Forms: 3–7 vrinal, 4–6 -all(e, 4–5 vrynal, 4–6 -all(e, 6–7 urinall (6 -alle, 7 -ell), 7– urinal; 5 orinal, orynal; also 3 vrnal, 6 vrnall. [a. OF. urinal (12th c.; also orinal, pl. orignaulx), a. L. ūrīnal, f. ūrīna URINE sb.1 Cf. Pr. urinal, Pg. ur-, ourinol, It. orinale, Pr. and Sp. orinal.]
† 1. A glass vessel or phial employed to receive urine for medical examination or inspection. Obs.
c. 1275. Lay., 17724. He nam his vrinal [c. 1205 glæs-fat] anon, an þe king meh þar on; one wile after þan þe vrnal an honde he nam.
13[?]. Seuyn Sages (W.), 1049. The yonge man … taketh an vrinal for to sen.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. Prol., 19. Thyne vrynals and thy Iurdones.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 370/1. Orynal, or vrynal, urinale.
1495. Nottingham Rec., III. 284. ij vrinalles, price iiij d.
1548. Recorde, Urin. Physick, iv. 14 b. The Vrinall … shulde be of pure clere glasse, not thyck, nor greene in colour.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, R 3 b. Then shee neuer need to haue her water cast in an vrinall for the greene sicknes.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. ii. 53. Reasons drawn from the urine alone are as brittle as the urinall.
1685. Boyle, Effects of Motion, Suppl. 142. Thin Vessels of Glass, especially Urinals, to be diligently made clean with Sand.
1737. Phil. Trans., XLI. 707. The Capillamenta, whilst in the Urinal, and till the Urine was decanted.
1757. Keysler’s Trav., IV. 19. While her maid is stirring a medicine in a spoon, and the physician looking into the urinal.
1858. Thudichum, The Urine, 19. In some hospitals the ancient urinal is still in use.
fig. c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 2. When I found those letters … which he sends as urinals up and down the world, to look into his water for discovery of the crazie condition of his body.
1663. Sir G. Mackenzie, Religious Stoic, 19. There ye shall know by the Urinal of his eyes, and the water standing therein, what convulsion-fits his soul suffers.
transf. 1688. Holme, Armoury, III. xiv. (Roxb.), 10/2. He beareth Argent, a vrinall Azure.
† 2. Alchemy. (See quot. 1738.) Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. T., 73. Sondry vessels maad of erthe and glas, Oure vrynals and our descensories.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 1. Men call it a receiver or a urinall. Ibid., 212. If ij urinals be set together.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XII. xvii. (1886), 212. Take a glasse viall full of holie water…. On the mouth of the viall or urinall, two olive leaves must be laid.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Forms & Qual., 298. I took two parcels of Gold,… and having cast each of these in a distinct Urinal,… I caus’d [etc.].
1738. Chambers, Cycl., Urinal, in chemistry, is an oblong glass vessel, used for making solutions.
3. A chamber-pot.
c. 1475. Cath. Angl., 405/1 (A.). An Vrynalle, vrinaria,… vbi Jordane.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 168 b. Se that I lacke nat by my beddis syde a chayer of easement:… and an vrnall bye.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 212 b. His groome whose dayly office it was to geve unto hym his urinall in his chaumbre.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 232. Not finding any of his Pages there, he … tooke the Vrinall himselfe, which stood at his beds head.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., 13. Some Politicians … lyable to a night-walking cudgeller, or the emptying of a Urinall.
1695. Congreve, Love for L., II. iii. [To] warm your Bed, and … set the Candle and your Tobacco-Box, and your Urinal by you.
1739. R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, p. viii. He finds Occasion to inspect the Urinal and the Bed-pan.
a. 1774. Goldsm., trans. Scarron’s Com. Romance (1775), I. 35. Pray reach me the chamber-pot, quoth Rancour…. The other … took up the urinal, and gave it to Rancour.
1822. Good, Study Med., IV. 540. Forming red sand on the surface, as it probably would otherwise have done in the bladder or the urinal.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 342. The use of chloral to keep free from odor the urinals of paraplegics.
transf. a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Urinal of the Planets, Ireland,… because of its frequent and great Rains.
4. A vessel or reservoir with conductor worn on the person for incontinence of urine.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl.
1895. Arnold & Sons’ Catal. Surg. Instrum., 707. Urinals for Invalids, Travellers, etc. The best quality of Urinals are all made of specially prepared Ætherized India-rubber.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 244. The wearing of indiarubber urinals, and other means of avoiding ‘accidents.’
5. A building, erection, or enclosure for accommodating persons when requiring to pass urine.
1851. J. H. Stirling, in A. H. Stirling, Life (1912), vi. 106. I had put my back to one of the urinals.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 319. Earthen-ware or slate urinals should be used, with water running through them.
1898. G. B. Shaw, Plays, II. Candida, 29. A vast district … well served with ugly iron urinals.
6. attrib. and Comb., as urinal-glass (= sense 1), -like, metal; † urinal cherry (see quot. 1629); † urinal monger, † quack, † shaker, a quack doctor who diagnoses by inspecting the urine.
1611. Cotgr., Vrinaire,… vrinall-like.
1629. Parkinson, Parad., 572. The Vrinall Cherrie … is long and round, like vnto an Vrinall.
1641. Cowley, Guardian, II. v. That damn’d Urinal-monger … has not so much physick as would cure the toothach.
1651. French, Distill., i. 37. Put upon it another urinall-glasse inverted.
a. 1652. Brome, Queenes Exch., IV. E 4 b/2. He thinks my skull’s made but of urinal mettal.
1663. Cowley, Cutter Coleman-St., II. viii. Wor. He’s a kind of Grave-maker, Cut. A Urinal Shaker.
1763. J. Clubbe, Physiognomy, 7. How came this art into reputation?… By the same means that Urinal Quacks and Conjurors have had a run here.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 99. Urinal Cleaner, Attendant, &c.
