Forms: 5–6 trelis, -ys, -es(e, 5 -ez, trif(l)es, 5–6 traylles, 6 treliss, -ies, trallace, treylles, trellesse, 7 trellize, treillis, 7–9 trellice, 8 trellies, 6– trellis. Pl. 5–6 trelis, -iz; 6 trelesez, treyl(le)sys, trellisses, 7 -izes; 9 -ises. β. Sc. 5 terlys, 6 trelies, traleis, tarlies, traylles, treylles, treilȝeis, (trailzeys), tirleise, -lis, tyrleis, 6–7 tirleis, -lies, 7 tirlace, 8 -lass, -less. [ME. a. OF. treliz, -is, fem. trelice (orig. adj.):—late pop.L. *trilīci-us, f. L. trilīx, -līcem (in Isidore nom. trilīcis) = Gr. τρίμιτος, having three threads in the warp, f. L. tri- three + līcium a thread of the warp; said of strong woven fabrics (cf. TREILLIS). OF. had also a rarer form tresliz, showing an early confusion of the prefix with OF. tres-:—L. trans-: so Pr. treslitz, It. traliccio, med.L. trans-, trās-, trālīcium, a stout woven fabric. The application of the word to things woven of iron wire, gold, withes, etc., app. brought the sense into contact with OF. treille, Pr. treilla, trelha, med.L. trelia, trillia, etc. (see TRAIL sb.2), and resulted in the later F. form treillis and the later signification ‘lattice, grille.’ Some of the 16th-c. Scottish forms are difficult to distinguish from the pl. of treilȝe, TRAILYE.]
1. A structure of light bars of wood or metal crossing each other at intervals and fastened where they cross, with open square spaces between; used as a screen in window openings or the like; a window, gate, screen, etc., so constructed; a lattice; a grating. Now rare.
a. 1400–50. Treles [implied in TRELLIS v. 1].
1422. Trelys [see trellis-window in 3].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 501/2. Trelys, of a wyndow, or oþer lyke (or grate …), cancellus.
1450–1. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 240. Et in ij Trelis emp. pro fenestra cove, vij d. Ibid. (1498–9), 101. Pro iij fenistris voc. trelez pro Scaccario Cellerarii et le Sethynghous. Ibid. (1513–4), 663. Pro ij trelesez ad ustrinum, vj d.
1531–2. Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees), 74. Et Roberto Kyrver pro factura le treylsys 8 d. Ibid. (1532–3), 163. Pro factura le treyllesys.
1535. Coverdale, Judg. v. 28. His mother … cried piteously thorow the trallace. Ibid., Prov. vii. 6. Out of the wyndowe of my house I loked thorow the trelies.
1549. Aberdeen Regr. (1844), I. 271. Conuikit … for the strublance of Duncane Freser and ryving of his tirleise of his vyndok.
1553–4. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871), II. 285. Payit for ane tyrleis of irne to the portell of the counsal hous dure.
1582–8. Hist. James VI. (1825), 46. Upoun the wyndo thairof, he … cuttit a small hole of the blak cloth that coverit the traleis.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 49. The Windowes [at Gombroon] … in stead of Glasse vse wooden trellizes or casements.
1641. R. Baillie, Lett. (Bann. Cl.), I. 316 (Trial of Strafford). At the back of the throne, there was two roomes on the two sydes; in the one did Duke de Vanden … and other French nobles sitt; in the other, the King, the Queen [etc.]; the tirlies, that made them to be secret, the King brake doun with his own hands; so they satt in the eye of all.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), II. 86 (Passport, Hotel Paris). The bird … attempting his deliverance, and thrusting his bead through the trellis, pressed his breast against it, as if impatient.
1886. Sheldon, trans. Flaubert’s Salammbô, 21. Darting … glances through the golden trellisses into the silent apartments.
† b. An enclosure of lattice-work, a grating.
c. 1500. Melusine, lii. 329. Whan they that were in the traylles of yron herd it.
1555–6. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871), II. 364. Item, coft vij jestis to be ane tirleis to the deid banis at the south kirk dur. Ibid. Item to Hennislie to cast the deid banis in the west tirleis iij s.
1593. Rites of Durham (Surtees, 1903), 37. Ye highte of ye said trellesse was striken full of iron pikes … to thentent yt none should clyme ouer it.
c. Short for trellis-door or -gate: see 3. Sc.
c. 1800[?]. State, Fraser of Fraserfield, 194 (Jam.). At or near the westmost pole—there is a tirlass, at which a single person may enter.
d. Her. The figure of a trellis used as a charge.
In trellis, with the pieces of which the charge is composed crossing and nailed at the joints, not interlacing.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxxiii. Sable, a musion passant Or, oppressed with a trellis gules, cloué of the second.
1882. Cussans, Her., vii. (ed. 3), 120. Portcullis: An iron gate formed of bars armed at the base, and bolted in trellis.
1889. [see TRELLISED 2 b].
2. A similar framework used as a support upon which fruit-trees or climbing plants are trained.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. Prol. 100. The wyne grapis ȝing Endlang the treilȝeis [ed. 1553 trailzeys] dyd on twystis hing.
1725. Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Pomegranate, He must … take Care to plash all the Branches … against a Trellis made on purpose.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v., Some persons … erect trellises against their walls, extending from the inside of one pier to the nearest inside of the next.
1818. Shelley, Lett. to Mrs. Shelley, 20 Aug. The vines are … trailed on low trellisses of reeds.
1850. Beck’s Florist, Feb., 59. I always fix the trellis on the pot at the time of potting.
fig. 1861. S. Wilberforce, Lett., in Life (1881), II. xiii. 454. The earthly love becomes the trellice, up which the heavenly love creeps.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent Man, 193. Language formed the trellis on which Mind climbed upward.
3. attrib. and Comb., as trellis-border, -door, -frame, -gate, -grating, -hut, -lace, -pattern; trellis-covered, -shaded, -woven adjs.; trellis-window, a window furnished with a trellis; see also quot. 1913. See also TRELLIS-WORK.
1897. Daily News, 12 April, 7/7. A pair of beakers, with baskets and sprays of flowers in *trellis borders.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., i. 14. The ladies … were conducted by black eunuchs through *trellis-covered walks.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Cl.), 219. They’s chapells!… and a fine dressed-up Virgin in every one of them, and a *tirless door to let her be seen!
1897. R. N. Bain, trans. Jókai’s Pretty Michal, xxxii. 251. At the stroke of two, she was already in the shop below, the trellis-door of which, leading to the street, was closed.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Trellis, For peach, nectarine, and apricot trees … the squares of the *trellis frame should not exceed three or four inches.
1697. in Mem. Alloa (1874), 66. To put on a *tirlace gate, with lock and key thereto.
1825. Jamieson, (1882), Tirless-yett, turnstile.
1876. B. Champneys, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), IlI. 238. *Trellis gratings fitted with adjustable valves.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 289. This saint lived in a *trellis hut.
1874. H. H. Cole, Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus., 173. Bracelet. *Trellis pattern of plain and green glass beads.
1422. Searchers Verdicts, in Surtees Misc. (1888), 16. The *trelys wyndowe at the somer hall.
a. 1651. Calderwood, Hist. Kirk (1843), II. 11. So Bothwellhauche shott at him with a hacquebutt, through a tirleis window.
1913. Eden, Anc. Glass, 51. The branches of the tree or vine seemed to run in and out of a trellis, a circumstance which has given name to such windows—trellis windows.
1751. G. West, Education, xvii. Labyrinths involv’d and *trellice-woven bow’rs.
