Build

verb. (colloquial).—[MURRAY: Properly to construct a dwelling, and by extension of meaning … to construct by fitting together of separate parts; chiefly with reference to structures of considerable size … (not, e.g., a watch, a dress, or a piano).] In the United States, BUILD (like FIX [q.v.]) is used with much more latitude than in England. There, as Fennimore Cooper puts it, everything is BUILT. The priest BUILDS up a flock; the speculator a fortune; the lawyer a reputation; the landlord a town; and the tailor, as in England, BUILDS up a suit of clothes. A fire is BUILT instead of made, and the expression is even extended to individuals, to be BUILT being used with the meaning of formed. ‘I was not BUILT that way’; and hence in a still more idiomatic sense to express unwillingness to adopt a specified course or carry out any inconvenient plan.

  1649.  DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, Country Captain, I. 1. I could teach you to BUILD a sconce Sir.

  d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Works, ii. 282. I never parted with any of my favours, nay, not … a clap gratis, except a lieutenant and ensign … once … BUILT UP A SCONCE, and left me in the lurch.

  1853.  WHYTE-MELVILLE, Digby Grand, xx. That creator of manly beauty, who BUILDS your coat on the model of an Apollo.

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, I., x. If he forswore the primitive garments that his country-tailor had condemned him to wear, and adapted the BUILD of his dress to the peculiar requirements of university fashion.

  1864.  VANCE, The Chickaleary Cove. My downy kicksies … BUILT on a plan werry naughty.

  1871.  A. FORBES, My Experiences of the War between France and Germany, II., 19. I met a gentleman who had got a dress coat BUILT in the place [Versailles].

  1880.  Punch, Jan. 10, 6. THE SPREAD OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL IDEAS.—His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey. ‘Just look at these bags you last BUILT me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly bags in your life? I shall always be glad to come and dine with you, old man; but I’ll be hanged if you shall ever measure me for another pair of bags!’ Mr. Snippe (of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street). ‘You’ve always grumbled about your bags, as you call ’em, ever since you were my fag at Eton; and at Christchurch you were just as bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to come all the way down and measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the bags, my dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old Stick-in-the-mud, and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has promised to give us “Little Billee.”’

  TROUSER’S BUILDER, subs. phr. (American).—A tailor.

  TO BUILD A CHAPEL, verb. phr. (nautical).—To steer badly, and so cause a ship to veer round.

  NOT BUILT THAT WAY, phr. (general).—Not to one’s taste, out of one’s line—a general expression of disapproval or dissent: of persons or things.

  1881.  American Humorist, May 12. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that mankind is passing through a great era of change; even womankind is not BUILT as she was a few brief years ago.

  1888.  Missouri Republican, Jan. 25. ‘Why didn’t you roll down?’ ‘I wasn’t BUILT THAT WAY.’

  TO BUILD (HAVE, PLAN or OWN) A CASTLE IN SPAIN (IN THE AIR, THE SKIES, or TO BUILD A CASTLE), verb. phr. (old).—To indulge in visionary projects or schemes; to romance: Fr. château en Espagne, en Asie, en Albanie, &c. Hence A CASTLE IN SPAIN (etc.) = a day dream; AIR-BUILT = chimerical; etc.

  c. 1400.  The Romaunt of the Rose, 2573.

  1475.  CAXTON, Jason, 19. He began to make CASTELLIS IN SPAYGNE as louers doo.

  1575.  GASCOIGNE, The Steele Glas [CHALMERS, English Poets, ii. 58].

  1580.  T. NORTH, Plutarch (1696). 171. They BUILT CASTLES IN THE AIR and thought to do great wonders.

  1586.  T. BOWES, trans. de La Primaudaye’s The French Academie, ii. 182. Some … have their wittes a wool-gathering, and as wee use commonly to say, are BUILDING OF CASTLES IN SPAINE.

  1590.  GREENE, Orlando Furioso (1599), 16. In conceite BUILDE CASTLES IN THE SKIE.

  1594.  SHAKESPEARE, Richard III., iii. 4. 100. Who BUILDS his hopes IN AIR of his good looks.

  1601.  W. WATSON, Important Considerations (1675), 60. Mr. Saunders (BUILDING CASTLES IN THE AIR amongst his Books).

  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Faire des chasteaux en Espaigne. TO BUILD CASTLES IN THE AIRE (say we).

  c. 1630.  DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN, Poems, 42. 2. Strange CASTLES BUILDED IN THE SKIES.

  1621.  BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I. III. i. 2. (1651), 187. That CASTLE IN THE AYR, that crochet, that whimsie.

  1727.  POPE, The Dunciad, iii. 10. The AIR-BUILT CASTLE and the golden Dream.

  1757.  WESLEY, Works (1872), ix. 304. A mere CASTLE IN THE AIR.

  c. 1763.  SHENSTONE, Odes (1765), 237. To plan frail CASTLES IN THE SKIES.

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas (1812), VII. x. I was gradually lulled with so much wealth, and fell asleep in the very act of BUILDING CASTLES IN SPAIN.

  1831.  CARLYLE, Sartor Resartus (1858), 32. High AIR-CASTLES cunningly BUILT of Words.

  1860.  MOTLEY, History of the United Netherlands, IV. 282. The explosion of the Gunpowder Plot blowing the CASTLES IN SPAIN into the air.

  1871.  M. COLLINS, Marquis and Merchant, II. vii. 203. We have all had our CASTLES IN SPAIN.

  1879.  F. W. FARRAR, The Life and Work of St. Paul, I. 642. These … points … were not peculiar to Philo. They were, so to speak, IN THE AIR.