Umbrella

Also 7 umbrellia, umbrilla. β. 7–9 umbrello (7 vn-), 7 vmbrillo, 8 umbrellow. γ. 7–8 ombrella. [ad. It. ombrella and ombrello, f. ombra:—L. umbra shade, UMBRA¹. Cf. F. ombrelle, Sp. umbrela (zool.).]

  1.  A light portable screen or shade, usually circular in form and supported on a central stick or staff, used in hot countries as a protection for the head or person against the sun.

  α.  1611.  Coryat, Crudities, 111. Many of them doe carry other fine things … which they commonly call in the Italian tongue ‘umbrellaes.’… These are made of leather something answerable to the forme of a little caunopy and hooped in the inside with divers little wooden hoopes that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compasse.

1668.  Davenant, Man’s the Master, II. i. A very desperate man … coming near so bright a Sun as you are without a Parasol, Umbrellia, or a Bondgrace.

1695.  Motteux, St. Olon’s Morocco, 148. An Umbrella was carry’d over me, which in some manner defended me from the Heat of the Sun’s Rays.

1716.  Gay, Trivia, I. 213. Let Persian dames th’ umbrella’s ribs display, To guard their beauties from the sunny ray.

a. 1739.  Jarvis, Don Quix., I. I. iv. They carried umbrellas, and were attended by four servants on horseback.

1797.  Holcroft, Stolberg’s Trav. (ed. 2), III. lxxxix. 479. The heat began so early in the day that, at six o’clock, we were obliged to use our umbrellas.

1832.  G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 341. The costume is very picturesque in this part of Tuscany, always excepting the monstrous yellow umbrella, which is and parcel of it.

1860.  Emerson, Cond. Life, Culture, Wks. (Bohn), II. 373. In the city of Palermo, the street was in a blaze with scarlet umbrellas.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 103. He sees the rich man under an umbrella puffing and panting.

  β.  1610.  W. Strachey, in Purchas, Pilgrims (1625), IV. 1739. So broad are the leaves [or palms] as an Italian Vmbrello.

1611.  Cotgr., Ombrelle, an Vmbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherwith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserue themselues from the heat of a scorching Sunne.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., II. 138. Of the leaves they make sayles;… they make of them likewise Umbrelloes, Fans, Tents, Mats and Hats.

1697.  Dampier, Voy. (1699), 407. The Chinese … when they walk abroad … carry a small Umbrello in their Hands, wherewith they fence their Head from the Sun or the Rain.

1697.  Lady’s Trav. Spain (1706), 249. He commanded them to bring Umbrellos to defend us from the Sun.

1753.  Hanway, Trav., II. xlii. I. 286. I observed that the Persians are not cautious … of the sun in any degree equal to the Portugueze; for the last seldom travel without a cloak and umbrello.

1755.  Smollett, Quix., I. I. iv. I. 21. Six merchants of Toledo … who travelled with umbrelloes.

  γ.  c. 1620.  Moryson, Itin., IV. V. i. (1903), 442. Then followes the Duke in his Robes,… a Scudiero carying his ombrella betweene him and the sunne.

1710.  C. Shadwell, Fair Quaker Deal, IV. 40. Your Baubles of China, your Indian Ombrella, your Hair-Ring, and your own Picture.

  b.  In some Oriental and African countries used as a symbol of rank or state.

  α.  1682.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1721/4. In the Evening he visited his Highness Prince Rupert, to whom he presented the two great Umbrella’s.

1718.  Entertainer, No. 16. 199. To score out a Pattern of Umbrella’s for the King of Bantam.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xxxvi. 45. King of the White Elephant, and of the twenty four Somereroes or Umbrellaes.

1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 201. Mandarines … accompanied with all the Officers of their Tribunal, who surround them with Umbrella’s and other Marks of their Dignity.

1849.  Layard, Nineveh, I. x. 337. He is attended by two eunuchs, one holding the umbrella, the other his quiver and mace.

1888.  Times, 30 Oct., 6/1. The Shereefian Umbrella does not pass necessarily from father to son.

  β.  1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxxiv. 135. Then next to them marches twelve men on horsback, called Peretandas, each of them carrying an Umbrello of carnation Sattin.

1678.  J. Phillips, Tavernier’s Trav., II. II. viii. 123. Upon each side of the Throne are plac’d two Parasols, or Umbrellos, the handles whereof are about eight foot high.

1688.  Holme, Armory, IV. xi. (Roxb.), 431/2. Then 24 Vnbrello’s richly adorned and them as carry them 2 and 2 together.

1719.  J. T. Phillips, trans. Thirty-four Confer., 331. Women … attended him with Umbrello’s,… and all the other Court Employments within Doors were all done by Women.

1745.  Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 18 (1748), III. 301. Twelve stout Indians carried a canopy of yellow and green silk, under which all the royal family walked:—the rest had umbrelloes, supported by their own particular slaves.

  2.  A portable protection against bad weather, made of silk or similar material fastened on slender ribs, which are attached radially to a stick and can be readily raised so as to form a circular arched canopy.

  α.  1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 149. A Shagg or Yopangee which riding serues [in Persia] as an Vmbrella against raine.

1716.  Gay, Trivia, I. 211. Good houswives … underneath th’ umbrella’s oily shed, Safe thro’ the wet on clinking pattens tread.

1765.  H. Walpole, Lett. to J. Chute, 3 Oct. Servants … walk about the streets in the rain with umbrellas to avoid putting on their hats.

1787.  Phil. Trans., LXXVII. 291. If the weather be rainy, an insulated umbrella may be carried in one hand.

1833.  Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 52. It poured with rain, and my umbrella broke all to pieces.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Manners, ¶ 6. An Englishman walks in a pouring rain, swinging his closed umbrella like a walking-stick.

1882.  Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, I. i. 34. She always carried her stout little umbrella, winter or summer.

  β.  1697.  [see 1 β].

1704.  Swift, T. Tub, xi. A large Skin of Parchment … served him for a Night-cap when he went to Bed, and for an Umbrello in rainy Weather.

1709.  W. King, Art of Love, 99. I might have made you such a fellow, As should have carry’d my Umbrello, Or bore a flambeau by my chair.

1731.  Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 32. An Umbrello, suspended by a Packthread tied to the Handle of it, became strongly Electrical.

1732.  Inventory Sir R. Sutton’s Goods, 7. Four Umbrellows.

  3.  Used in comparisons or similes, esp. with reference to shape.

  α.  1616.  B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, IV. iv. I saw i’ the Court of Spaine once, A Lady fall i’ the Kings sight, along. And there shee lay, nat spred, as an Vmbrella.

1630.  Drayton, Muses Elizium (1892), 15. Doues … Which … shall … like Vmbrellas with their feathers Sheeld you in all sorts of weathers.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 99. Hats … With broad Brims sometimes like Umbrellas, And sometimes narrow as Punchinello’s.

1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World (1757), 66. On this bank, or shoal, we saw great numbers of Clubbers appearing, like the tops of umbrellas.

1726.  J. Hobson, Diary, 8 Oct., in Yorks. Diaries (Surtees), 258. Out of all … came pyramidicall streams of light,… forming such a figure as a ladies’ umbrella.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 646. The forets diverging from the centre, spreading outwards and downwards like an umbrella.

  β.  1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 116, ¶ 1. An engine of several legs, that could contract or open itself like the top of an umbrello.

1740.  L. Whyte, Dissert. Fashions, 66. Erst have I seen a little fellow, With Hat as large as Vmbrellow; It was the Mode for young and old.

  † 4.  fig. a. A means of shelter or protection.

  α.  1609.  Donne, Lett. (1651), 63. We have an earthly cave, our bodies, to go into by consideration, and cool our selves; and … we have within us a torch, a soul, lighter and warmer than any without: we are therefore our own umbrella’s and our own suns.

1624.  Fletcher, Rule a Wife., III. i. Is your heart at rest, Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella To keep the scorching worlds opinion From your fair credit.

1648.  J. Raymond, Il Merc. Ital., Pref. 1. A weather beaten Traveller needs no such Umbrilla as a Patron to shroud under.

a. 1734.  North, Examen, I. ii. (1740), 89. I have been, perhaps, too long in exposing the Author for holding up an Umbrella to keep his Earl in a Shade.

  β.  1652.  H. L’Estrange, Amer. no Jewes, To Rdr. No other dedicatory Umbrello do I seek … to defend this work from the scorch of censure.

1670.  Philipot, Antiq. Hierol. & Gent., Ded. This Treatise implores your Patronage as an Umbrello to over-shadow it.

1690.  Secr. Hist. Chas. II. & Jas. II., 112. The popular gentlemen were only made use of as Umbrello’s to shade the conspirators from the scorching heat of the people’s discontent.

  † b.  A screen or disguise. Obs.

1623.  T. Scott, Tongue-Combat, 80. Yorke, Patton, and Symple, with many others, who may haue Dispensations for their Oathes, and Vmbrilloes for their humours.

1653.  Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, I. vi. 77. We shall dishonour the sufferings of our blessed Saviour, if we make them to be a Umbrello to shelter our impious and ungodly living.

1658.  Osborne, Mem. Jas. I., 45. Those brainsick fooles as … made Religion an Umbrella to impiety.

  5.  Anything serving as a protection or shelter from the sun, rain, etc.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 403. How do they lessen the stately wonders of the Eye, into Cottages (I may say Snaile-like Umbrellos) meer shades, and Dormitorys.

1674.  C. F., Wit at a Venture, 38. Shroud the Sun, and let each tree To her a kind umbrella be.

1701.  Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 25. Nature kindly … shelters it with the umbrella’s of all sorts of Trees from pernicious Lakes.

1718.  Ozell, trans. Tournefort’s Voy., I. 66. To skreen themselues from the sun, they haue no other way but to make a sort of Umbrella of their Handkerchief.

1838.  Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. Witches’ Frolic (1905), 99. The straggling yew, His leafy umbrella, was wet through and through; Rob was half dead with cold.

1907.  Westm. Gaz., 9 Feb., 2/2. Here and there a stone-pine with its great umbrella of dark foliage cast a more impenetrable shade.

  † b.  A sun-blind. Obs.

1687.  Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. s.v., To have an Umbrello before his Window to keep off the Sun [Fr. un Paillasson].

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Umbrello,… a Wooden Frame cover’d with Cloth or Stuff, to keep off the Sun from a Window.

1709.  Mrs. Manley, Secret Mem., I. 33. The Weather violently Hot, the Umbrelloes were let down from behind the Windows, the Sashes open.

  6.  A structure resembling in shape an outspread umbrella, or serving for protection against something.

1680–4.  Dingley, Hist. from Marble (Camden Soc.), p. xxxix. The Umbrello in y^e Bath was erected and leaded by Mr. Coo.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills, II. 125. Tho’ at Cales they scap’ed our Guns, By strong wall’d umbrello.

1742.  B. Langley, Anc. Archit. Restored, Plate xxxi. The work contains several designs for Umbrellos, by which term the author indicates a roofed structure with open sides to be placed at the termination of a walk in a garden.

1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 51. A spire surmounted by a Tee or umbrella of open iron-work.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal-M., 266. Umbrella [= Bonnet, the overhead cover of a cage or swinging bont].

1904.  Daily Chron., 26 Oct., 4/5. It requires a pretty good umbrella of a trench to protect men from this death-shower.

  b.  Anything which temporarily or permanently has the form of an umbrella.

c. 1770.  Art of Angling, 48, in Ruddiman, Coll. (1773), 277. But mine is not the glory to unfurl The net’s umbrello, with Herculean whirl.

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 106. The feathery-like points of the down … uniting together form a kind of inverted umbrella.

1866.  E. C. Rye, Brit. Beetles, 225. The larvæ in this family have an ingenious but unpleasant habit of forming their excrement into an umbrella, as in Crioceris.

1885.  Pall Mall G., 11 March, 11/1. The araucaria forests … fringing the tops of the hills … with delicate, long stilted umbrellas.

  c.  A broad-brimmed hat.

a. 1803.  C. L. Lewes, in Mem. (1805), I. 25. A large slouched beaver umbrella, that wanted only a crape hatband to sanctify it for a funeral.

  7.  a. Bot. A part of a plant resembling an outspread umbrella.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Gard. Cyrus, iii. 47. Elegant clusters of Dragons … with an umbrella or skreening Leaf about them.

1712.  trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 6. The Flowers grow in Umbrellos on the Tops of the thick Branches.

1809.  Naval Chron., XXII. 493. The cap of a mushroom, which M. P. … names umbrella.

  b.  Zool. The gelatinous disk or bell-shaped structure of a jelly-fish.

1834.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, XII. 482. Medusa have a disk more or less convex above, similar to the head of a mushroom, and to which the name of umbrella has been given.

1861.  J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 38. In the umbrella of the Lucernaridæ, both vesicles and pigment-spots seem to become united into a single organ.

1881.  E. R. Lankester in Jrnl. Microsc. Sci., Jan., 122. The manubrium of Limnocodium is a somewhnt quadrangular tube, which depends during life below the margin of the umbrella.

  c.  Conch. A limpet-like gastropod of the genus Umbrella; also the part of the shell resembling an open umbrella.

1841.  Penny Cycl., XXI. 217/2. Umbrella with a flattened shell; the disk of the lower surface not radiated.

1861.  P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Instit., 1860, 230. The shell … entirely covers the animal; which … can move its long neck freely under its large umbrella. Ibid., 234. The Umbrellas are very large creatures, wearing a flat limpet on the middle of the back.

  † 8.  White umbrella, the elder-tree. Obs.^–1

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Gard. Cyrus, iii. 47. The white umbrella or medicall bush of Elder, is an Epitome of this order.

  9.  attrib. and Comb., as umbrella-case, -cover, covering, frame, -silk, -stand, -stick, trade; umbrella-bearer, -maker, -mender; umbrella-shaped, -topped adjs.; umbrella-wise adv.

1852.  Bonomi, Nineveh & Palaces (1853), 176. The king … is accompanied by his charioteer and *umbrella-bearer.

1891.  Kinns, Graven in Rock, xvi. 599. In the left hand of the umbrella-bearer is an object like a fan or fly-trap.

1850.  Thackeray, Pendennis, lvii. His despatch-boxes and *umbrella-cases, his guide-books, passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the English traveller.

1888.  Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 723/1. In 1848 William Sangster patented the use of alpaca as an *umbrella covering material.

1837.  Hebert, Engin. & Mech. Encycl., II. 829. *Umbrella frames of the usual construction.

1793–4.  Matthews’s Bristol Directory, Ashbury, William, *Umbrella-maker, Hope Square, Hotwells.

1813.  Examiner, 31 May, 350/2. She has given ‘mirth’ to nobody except it be the ducks and the umbrella-makers.

1884.  Harper’s Mag., Feb., 375/1. An umbrella-maker had established his open-air shop.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, iii. The summer sun … came with the water-carts and the old clothes-men,… and the *umbrella-mender.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 387. Capsule cylindrical, sitting on a hollow nearly globular or *umbrella-shaped receptacle.

1837.  P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 298. The pileusor cap is the conical or umbrella-shaped organ that surmounts the stipe of the Agarics.

1857.  Mayne Reid, The Young Yägers, xlviii. 427. By the foot of the mountain the splendid Acacia eburnea, with its umbrella-shaped head, and clusters of golden flowers filling the air with their fragrance.

1862.  Ansted, Channel Isl., II. ix. (ed. 2), 239. The umbrella-shaped body of this animal.

1888.  Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 723/1. *Umbrella silk is principally made at Lyons and Crefeld.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6061. Fenders, fire-irons, hat and *umbrella stands.

1879.  Meredith, Egoist, xxv. He stepped to the umbrella-stand. There was then a general question whether Clara had taken her umbrella.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2679/1. In preparing an ordinary *umbrella-stick, it passes through 19 separate processes or movements.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 61/1. Some friendly grove of *umbrella-topped mimosas.

1835.  Penny Cycl., IV. 446/1. The *umbrella trade arose from the demand for the brass furniture of these useful contrivances.

1725.  Fam. Dict., s.v. Elder-Tree, Its Flowers grow somewhat like Roses at the Tops of the Branches *Umbrella or Parasole-wise.

1854.  Thoreau, Jrnl, 19 May, Wks. 1906, XII. 280. The young and tender oak leaves, disposed umbrella-wise about the extremities of last year’s twigs, have been very attractive from their different tints of red.

  b.  In names of plants or trees, denoting ‘shaped like, resembling, an umbrella,’ as umbrella acacia, bush, -fir, grass, leaf, palm, -pine, -plant, -wort.

1882.  Garden, 11 March, 166/3. The *Umbrella Acacia … forms a dense globular head, which is certainly very conspicuous.

1889.  Maiden, Useful Pl., 363. Acacia Oswaldi,… often called *Umbrella Bush, as it is a capital shade-tree.

1884.  Miller, Plant-n., 247/2. Sciadopitys, *Umbrella-, or Parasol-, Pine or Fir. Ibid., 58/1. *Umbrella Grass. Fuirena squarrosa and Panicum decompositum.

1898.  Morris, Austral Eng., 487/1. It is called Umbrella-grass, from the shape of the branches at the top of the stem representing the ribs of an open umbrella.

1866.  Treas. Bot., 412/1. The only species, Diphylleia cymosa, a native of Japan, and of the southern United States, is there called the *Umbrella Leaf.

1798.  Nemnich, Allg. Polyglotten-Lex., II. 928. *Umbrella palm. Corypha numbraculifera.

1884.  Miller, Plant-n., 210/1. Kentia Canterburyana, Umbrella Palm.

1873.  Hemsley, Handbk. Trees & Shrubs, 435. Sciadopitys verticillata, *Umbrella-Pine. A large evergreen tree from 50 to 150 feet high.

1893.  G. Allen, Scallywag, I. 141. Among the rosemary bushes and the scanty umbrella-pines.

1874.  Treas. Bot., Suppl. 1350/1. *Umbrella-plant, Saxifraga peltata.

1829.  Loudon, Encycl. Plants (1836), 36. Calymenia. *Umbrella-Wort.

1852.  Johnson, Cottage Gard. Dict., 671/2. Oxybaphus, Umbrella-wort.

  c.  In names of birds, etc., as umbrella-ant, -bird, chatterer, shell, snake.

1883.  W. Farren, White Ants, vi. 61. In some ant colonies more than two distinct forms of workers are found. I may instance the Saüba, or *Umbrella ant of Brazil.

1891.  Cent. Dict., Umbrella-ant, a parasol-ant or leaf-carrying ant.

1850.  A. R. Wallace, in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1851), Ser. II. VIII. 429. The *Umbrella Bird is about the size of a crow.

1863.  Bates, Nat. Amazon, II. iv. 283. The rare and curious Umbrella bird (Cephalopterus ornatus);… decorated with a crest of long, curved, hairy feathers having long bare quills, which, when raised, spread themselves out in the form of a fringed sun-shade over the head. Ibid., II. vi. 387. Birds and monkeys, in this glorious forest, were very abundant,… the *Umbrella Chatterer and curl-crested Toucans amongst the most beautiful of the birds.

1861.  P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Instit., 1860, 234. Family Umbrellidæ. (Chinese *Umbrella Shells.)

1881.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 226. The ‘Chinese Umbrella-shell’ has a small depressed Limpet-like shell, marked by concentric lines of growth.

1904.  Westm. Gaz., 23 April, 2/3. The natives call it Mtaba, or the *umbrella snake.

  10.  Special Combs., as umbrella gingham, gingham employed for covering umbrellas; umbrella hat, a hat similar in size or shape to an umbrella; umbrella man, (a) one who mends or sells umbrellas; (b) a street-vendor who displays his wares in an inverted open umbrella; umbrella print-seller, = prec. (b); umbrella roof, an arched roof resembling an umbrella; umbrella sail, a sail constructed partly on the principle of an umbrella; umbrella tent, a tent made on the umbrella principle; umbrella warping Naut. (see quot.).

1834.  Tait’s Mag., I. 72/2. *Umbrella ginghams have remained steady for some time.

1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit. (1907), II. 150. Dutch women with large *umbrella hats shooting out half a yard before them.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 303. I learned from one *‘umbrella man’ that, six or seven years previously, he used to sell more portraits of ‘Mr. Edmund Kean, as Richard III.,’ than of anything else.

1889.  Belgravia, Sept., 333. The umbrella-man … stopped beside a stile and put down his bundle of umbrellas.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 303. Sometimes, too, an *‘umbrella print-seller’ will have a few ‘pictures in frames’ on a sort of stand alongside the umbrella.

1847.  Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 106 (1850), 74. The Odeion also, a smaller theatre with an *umbrella roof, received its form at Athens.

1900.  Pearson’s Mag., Aug., 143. The *umbrella sail can be set or furled in a minute; it does not close up as does an umbrella, but each side shuts up like a fan.

1895.  Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List, 15 Sept. Index p. lxxv. *Umbrella Tents. Ibid., 449. The Umbrella Garden Tent with Sloping Walls.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 705. *Umbrella-warping, a contrivance similar to an umbrella, by which ships in a calm can be warped ahead.