subs. (theatrical).—1. The arrangement of an actor’s face and dress. See TO MAKE UP, sense 1. MAKE-UP BOX = a box of materials—rouge, sponges, grease-paint, and the like—used in making-up.
1870. Figaro, 25 Nov. ‘A Dream of the Kow.’ An elderly gentleman—who is seventy if he is a day, but wishes to pass himself off for—let us be charitable and say—half his real age. Certainly, his MAKE-UP is wonderfully good.
1876. G. ELIOT, Daniel Deronda, iii. The sort of professional MAKE-UP which penetrates skin, tones, and gestures, and defies all drapery.
1879. DICKENS, Jr., Dictionary of London, s.v. ‘Private Theatricals.’ For wigs and MAKE-UP the amateur may depend upon Mr. Clarkson, of Wellington-street.
1882. Daily Telegraph, 22 Feb. ‘The success of the idea was prejudiced by the MAKE-UP, for though there was hideousness in the eyes, the lower part of the face of the new Caliban was anything but unprepossessing.’
1883. G. A. SALA, Echoes of the Year, 362. Her MAKE-UP was so terrifically weird and ghastly.
1889. Academy, 6 July, p. 14. Mr. Somerset, who makes up badly for the part of the father, unless it is, as it may be, very clever to suggest by MAKE-UP, a character wholly artificial, etc.
1889. Globe, 11 Feb. The arrangement of paunch and limb and the MAKE-UP of the face are perfect.
1891. Sporting Life, 25 March. No more a type than those two comedians at the Opera Comique are—thanks to the MAKE-UP and the words they speak and warble.
