. 1575. Laneham, Let. (1871), 48. Hard all along the Castl wall iz reared a pleazaunt Terres of a ten foot hy & a twelue brode.
1611. Bible, 2 Chron. ix. 11. And the king made … terrises to the house of the Lord.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 333. Terrasse, a walk on a Bank or Bulwark.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., I. 47. It might be allow’d twelve [foot] or more, it being a Terras,… since the Terrasses adjoyning to a House can hardly ever be too broad.
1712. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to W. Montagu, 9 or 11 Dec. The terrace is my place consecrated to meditation.
1739. Gray, Lett. to West, 21 Nov. Gardens and marble terrases full of orange and cypress trees.
1786. Mrs. Barbauld, in Mem. 70 Y., vi. (1883), 62. A kind of terrass … commands a most extensive view.
1814. Scott, Wav., ix. The garden … was laid out in terraces, which descended rank by rank from the western wall to a large brook.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, ii. The glass door open towards the terrace.
β. 1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 570. Lucullus selfe would also many times be amongst them, in those tarrasses and pleasant walkes.
1587. Churchyard, Worth. Wales (1876), 104. Like tarres trim, to take the open ayre.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. i. Stand by close under this tarras.
1632. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. IV. (ed. 4), 269. Euery Citty … hath his peculiar walkes, Cloysters, Tarraces.
1653. Greaves, Seraglio, 14. Two men may walk a breast upon the Tarrase.
b. transf. and fig.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. v. § 11. A tarrasse for a wandring and variable minde, to walke vp and downe.
1655. M. Carter, Hon. Rediv. (1660), 193. A Gennet of gold enamelled black and red, upon a terrasse or bank of flowers.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chym., I. 399. These rows of aludels are supported from end to end by a terrass, which runs from the body of the building, wherein the furnaces are erected.
1896. Daily News, 10 Nov., 2/2. The living terraces of cripple children … added … their shrill plaudits to the general welcome.
† c. Mil. An earthwork thrown up by a besieging force; see also quot. 1816. Obs.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., XI. (1599), 510. Certaine of the Spanish footemen got vp to the terrasse or heape of Earth, and began to assaile the breach.
1600. Holland, Livy, V. v. 182. What should I speake of the tarraces, torteises, rams, and all other engins of assault and batterie?
1816. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 4), s.v., A terrace likewise signified … a sort of cavalier, which was carried to a great height, in order to overlook and command the walls of a town.
2. A natural formation of this character; a. a table-land; b. spec. in Geol., a horizontal shelf or bench on the side of a hill, or sloping ground.
The latter is usually of soft material, formed by the action of water, and exposed by the upheaval of the sea-margin, by the deepening of a river channel, or by the diminution in volume of a lake or river.
1674. Josselyn, Voy. New Eng., 202. The white mountains,… the highest Terrasse in New-England.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VII. xcvi. 446. Some of the steepest hills are supported by many terrasses.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man., 159. Captain Vetch describes six or seven terraces or lines of beach on the Isle of Jura…, which appear to have been successively raised above the present level of the ocean.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., xvii. 278. It is not uncommon to find successive terraces of gravel.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., VI. v. 901. Regular terraces, corresponding to former water-levels of the lake, run for miles along the shores at heights of 120, 150 and 200 ft.
† c. The ground on which anything stands. rare.
1733. Mahon, tr. L’Abbat’s Fencing, Pref. By turning it too much it [the foot] would have no Hold of the Terrace, and therefore would be as dangerous as keeping it on the Flat.
† 3. A gallery, open on one or both sides; a colonnade, a portico; a balcony on the outside of a building; also, a raised platform or balcony in a theater or the like. Obs. (The earliest sense in Eng.)
1515. Will J. Fowler (Somerset Ho.). To be buried wt in the Terres of the church of the Monastery of Syon.
1588. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 692. For paving the Inner court and the tarris without it.
1596. Bp. W. Barlow, Three Serm., i. 17. Wee haue dyned abroad in our Tarrises and open Galleries for the great heat.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 145. This yard is compassed with a building all of Marble, which lies open like a Cloyster (we call it a terras). Ibid., III. 206. This place of Iudgement is commonly in a Porch or Terras under the Senate house, hauing one side all open towards the market place.
1690. The Gt. Scanderbeg, 131. A little Terrass, which rendred my Apartment very pleasant.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 258. Tarrace, or Tarras, an open Walk, or Gallary.
† 4. The flat roof of a house, resorted to for coolness in warm climates. Obs.
1572. Abp. Parker, Lett. to Ld. Burghley, 13 Dec. This shop is but little and lowe and leaded flatt,… and is made like the terris … fitt for men to stande vppon in any triumphe or shewe.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. x. 27. Many faire houses of lime and stone, builded with many lofts, with their windowes and tarrisis made of Lime and earth.
[1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 268. To vnderprop the Terratza, or roofe.]
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 10. All the Houses of it are built with a terrass, or flat Roof, and one may go from one street to another upon the terrasses of the houses.
1764. Harmer, Observ., III. iii. 93. This sleeping on the terraces of their houses is only in summer-time.
1892. E. Reeves, Homeward Bound, 203. On these roofs are ‘terraces,’ guarded by high parapets, where the inmates sit in the cool of the evening.
5. A row of houses on a level above the general surface, or on the face of a rising ground; improperly, a row of houses of uniform style, on a site slightly, if at all, raised above the level of the roadway.
(Common in street nomenclature; Adelphi Terrace (formerly Royal Terrace), London, is one of the earliest examples)
1769. (23 June) Lease (in Mortgage, 20 Aug., 1782). A parcel of Ground … [which] adjoineth towards the north on vaults situate under the houses built on The Royal Taras [Adelphi, London].
1796. New Plan of London [has] ‘Lambeth Terrace, behind Lambeth Palace.’
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 113/2. The terraces in the Regent’s Park, Hyde Park Terrace near Bayswater, and that in St. James’s Park.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, i. My earliest recollections are of a suburban street: of its jumble of little shops and little terraces.
6. A soft spot in marble, which is cleaned out and the cavity filled up with a paste. Cf. TERRACY a.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Terrases (Masonry), hollow defects in marble or fissures filled with nodules of other substances. The hole, being cleared out, is filled with marble dust and mastic of the same color.
7. attrib. and Comb. Of or pertaining to, having, forming, or consisting of a terrace or terraces, as terrace-bank, -bower, -garden, -region, -roof, -stair, -step, -walk, -wall, -work; obj. and obj. genitive, as terrace-keeper, -maker; terrace-mantling adj.; terrace-cultivation, the cultivation of hill-sides in terraces; so terrace-culture; terrace-epoch (Geol.), see quot. 1885.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 94. The *terrace-banks of the Seine.
1823. Joanna Baillie’s Collect. Poems, 119. Each whisper’d sigh Of the soft night-breeze through her *terrace-bowers Bore softer tones.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 144. The *terrace-cultivation,… clothing with fertility the mountain-sides.
1903. Bradford Antiquary, July, 346. Signs of terrace-cultivation are to be met with in different parts of the county.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. vii. (1876), 212. The establishment of *terrace culture on the hills.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 554. The time when they were raised … corresponds to the *Terrace epoch; and during the process other parallel terraces were formed.
1885. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., III. II. ii. § 3. 369. In North America, the river-terraces exist on so grand a scale that the geologists of that country have named one of the later periods of geological history, during which those deposits were formed, the Terrace Epoch.
1705. Addison, Italy, 59. I went to see the *Terrace-Garden of Verona, that Travellers generally mention.
1824. Campbell, Theodric, 37. Clustering trees and *terrace-mantling vines.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 472/2. Ten or twelve intermediate formations, constituting the *terrace-regions.
1802. Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), III. 161. I have a *terrace roof.
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, Terrace Roof, those which are fat like terraces.
a. 1668. Davenant, Man’s the Master, IV. i. Pass through the gall’ry up the *tarras-stairs into my closet.
1865. J. H. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire (1872), 218. We soon landed at the grand *terrace-steps of the quay.
1637. Suckling, Aglaura, III. i. Eleven; under the *Tarras walke; I will not faile you there.
1693. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 174. The queens tarras walk at Whitehall, facing the Thames, is now finished.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 25. A low *Terrass-Wall, from whence you have a View of the Country round about.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xv. (1856), 108. Its edges … were abrupt precipices, resembling the *terrace-work of trap-rock.
Hence Terracer, one who stands or walks on a terrace: cf. TERRACING 2; Terrace-wards adv., towards the terrace; Terrace-wise adv., in the manner of a terrace.
1786. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 7 Aug. All the *terracers stand up against the walls, to make a clear passage for the Royal Family.
1909. Daily Chron., 20 July, 1/1. Pilgrims who arrived on the Westminster Bridge and bent their gaze *terrace-wards.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 156. Each shop … archt above and … atop *tarraswise framed, and with plaister … cemented.
1898. Daily News, 19 May, 7/1. St. Pierre, Martinique,… nestles terrace-wise against and amid a perfect paradise of greenery.
