| 释义 |
▪ I. mode, n.|məʊd|
Also 4 moede; and see mood n.2
[In branch I, a. L. modus measure, size, limit of quantity, manner, method, musical ‘mode’ (in late Latin also ‘mood’ in grammar and logic), f. W. Indogermanic *mod- (:*med-: see mete v.). In branch II, a. F. mode fem., ad. L. modus (with change of gender due to the final e); the Fr. word had in the 16th c. developed the sense of ‘fashion’, and this was adopted into Eng. in the 17th c.
The F. mode (15th c. in Hatz-Darm.) remained fem. in all uses until the 17th c., when the masc. gender was adopted for the uses, chiefly technical, that belonged to L. modus. For the sense ‘fashion’ the fem. gender was retained. Sp., Pg., and It. have modo (from Latin) manner, etc., moda (from Fr.) fashion; the Fr. word in the latter sense has been adopted as G. mode, Da. mode, Sw. mod.]
I. In senses derived directly from the Latin.
1. Mus.
a. A kind or form of scale; a particular scheme or system of sounds. (a) In ancient Greek music: Each of the scales or sets of sounds, according to one or other of which a piece of music in the diatonic style was composed; denoted by special names (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc.) and each having a special character attributed to it. Sometimes also applied to the scales used in other (e.g. Oriental) systems of music.
c1374Chaucer Boeth. ii. pr. i. 20 (Camb. MS.), Musyce A damysel of oure hows þat syngeth now lyhtere moedes or probasyons now heuyere [orig. nunc leviores, nunc graviores modos]. 1674Playford Skill Mus. i. xi. 57 That which the Grecians called Mode or Mood, the Latins termed Tone or Tune. a1727Newton Chronol. Amended i. (1728) 59 He [Terpander] was the first who distinguished the modes of Lyric music by several names. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. iii. vii. I. 297 The Hindú music appears..to be systematic and refined. They have eighty-four modes, of which thirty-six are in general use, and each of which, it appears, has a peculiar expression. 1867Macfarren Harmony i. 8 In the diatonic genus, the Greeks had several modes.
(b) In mediæval church music: Each of the scales (ecclesiastical modes or Gregorian modes) in which plainsong was composed (derived from and named after, but not always corresponding to, the ancient Greek ones); beginning on different notes of the natural scale, and thus having the intervals (tones and semitones) differently arranged. authentic modes, plagal modes: see these words.
1721A. Malcolm Treat. Mus. ix. 563 Authentick and..plagal Modes. 1782Burney Hist. Mus. II. 14 The Eight Tones or Ecclesiastical Modes. 1839Penny Cycl. XV. 296/1 In what is called the Gregorian Chant there are eight modes, or tones... The Authentic modes are the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixo-Lydian of the antients. 1881Macfarren Counterp. iii. 6 A mode in the mediæval church was a distribution of..notes..which varied in the order of the tones and semitones according to what note was chosen for the key-note.
(c) In modern music: Each of the two species or classes (major and minor) of keys, having the intervals differently arranged: corresponding respectively to the Ionian and æolian ecclesiastical modes. Formerly sometimes = key n.1 7 b.
1721A. Malcolm Treat. Mus. ix. 274, I would propose the Word Mode, to express the melodious Constitution of the Octave..; and because there are Two Species, let us call that with a 3d g the greater Mode, and that with a 3d l the lesser Mode. Ibid. 277 The 3d and 5th of any Mode or Key deserve the Name of essential Notes. 1777Sir W. Jones Ess. Imit. Arts Poems, etc. 198 Now a series of sounds relating to one leading note is called a mode, or a tone, and, as there are twelve semitones in the scale, each of which may be made in its turn the leader of a mode, it follows that there are twelve modes. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) IX. 285/1 Major or minor intervals, as they prevail, characterize the major or minor mode. 1880C. H. H. Parry in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 460 The Dominant major ninth is only used in the major mode, the minor ninth in both.
b. The proportion of a long to a large and to a breve; = mood n.2 3. Obs. exc. Hist.
1667Simpson Compend. Pract. Mus. 14 In former times they had four Moods or Modes of measuring Notes. 1782Burney Hist. Mus. II. 421 The Circle with a point of perfection in the center, thus ☉, was the Sign for the great Mode perfect, in which all long notes were equal in duration to three of the next shorter in degree. 1880W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 340 In the Great Mode Perfect, the Large is equal to three Longs. In the Great Mode Imperfect, it is equal to two only. In the Lesser Mode Perfect, the Long is equal to three Breves. In the Lesser Mode Imperfect it is equal to two.
2. a. Gram. = mood n.2 2. Also freq. attrib.
1520Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 3 Somtyme of the infinytyve mode folowynge. 1581Fulke in Confer. ii. (1584) M iij, The wordes..are both the imperatiue mode in the Greeke text. 1751Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 159 Thus have we established a variety of modes: the indicative or declarative,..the potential [etc.]. 1843Penny Cycl. XXVI. 252/2 The term Verb comprehends those words in a language which are used to indicate the relations of mode or mood. 1933L. Bloomfield Lang. xvi. 273 In English..the unreal appears only in clauses introduced by if or though, or in combination with the phrasal mode-forms (he would help us, unreal of he will help us). 1946H. Hoijer et al. Ling. Struct. Native Amer. 97 The forms of the verb [in Algonquian] fall into five orders. Each order consists of one or more modes, each with a full set of forms. 1946C. Morris Signs, Lang. & Behavior v. 125 A third possibility..may be called the mode-use classification. 1961R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts 495 Five modes are recognized here: common (or ‘indicative’), subjunctive, infinitival, gerundial, participial. 1965Canad. Jrnl. Ling. Spring 175 We have now considered all the verb prefixes except those for mode-aspect. The Eyak mode-aspect system is relatively well-proportioned and clear-cut.
b. Linguistics. (See quots.)
1954K. L. Pike Lang. in Rel. Human Behavior i. iii. 35/2 On any level of focus each..emic unit..is divided structurally into three specific kinds of complex overlapping components which I shall call modes. 1967W. A. Cook On Tagmemes & Transforms i. 9 Every linguistic sign is defined by its meaning, form and distribution... These are included in Pike's three modes: the manifestation mode, the feature mode, and the distribution mode. Ibid. 10 The tagmeme can be fully defined, parallel to the phoneme and morpheme, with its own peculiar feature, manifestation, and distribution modes.
3. Logic. [= med.L. modus, a rendering of Gr. τρόπος, introduced by the early commentators on Aristotle.]
a. = mood n.2 1.
1532More Confut. Tindale iii. 290 And thys syllogysme yf Tyndale wolde fayne wyt in what fygure it is made: he shall fynde it in y⊇ fyrst fygure, & the thyrd mode. 1699T. Baker Refl. Learning v. 54 To reduce our..loose reasonings to certain Rules, and make them conclude in Mode and Figure. 1774Reid Aristotle's Logic iii. §2 Wks. II. 694/2 The Mode of a syllogism is determined by the Quality and Quantity of the propositions of which it consists. 1843Mill Logic ii. ii. §1 Each figure is subdivided into modes, according to what are called the quantity and quality of the propositions.
b. The character of a modal proposition as either necessary, contingent, possible, or impossible; each of the four kinds into which modal propositions are divided as having one or another of these qualities. Also in wider use (see quots.).
1852Mansel Aldrich's Logic (ed. 2) 45. 1937 A. Smeaton tr. Carnap's Logical Syntax of Lang. iv. §68. 247 Some of the known examples of intensional sentences belong to the autonymous mode of speech. 1941O. Helmer tr. Tarski's Introd. Logic viii. 175 The proof of Theorem 1—like any other indirect mode of inference—can be brought under the schema sketched above. 1946C. I. Lewis Analysis of Knowl. i. iii. 39 It is desirable to recognize two further modes also, which will here be called, respectively, comprehension and signification. 1965J. O. Urmson Philos. Analysis 37 ‘Xs are logical constructions’ is in the material mode of speech. 1966W. V. Quine Ways of Paradox xiii. 156 Whatever may be said about necessity may be said also, with easy and obvious adjustments, about the other modes. 1970A. E. Blumberg tr. Stegmüller's Main Currents Contemp. Germ., Brit. & Amer. Philos. vi. 234 Two modes may exclude each other (necessity and impossibility). Ibid. vii. 308 Put in the formal mode his thesis simply states that all thing-statements can be translated into a sense-data language (a phenomenalistic language).
4. a. A way or manner in which something is done or takes place; a method of procedure in any activity, business, etc.
a1667Jer. Taylor Gold. Grove, Guide Penit. (1836) 156 The duty itself being once resolved upon, the mode of doing it may easily be found. 1798Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) I. 5 A regular mode of bringing to an amicable adjustment..any questions which might hereafter arise. 1794Paley Evid. (1825) II. 239 A good man will prefer that mode, by which he can produce the greatest effect. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 310 The mode in which a seisin of a rent may be acquired, has been already stated. 1825Waterton Wand. S. Amer. i. i. 88 The only mode then that remains is to proceed by water. 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. vi. (1885) 183 The writer made use of a mode of teaching used commonly enough in the Bible. 1900L. H. Bailey Bot. 152 When the compartments split in the middle between the partitions, the mode is loculicidal dehiscence.
†b. Used for ‘mode of expression’. Obs.
1779–81Johnson L. P., Dryden Wks. II. 385 He who writes much will not easily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted.
c. Physics. Any of the distinct kinds or patterns of vibration that an oscillatory system can sustain.
1867J. Tyndall Sound v. 188 When we make the same passage [from a fundamental tone to the first overtone] in a stopped pipe, we obtain a note a fifth above the octave. No intermediate modes of vibration are..possible. 1877Rayleigh Theory of Sound I. vi. 141 When a string vibrates in its gravest normal mode, the excursion is at any moment proportional to sin πx/l. Ibid., The production of ‘harmonics’ by lightly touching the string at the points of aliquot division is a well-known resource of the violinist. All component modes are excluded which have not a node at the point touched. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXV. 454/1 In fig. 34 the stationary wave systems of the first four modes are represented. 1949H. E. Penrose Princ. & Pract. Radar 626 Energy may be propagated in a wave-guide in a doubly infinite series of modes analogous, to a small extent, to a singly infinite series of modes represented by a fundamental note and its harmonics. The modes are distinguished by the patterns of the lines of force traversing the fields. 1950Stephens & Bate Wave Motion & Sound 386 In the theory of the specific heats of a solid the thermal vibrations are supposed to result from many simultaneous modes, whose phases have a random distribution. 1962Newnes Conc. Encycl. Electr. Engin. 883/2 The various higher-order modes travel [along a waveguide] with different velocities. 1969L. Allen Essent. Lasers ii. 13 The large number of modes at infrared or optical frequencies which are present in any cavity of reasonable size poses problems. This is because of the need for a high level of spontaneous emission to ensure that sufficient photons go into any one particular mode, to maintain the rate of stimulated emission.
5. a. A particular form, manner, or variety (of some quality, process, or condition). Now rare exc. in uses (e.g. in mode of life) in which it approaches sense 4.
1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. iii. 23 If they finde a determinate intellection of any Modes of Being, which were never in the least hinted by their externall or internall senses. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 211 What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam. Ibid. ii. 83 Modes of Self-love the Passions we may call. 1758Johnson Idler No. 1 ⁋2 Every mode of life has its conveniences. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. II. 22 note, The mode of superstition which prevailed in their own times. 1791Boswell Johnson Mar. an. 1781, Condescending to trifle in the same mode of conceit. a1858De Quincey Lang. Wks. IX. 89 The French language possesses the very highest degree of merit, though not in the very highest mode of merit. 1863Tyndall (title) Heat considered as a Mode of Motion. 1888M. E. Braddon Fatal Three i. i, She considered her mode of life intensely domestic.
b. Petrol. The quantitative mineral (as distinct from chemical) composition of a rock sample. Cf. norm 2.
1902W. Cross et al. in Jrnl. Geol. X. 604 We introduce two terms..as substitutes for the cumbrous and oft-repeated expressions, standard mineral composition (that calculated from the rock analysis) and actual mineral composition. For the first we propose the word norm, and for the second the word mode. 1932A. Johannsen Descr. Petrogr. Igneous Rocks II. iii (heading) Table 63. Modes of sodaclase-granites. 1962H. R. Cornwall in A. E. J. Engel et al. Petrologic Stud. 361 In ash flows in cooling unit 3 of the Bullfrog Hills caldera..lithologic differences between the lower and upper parts indicate quite certainly that more than one flow is present. The differences are shown by variations in the mode. 1974Nature 16 Aug. 562/2 The Clare Castle gneisses are coarse grained and weakly banded... Modes vary within the range: garnet 20–30%, sillimanite 5–20%, plagioclase 25–30%, potash feldspar 10–20% and quartz 10–40%.
6. Philos.
a. A manner or state of being of a thing; a thing considered as possessing certain attributes that do not belong to its essence, and may be changed without destroying its identity.
b. An attribute or quality of a substance; ‘an accidental determination’ (J.).
c. In Locke's use: A ‘complex idea’ which denotes neither a substance nor a relation. mixed mode: a ‘mode’ formed by the combination of different simple ideas; opposed to simple mode, a mode formed by the repetition of the same simple idea. Obs.
1677Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iv. Proem 5 Finite Ens or Being may be distributed into substance or Mode... Mode is not a complete ens or being, neither is it a mere nonentitie or nothing. 1678Ibid. III. 6 Moralitie is a mode not physically or intrinsecally inherent in human acts. 1681Glanvill Sadducismus 143 That a Spirit is not an Accident or Mode of Substance, all in a manner profess. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xii. §4 Modes, I call such complex Ideas, which, however compounded, contain not in them the supposition of subsisting by themselves, but are consider'd as Dependances on, or Affections of Substances; such are the Ideas signify'd by the Words Triangle, Gratitude, Murder. 1704Clarke Being & Attributes of God Wks. 1738 II. 527 To suppose that there is no Being, no Substance in the Universe, to which these Attributes or Modes of Existence are necessarily inherent, is a Contradiction in the very Terms. For Modes and Attributes exist only by the Existence of the Substance to which they belong. 1725Watts Logic i. ii. §3 The next sort of objects which are represented in our ideas, are called modes, or manners of being. 1727–52Chambers Cycl. s.v. Spinozism (end), Since the mode is not really distinct from the substance modified. 1781Cowper Anti-Thelyph. 42 That substances and modes of every kind Are mere impressions on the passive mind.
II. A direct adoption of mod.F. mode in the sense of fashion, prevailing fashion or custom.
7. a. A prevailing fashion or conventional custom, practice or style; esp. one characteristic of a particular place or period.
c1645Howell Lett. v. xxxviii. (1655) I. 233 He is also good at Larding of meat after the mode of France. 1645Evelyn Diary 8 Feb., Some of our company were flouted at for wearing red cloakes, as the mode then was. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 45 The Bannyan and other Indian Females after the Oriental Mode are seldom visible. 1667Milton P.L. i. 474 Gods Altar to disparage and displace For one of Syrian mode. 1716Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess of Mar 21 Nov., They are..dressed after the French and English modes. 1745De Foe's Eng. Tradesman (1841) I. x. 75 It is the mode to live high, to spend more than we get. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) III. ii. i. 59 There are modes wherever there are men. 1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) II. lviii. 249 These people..have much in their modes as well as in their manners to enlist the attention. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan 69 We are grown To be a sort of dandies in religion, Affecting the last mode.
b. ? Something fashionable.
1841C'tess Blessington Idler in France I. v. 66 Oh, the misery of trying on a new mode for the first time, and before a stranger!
c. Statistics. The value or range of values of a variate for which there is a maximum number of instances in a given population.
1895K. Pearson in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. CLXXXVI. 345, I have found it convenient to use the term mode for the abscissa corresponding to the ordinate of maximum frequency. Thus the ‘mean’, the ‘mode’, and the ‘median’ have all distinct characters. 1906R. H. Lock Rec. Progress in Study of Variations 89 When dealing with a symmetrical curve the position of the mode is identical with that of the median. 1947O. L. Davies Statistical Methods in Res. & Production iii. 27 In most industrial applications, however, distributions with more than one mode (multimodal) are, or should be, rare. The presence of two or more modes usually means that the sample is not homogeneous, i.e. that two or more distinct distributions have been combined. 1948L. D. & A. Crow Educ. Psychol. xx. 393 The score in a given set of data that appears most frequently is called the mode. 1973Jrnl. Genetic Psychol. CXXIII. 87 The Kuhlman—Anderson scores for the one group of Ss from a fifth-grade class yielded a mean of 93·91, a range of 46, a median of 93, and a mode of 92.
d. [Shortened form of F. gris mode fashion grey.] The name given to a variety of shades of grey (see quot. 1930).
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 125/3 Kid gloves... Colors: Black, brown, tan, mode, slate. 1930Maerz & Paul Dict. Color 167/1 Mode..was a term used in the nineteenth century to indicate a class of colors..usually on the pale order, running from neutral grays to strongly tinted greys of all hues... The old pattern books contain hundreds of samples of different colors, of every conceivable hue, all called ‘Mode’. 1957M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 224/2 Mode.., pale, bluish-gray color, sometimes drab.
8. a. Conventional usage in dress, manners, habit of life, etc., esp. as observed amongst persons ‘of fashion’.
1692R. L'Estrange Fables i. 2 We are to prefer..the Blessings of Providence before..the splendid Curiosities of Mode and Imagination. 1711Steele Spect. No. 6 ⁋4 Is there anything so just, as that Mode and Gallantry should be built upon exerting ourselves in what is proper and agreeable to the Institutions of Justice and Piety among us? 1789Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 554 These sentiments became a matter of mode. 1827Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 19 Over which the vicissitudes of mode have no sway. 1894A. C. Hillier in 2nd Bk. Rhymers' Club 80 We know that way they have of old, For it is mode in Opera-land.
†b. (man, people) of mode = man etc. of fashion (see fashion n. 12 b). Obs.
1676G. Etherege (title) The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter. 1693Humours Town 28 The man of Mode here in Town. 1711Addison Spect. No. 119 ⁋3 If after this we look on the People of Mode in the Country, we find in them the Manners of the last Age. 1711Steele ibid. No. 182 ⁋3, I..had the Satisfaction to see my Man of Mode put into the Round-House. 1749Bolingbroke Patriot King 181 The choice spirits of these days, the men of mode in politics.
†c. One who or that which sets or displays the fashion. Obs.
1712Steele Spect. No. 478 ⁋9 Every one who is considerable enough to be a Mode. 1818Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 48, I shall send two dressed dolls for the two babies, as modes.
9. the mode: the fashion or custom in dress, manners, speech, and the like adopted in society for the time being. arch.
1649Dk. Newcastle Country Capt. i. 11 Wee are governd by the mode, as waters by the moone. 1672Dryden Assignation Prol., But, gentlemen, you overdo the mode. 1697― Virgil, Life *4 b, The Devotion..was their Interest, and, which sometimes avails more, it was the Mode. 1706Addison Rosamond iii. iv, It suits a person in my station T' observe the mode, and be in fashion. 1728Young Love Fame v, The mode she fixes by the gown she wears. 1849Saxe Poems, Times 303 Slaves to the Mode, who pinch the aching waist And mend God's image to the Gallic taste. 1898Henley Lond. Types, Barmaid, Cheaply the mode she shadows.
†10. In phrases: in, out of (the) mode, in, out of fashion or customary use, esp. in ‘polite’ society; all, much the mode, said of the object of a general but usually temporary popularity. Obs.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. 25 This Tree is now all the mode for the Avenues to their Countrey palaces in France. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 175 The white Shock-Rabbit of Turkie is..now become the most in Mode. 1672J. Cresset in N. Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1868) XXII. 83 When they have come to Town, they must presently be in the mode, get fine clothes. 1673Remarques Humours Town 3 These things are set formalities, and out of Mode. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 101 Nothing can be bad or good, But as 'tis in or out of Mode. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. 117 Why Tom, you are high in the Mode. 1760Franklin Lett. Wks. 1840 VI. 230 If I would finish my letter in the mode, I should yet add something that means nothing. 1766Ann. Reg., Charac. 5/2 Monsieur de Belleisle was then much the mode, being spoken of both at court and at Paris. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii. i, What do you take to be the most fashionable age about town? Some time ago, forty was all the mode. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 408 In a few months experimental science became all the mode.
†11.
a. = alamode 4. Also attrib.
1751MacSparran Diary (1899) 407 A la mode (or mode) was a thin, glossy silk, used for hoods, scarfs, &c. 1766W. Gordon Gen. Counting-ho. 429, 333/4 yards figured mode. 1777Ann. Reg., Chron. 213/1 A black silk mode cloak and other apparel. 1795Edin. Advert. 6 Jan. 15/1 A Variety of Articles in the Haberdashery line..consisting of Modes,..Vellum Modes,..Sattins, &c. 1796Hist. Ned Evans I. 156, I will lay my mode cloak to a brass pin. 1819J. H. Vaux Mem. I. 119, I began my depredations by taking a piece of elegant black mode. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. 55 Her close black bonnet of that silk which once..was fashionable, since it is still called mode. 1864Cornh. Mag. Aug. 136 She had on a black mode cloak that had been her mother's. 1900Academy 21 July 41/1 Her train of soft mode silk, she held up at the back as she walked.
b. ? An article made of this material.
1847C. Brontë J. Eyre xviii, Brocaded and hooped petticoats, satin sacques, black modes, lace lappets, &c.
12. pl. Lace-making: (See second quot.).
1882Cole in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 185/2 The use of meshed grounds extended [1650–1720], and grounds composed entirely of varieties of modes were made. 1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, Modes, a term used in Lace making to denote the open work Fillings between the thick parts of the design.
†13. (See quot.) Obs.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 117/1 Modes, or self coloured flowers.
III. 14. attrib., as mode-book, a fashion-book; mode-locking Physics, a technique by which the phase of each mode of oscillation in a laser is ‘locked’ to those of the two adjacent modes (so that a fixed phase relationship arises between all the modes), resulting in the emission at intervals of about a nanosecond of short trains of extremely short pulses whose duration is of the order of picoseconds; so mode-locked a., applied to a laser in which this technique is employed and to the resulting pulses; (as a back-formation) mode-lock v. trans., to subject (a laser) to mode-locking.
1861Mrs. H. Wood East Lynne vii, Her head-dress..was like nothing in the mode-book or out of it.
1966Appl. Physics Lett. VIII. 182/1 The YAIG:Nd laser was mode locked over a frequency width of order 12·6 Gc/sec (42 × 300 Mc/sec). 1971Physics Bull. Dec. 718/2 Flashlamp pumped dye lasers have been successfully modelocked to produce high power pulses of transform⁓limited durations of 2–3 ps.
1965IEEE Jrnl. Quantum Electronics I. 16/2 The light pulses from a mode-locked laser were observed with a magnetically focussed photo-multiplier tube. 1971Sci. Amer. June 24/1 As the energy in the laser cavity is built up and then decays, a string of such mode-locked pulses emerges from the partially transmitting mirror in the front of the cavity.
1965IEEE Jrnl. Quantum Electronics I. 16/1 (heading) Effect of mode-locking. 1967Science 23 June 1558/3 In the first experimental demonstration of ‘mode-locking’, helium-neon and argon lasers were used.
▪ II. † mode, v. Obs. rare.
[f. mode n.]
1. trans. or quasi-trans.
a. To put (a person) into fashionable clothing.
b. to mode it, to follow the fashion.
1656Blount Glossogr. To Rdr. A ij b, In London many of the Tradesmen have new Dialects... The Taylor is ready to mode you into a Rochet, Mandillion [etc.]. a1661Fuller Worthies, Sussex (1662) iii. 102 He was accounted..somewhat Clownish,..partly, because he could not mode it with the Italians. Ibid., Warwick iii. 119 He could not Mode it, or comport, either with French ficleness, or Italian pride.
2. intr. To be or become ‘the mode’.
1663Cup of Coffee 5 Pure English Apes! ye may, for aught I know, Would it but mode, learn to eat spiders too. |