mortarn.¹

Brit.

/ˈmɔːtə/, U.S.

/ˈmɔrdər/

Forms: Old English Middle English–1500s mortere, Middle English moorter, Middle English mortair, Middle English morteer, Middle English mortel, Middle English mortier, Middle English mortyer, Middle English motar (transmission error), Middle English–1500s mortare, Middle English–1500s mortre, Middle English–1700s morter, Middle English– mortar, 1500s mortor, 1600s malter, 1600s moertor, 1600s mortore, 1600s mortroses (plural), 1600s morture; Scottish pre-1700 mortair, pre-1700 morter, pre-1700 mortor, pre-1700 mortour, pre-1700 mortyr, pre-1700 1700s– mortar.

Origin: Probably of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Probably partly a borrowing from French. Etymons: Latin mortārium; French mortier.

Etymology: In Old English < classical Latin mortārium receptacle for pounding, product of grinding or pounding (applied by Juvenal to drugs, and by Vitruvius to builder's mortar); in later use probably largely reborrowed < (i) Anglo-Norman mortier, morter, mortir, mortor and Middle French mortier receptacle for pounding (late 12th cent. in Old French; also in sense ‘builder's mortar’: see mortar n.²), small lamp (13th cent.), piece of artillery (c1450), mortier (1461; compare mortier n.), and their etymon (ii) classical Latin mortārium, in post-classical Latin also small lamp (frequently from 12th cent. in British sources), wooden mortar carried as instrument of punishment (1423 in Court Rolls of Maldon, Essex; also in Kent), piece of artillery (1480; 1550 in a British source), builder's mortar (from 13th cent. in British sources). See also mortar n.²Classical Latin mortārium is of uncertain etymology. Subsequent sense developments probably arise from similarity in shape to the ‘mortar’ of pharmacy. Compare forms in other Germanic languages < classical Latin mortārium (with forms frequently showing alteration apparently after the base of German morsch rotten, brittle, and with dissimilation of liquid consonants): Middle Dutch morsel , Old Saxon morsari , Middle Low German mortēr , mottēr , morten , Old High German mortāri , morsāri , morsali (Middle High German morsære , morsel , German Mörser , †Mörsel ), Old Swedish mortare (Swedish mortel ), Danish morter . Compare also Middle Dutch, Dutch mortier ( < Middle French mortier ). See also Germanic forms s.v. mortar n.² Further Romance cognates include Old Occitan morter , mortier (1192; Occitan mortièr ), Italian mortaio (late 13th cent.; a1502 in sense 4), Spanish mortero (1210), Portuguese morteiro (1619).

a. A receptacle of a hard material (e.g. marble, brass, wood, or glass), having a cup-shaped cavity in which ingredients used in pharmacy, cookery, etc., are pounded with a pestle.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > [noun] > grinder

mortareOE

mortle1570

mill1588

metate1625

potato-mill1812

food mill1857

Moulinette1936

Mouli1937

mouli-légumes1959

moulin à legumes1959

moulin1962

society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding > mortar

mortareOE

mortar stone1480

mortle1570

mortesse1614

mortarium1842

pounder1891

eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 311 Mortariola, mortere.

OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Hatton) (O.E.D. transcript) (1984) ci. 148 Gepuna þonne eall tosomne on anum mortere.

c1350 Nominale (Cambr. Ee.4.20) in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1906) 16* Morter pil et mundiloun, Morter pestelle and pootstikke.

c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) 332 (MED) Herbes he took in on herbere, And stamped hem in a mortere.

a1475 Liber Cocorum (Sloane) (1862) 7 (MED) Take wete..And do hit in a morter shene; Bray hit a lytelle.

?a1547 Ten Recipes Henry VIII in Vicary's Anat. Bodie of Man (1888) App. ix. 220 Take the rootes of marche mallowes..and brysse them a lytle in a mortre.

1588 in Of Good & Perfect Remembrance: Bolton Wills & Inventories (1987) 82 Item j brase pote j mortor iij kettells.

1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler viii. 171 Then beat these together in a Mortar .

1681 P. Bellon tr. F. de Monginot New Myst. Physick 26 Take of good red Coral,..make it into a gross Powder, in a Marble Mortar.

1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery ii. 30 Make a Force-Meat with Half a Pound of Veal [etc.]..all beat fine together in a Marble Mortar.

1790 J. Wedgwood in Trans. Philol. Soc. 80 308 To try whether this tedious process of solution could be expedited by triture or calcination, some of the mineral was rubbed in a mortar.

1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 438 By bruising a piece of enamel in an agate or porcelain mortar to a coarse powder like sand.

1894 Congress. Rec. 12 Dec. 236/1 The real Indian..raises..some corn on these 2 or 3 acres. He pounds it in a stone mortar.

1937 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 59 1725/1 A red isomeric form of gossypol has been isolated recently... Merely grinding the red form in a mortar converts it to the yellow.

1989 Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide Feb. 69/1 Any household of importance possessed several mortars in the Middle Ages, which they had to order from the local bell founder.

b. figurative. Frequently in in a (also the) mortar.Chiefly in biblical translations of Proverbs 27:22, and usages echoing this. With the figurative use in quot. 1662 cf. Italian mortaro ‘Also used for a womans privities’ (Florio, 1598).

ΚΠ

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) : Prov. (Bodl. 959) xxvii. 22 If þou bete togidere a fool in a morteer [L. pila],..shal not ben taken awey from hym his folye.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xiii. 44 Her sauce was..vnsauourely grounde In a morter [c1400 C text mortel], post-mortem, of many bitter peyne.

?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. xxiii. f. 15^v (MED) Kest al in þe morter of meknes and breke hit smal wiþ þe pestel of drede of god.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Prov. xxvii. C Though thou shuldest bray a foole w^t a pestell in a morter like otemeell, yet wil not his foolishnesse go from him.

1612 B. Jonson Alchemist ii. iii. sig. E2 Sir, with an argument, Hee'll bray you in a Morter .

1662 M. W. Marriage Broaker v. i This Pestle shall ne're pound i' th widows mortar.

1855 R. Browning Pretty Woman vi, in Men & Women I. 130 But for loving, why, you would not, Sweet, Though we prayed you, Paid you, brayed you In a mortar.

1985 Bible (New Jerusalem) Prov. xxvii. 22 Pound a fool in a mortar among grain with a pestle, his folly will not leave him.

1997 Éire—Ireland Spring 14 Providence and economics are mashed together in the mortar of politics.

†c. As a literal translation: a cavity in which to pound or grind something. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) iv. 113 (MED) A morter [L. mortarium] faste is maad aboute the tre.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 594 In Greece they have a cast by themselves, to temper and beat in morters, the mortar made of lime and sand..with a great wooden pestill.

1728 T. Cooke tr. Hesiod Wks. & Days ii, in tr. Hesiod Wks. I. 60 Provide a Mortar [Gk. ὄλμον] three Feet deep, and strong; And let the Pistil be three Cubits long.

d. Any of various mechanical appliances or devices in which materials are pounded or ground. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding

mullet1398

mill1560

rammer1630

pulverizer1635

crackera1640

hand mill1656

grinder1688

mortar1733

pestle mill1773

pulverer1778

bruiser1809

smasher1822

muller1823

pug mill1824

crusher1825

pounding machine1839

pug1859

disintegrator1874

micronizer1934

1733 S.-Carolina Gaz. 28 July 3/2 Store-houses..with several Rice Mills, Mortars, &c. a winnowing House, an Oven, [etc.].

1766 S. Clark Leadbetter's Royal Gauger (ed. 6) ii. xiv. 370 The Rags..are put into Troughs called Mortars, each Mortar having to it five Hammers.

1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 1255 For grinding the tobacco leaves into snuff, conical mortars are employed.

1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 158 Mortar,..the receptacle beneath the stamps in a stamp mill, in which the dies are placed, and into which the rock is fed to be crushed.

1902 R. N. Hall & W. G. Neal Anc. Ruins Rhodesia vi. 77 In no ruin, so far discovered, have the ancient mortars, or crushing-stones, or even gold quartz been discovered.

†2. A bowl of wax or oil with a floating wick, used esp. as a night light. Later also: a kind of thick candle. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > nightlight

mortara1398

crusell1401

mortar-light1555

watch-lighta1665

wax-lighta1715

veilleuse?1812

night lighta1823

bed-candle1850

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 245 Of seed of þe rape..is oyle y-made þat is nedefulle..in lampis & morteres of candelstikes.

c1400 (?c1380) Cleanness (1920) 1487 Oþer louflych lyȝt þat lemed ful fayre, As mony morteres of wax merkked wythoute, Wyth mony a borlych best al of brende golde.

a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) iv. 1245 For, by the morter which that I se brenne, Knowe I ful wel that day is nat far henne.

a1475 Bk. Curtasye (Sloane 1986) l. 503 in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 315 A morter of wax..Þat alle nyȝt brennes in bassyn clere.

1530 Articles Reform. Royal Househ. in Archaeologia (1775) 3 156 Returning to the chaundry all the remains of mortars, torches, quarries, prickets and sizes.

a1603 in J. Nichols Progresses Queen Elizabeth II. 56 Quarriers, Torches, and Mortroses.

1604 in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (1790) 305 Mortores, Torchetts, Torches, Quarrioures.

1641 J. Murrell Cookerie (ed. 5) 184 When your Soueraigne is in bed, draw the Curtaines, and see there be morter or waxe of perchours ready.

1852 D. Rock Church our Fathers III. i. viii. 89. A ‘mortar’ was a wide bowl of iron or metal..filled either with fine oil or wax, which was kept burning by means of a broad wick.

c1865 H. Letheby in J. Wylde Circle of Sci. I. 93/2 The wicks of wax mortars and nightlights are made of flax.

1894 J. H. Wylie Hist. Eng. Henry IV II. liii. 247 Rushing up in alarm, the attendants found the light out in the King's mortar.

†3. A weight or yoke of wood, worn or carried as an instrument of punishment. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > punishment > public or popular punishments > [noun] > mortar hung round neck

mortar1468

1468 Maldon (Essex) Liber B f. 12^v Alle maner of brethelde brauleres..for ther braulyng shull bere the morter accordyng to the olde custum of this toun.

1572 in A. Clark Shirburn Ballads (1907) 47 To the sonne of Simon Sawyer for the ringinge of the bason borne before the surgeon wearinge the morter about his necke for baudry [at Maldon, Essex].

1637 in W. Boys Coll. Hist. Sandwich (1789) (modernized text) 708 A woman carries the wooden mortar throughout the town, hanging on the handle of an old broom upon her shoulder..for abusing mrs mayoress.

1789 W. Boys Coll. Hist. Sandwich 789 The..wooden mortar for punishment of scolds.

a. A short piece of artillery with a large bore and (from the 17th to the late 19th cent.) trunnions on the breech, used to discharge missiles, in later use esp. explosive shells, at high angles.Recorded earliest in mortar-gun: see Compounds 1a.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > mortar

potgun?1470

mortar1547

mortar-piece1570

pot-piecea1578

bomb1684

coehorn1705

royal1743

royal mortar1867

mortar gun1997

1547 in H. L. Blackmore Armouries of Tower of London (1976) I. 262 A little gonne morter of brasse stocked and garnyshed with irone.

1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. xiv. 68 For Morters, or such chambers are only vsed for triumphs, there is no vse for them in this seruice.

1691 London Gaz. No. 2699/4 8 Mortars, two of which are of 18 Inches diameter.

1705 Boston News-let. 7 May 2/1 Capt. Moody plyed the Enemy so with great Guns, Bombs and Morters, that there was killed..between 180 and 200 men.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Mortar-Piece There are two kinds of Mortars; the one hung, or mounted on a Carriage.., call'd Pendent or Hanging Mortars: The other fixed on an immoveable Base, call'd Standing Mortars.

1800 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1834) I. 112 Howitzers will not answer at Jemalabad; and I have therefore ordered there a thirteen and a ten inch mortar.

1858 W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 65 Mortars are intended for three purposes; firstly, to bombard a town, or injure the defenders' artillery; secondly, to fire or overthrow the works; thirdly, to break through the vaulted roofs of barracks and magazines.

1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 664 The number of men required is calculated for three reliefs,..15 per large mortar, and 9 per small mortar.

1931 C. E. Munroe & J. E. Tiffany Physical Testing Explosives 49 A charge of approximately 5 grams of blasting gelatin is fired in the mortar as the first and last shots of each day.

1969 Listener 12 June 813/3 The cough of mortars..and the clatter of sub-machine-guns.

1990 Soldier of Fortune Sept. 48/1 FMLN urban commandos fired what was apparently a homemade mortar at a National Guard installation.

b. In extended use: any of various devices for firing a projectile with a high trajectory (as a firework, lifeline, etc.).

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > light > firework > [noun] > contrivance for letting off

mortar-piece1570

mortar1669

the world > action or operation > safety > rescue or deliverance > [noun] > means of > means of saving life > line or rope > contrivance for throwing

mortar1669

1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. v. xiii. 83 Of Artificial Fire-Works. To make the Mortar-Piece of Wood and Past-Board. Provide a Wooden-Ruler of such bigness as you desire to make the Diameter of the Morter.

1749 W. Frederick tr. G. Ruggieri & G. Sarti Descr. Machine for Fireworks 9 Mortars with Air Ballons.

1792 Trans. Soc. Arts 10 203 Trials were made, by throwing a loaded Shell on shore, from a small mortar... To the Shell was attached a rope.

1829 A. Opie in C. L. Brightwell Memorials Life A. Opie (1854) 223 To..watch, lest any vessel should be in distress on the coast, that the mortar might be used.

1873 Cornhill Mag. 28 72 The rocket and mortar apparatus..has frequently done good service where a lifeboat would have been useless.

1878 T. Kentish Pyrotechnist's Treasury 117 Shells are hollow paper globes, fired vertically, from mortars.

1889 Cent. 448/3 Barbed shot, a shot having barbs or grapnels. It is fired from a mortar to carry a life-line to a wreck.

1968 B. England Figures in Landscape 173 A few seconds later a red star exploded in the sky. A mortar had been fired.

1978 P. Blanchard Margaret Fuller xix. 336 The carts carrying the lifeboat and mortar did finally arrive... The mortar, which had to be fired against the wind, was found to be useless.

†5. = mortier n. See also mortar-cap n. at Compounds 2. Obsolete. [This sense and the compound mortar cap are found in English only in translations, and may not have had any independent existence (examples cited in later dictionaries belong to Rome n. Phrases 2). Davies Suppl. Gloss. erroneously places under this sense a passage from Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine (1650) iv. vi. 107, based on an obscure Talmudic text which (as translated by some scholars) describes the hypocritical Pharisee as ‘hanging down his head like a pestle in a mortar’.]

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > cap > types of > denoting office or profession > worn by high officials of france

mortar1604

mortar-cap1686

mortier1728

1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies vi. xvi. 467 In some parts [they wear] as it were little morters [Sp. morteretes] or hattes.

Phrases

to go (also hop, etc.) to Rome with a mortar on one's head: see Rome n. Phrases 2.

Compounds

C1. General attributive.

a. (In sense 1a.)

(a)

mortar-pestle n.

ΚΠ

a1500 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 626 Mortare pestelle, mortarium, pila.

1839 R. C. McLellan Foundling ii. vi. 59 Cart-wheel surround you; Fiery dragons carry you off, And mortar-pestle pound you!

1987 G. A. Forde (title) De mortar-pestle: a collection of Barbadian proverbs.

(b)

† mortar-fashioned adj. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Lycoperdon The mortar fashioned lycoperdon.

b. (In sense 1d.)

mortar-crushing n.

ΚΠ

1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 246 About two tons [of ore] treated by hand (mortar-crushing) yielded $8,000.

c. (In sense 2.)

mortar-light n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > nightlight

mortara1398

crusell1401

mortar-light1555

watch-lighta1665

wax-lighta1715

veilleuse?1812

night lighta1823

bed-candle1850

1555–6 S. Gardiner Lett. (1933) 503 Within the inner rayles was set iiij grete candelstyckes..and in every candelstycke a high percher of wood, and at the toppe of ether vij morter lightes.

1856 Orr's Circle Sci.: Pract. Chem. 460 The best description of candle manufactured from wax is the mortar-light, which is used either for night-watching or for heating dishes on the table.

d. (In sense 4.)

mortar battery n.

ΚΠ

1708 London Gaz. No. 4470/2 The Mortar Battery on the Counterscarp..began to play.

1810 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1836) VI. 337 They have not yet broken ground..excepting to construct what I conceive to be a mortar battery.

2001 Def. & Security (Nexis) 17 Jan. (Armament & Mil. Technol. Suppl.) The border guards are reinforced with the Zu-23 air defense systems and a mortar battery.

mortar bomb n.

ΚΠ

1887 Cent. Mag. Sept. 789/2 The terre-plein or open surface, offered no shelter whatever, for mortar-bombs came upon us almost perpendicularly.

1994 Guardian 7 Feb. i. 8/1 United Nations commanders..trying to establish who fired the mortar bomb which killed nearly 70 people in a Sarajevo market on Saturday.

mortar carriage n.

ΚΠ

1862 Sci. Amer. 1 Mar. 131/1 The huge mortar..fixed upon one of Rodman's mortar carriages or beds.

1990 Internat. Def. Rev. (Nexis) 1 Feb. 149 A second mortar carriage rested on the other side of the trail.

mortar gun n.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > mortar

potgun?1470

mortar1547

mortar-piece1570

pot-piecea1578

bomb1684

coehorn1705

royal1743

royal mortar1867

mortar gun1997

1541 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1908) VIII. 120 For his expensis passing to Fowlis for ane mortar gun of found.

1997 New Pittsburgh Courier (Nexis) 26 Feb. a3 Tillman operated the mortar gun which is a short canon used for shooting shells at high angles.

mortar platform n.

ΚΠ

1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) at Platform Mortar Platform, a platform similar to that used with siege guns, but of smaller dimensions.

1997 Independent (Nexis) 20 Aug. (Internat. section) 8 Simensen, lazing in his deck-chair in the morning sunshine on the mortar platform.

mortar shell n.

ΚΠ

1650 Severall Proc. Parl. No. 65. 975 Four of our Morter shells fell into the middest of the House.

1862 Sci. Amer. 10 May 290/2 Some twelve shells in all were bestowed upon us,..including one..which we took for a mortar shell.

1992 M. Urban Big Boys' Rules xxi. 207 Temporary wooden buildings which offered no protection against mortar shells.

mortar station n.

ΚΠ

1812 in G. W. Manby Ess. Preserv. Shipwrecked Persons 32 Ships in danger of being wrecked on parts of the coast intermediate to the mortar stations.

1995 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 6 Sept. 2 British soldiers..were also in action, blasting Serb mortar stations with 30mm cannon.

C2.

mortar-bed n. (a) the part of a gun carriage on which the mortar rests (now rare); †(b) the bed on which the ore is crushed in a stamp mill (obsolete).

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > gun carriage > [noun] > base for gun

flask1578

bed1598

bed-bolster1769

mortar-bed1769

sweep1837

swing-bed1842

saddle1848

stool-bed1859

mount1888

1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine sig. Cc4 The middle..is bent..to embrace the trunnions, and keep them fast in the mortar-bed.

1811 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) VII. 569 Have the carriages of the 24 pounders, as well as the mortar beds and howitzer carriages..put in a state to be fit for service.

1874 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 353 The mortar-beds constitute a series of inclined terraces,..and the pulp passing through the screens of one battery is discharged immediately into the one next in front.

1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Prise-bolts, the projecting bolts at the rear of a mortar-bed or garrison gun-carriage.

† mortar-block n. Obsolete the foundation timber of a stamp mill.

ΚΠ

1889 C. G. W. Lock Pract. Gold-mining 429 Mortars are often fixed directly upon vertical mortar-blocks.

† mortar body n. Obsolete a paste used in the manufacture of porcelain mortars.

ΚΠ

1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 1020 Mortar body, is a paste composed of 6 parts of clay [etc.].

† mortar-cap n. Obsolete = sense 5.

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > cap > types of > denoting office or profession > worn by high officials of france

mortar1604

mortar-cap1686

mortier1728

1686 tr. J. Chardin Coronation Solyman 40 in Trav. Persia A Flat Bonnet, somewhat like the Mortar-Caps of the Presidents of the French Parliaments.

† mortar casemate n. Obsolete a casemate built with a roof but no front wall, to provide an overhead shield for the mortars of a fortress.

ΚΠ

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) IV. 138/2 Mortar casemates are vaulted chambers without a front wall employed..to secure the mortars of the fortresses from vertical fire.

mortar-hole n. a hole in a rock used as a mortar in primitive ore-crushing.

ΚΠ

1882 Amer. Naturalist 16 205 The great number of mortar holes which may be seen in the outcroppings of the permanent or fixed rocks in the immediate neighborhood.

1902 R. N. Hall & W. G. Neal Anc. Ruins Rhodesia vi. 78 Shallow hollows on the rocks where the quartz powdered in the mortar-holes was evidently reduced to the fineness required for washing.

1932 Man 32 31/1 In one of these mortar-holes in ‘Cave 9’, at Ellora, I found a worn stone hammer or pestle.

mortar-man n. †(a) an apothecary (obsolete); (b) Military a soldier who operates or fires a mortar.Sense (a) apparently represents an isolated use.

ΚΠ

1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans I. 17 Prithee fellow; its one of thy lies, replied the mortarman.

1952 G. E. Thornton Handbk. Weapon Training x. 109 The auxiliaries are placed in position by the mortarman's assistant, who works backwards in co-operation with the mortarman.

1991 Combat & Survival Mag. Nov. 13/3 As a former mortar man, I know only too well how frustrating it can be to quickly work out the numerous calculations needed to send a bomb from A to B.

† mortar-piece n. Obsolete = sense 4a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > light > firework > [noun] > contrivance for letting off

mortar-piece1570

mortar1669

society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > mortar

potgun?1470

mortar1547

mortar-piece1570

pot-piecea1578

bomb1684

coehorn1705

royal1743

royal mortar1867

mortar gun1997

1570 in E. D. Morgan & C. H. Coote Early Voy. Russia & Persia (1886) II. 360 They haue also a great many of morter pieces or potguns, out of which pieces they shoote wild fire.

1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII v. iii. 45 Hee stands there like a Morter-piece to blow vs.

1761 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy III. xxii. 115 They are two mortar-pieces for a siege next summer.

1893 Dict. National Biogr. XXXV. 209/2 The cannon..was presented by the Maclellans to James II,..and it was probably on this account that the family used as a crest a mortar-piece.

† mortar-press n. Obsolete rare a trough in which tobacco leaves are pressed before being cut.

ΚΠ

1843 Penny Cycl. XXV. 17/2 The damp [tobacco] leaves are..laid in what is called a ‘mortar-press’.

mortar tube n. the barrel of a mortar (sense 4a).

ΚΠ

1862 Sci. Amer. 22 Nov. 333/1 Improvement in Explosive Projectiles for Ordnance. I claim the combination of the mortar tube, B, central tube, F, plate, D, and plug, E, with the shell, A.

1992 H. N. Schwarzkopf It doesn't take Hero viii. 118 At some point every night there would be a mortar barrage. The thunk of the rounds dropping into the mortar tubes was audible hundreds of yards away.

mortar vessel n. now historical a kind of gunboat armed with mortars.

ΚΠ

1813 R. Wilson Let. 10 July (1861) I. App. There are also several mortar-vessels, but the powder has been cut of such different strengths and altogether so weak, that the fire will be tardy and not very effective.

1855 in Russian War, 1855: Black Sea Official Corr. (Navy Rec. Soc.) (1945) 223 Your mortar-vessels might be tried for this service.

1912 Dict. National Biogr. 1901–11 III. 419/2 At the bombardment of Sveaborg he had command of a division of the gunboats and mortar vessels.

mortar ware n. Ceramics (now historical) a very hard porcelain biscuit invented by Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95) and used by him in the manufacture of mortars.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > pottery or ceramics > [noun] > porcelain > English porcelain > by Wedgwood

Egyptian black1784

bamboo1787

jasper1825

jasper-pottery1825

basalt1832

jasper-ware1863

mortar ware1865

1865 L. Jewitt Wedgwoods x. 187 Josiah Wedgwood's inventions and discoveries... Basaltes,..jasper, bamboo and mortar wares.

1900 F. Litchfield Pottery & Porcelain vii. 315 Wedgwood produced seven different kinds of ware: Queen's ware [etc.]..and mortar ware.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

mortarn.²

Brit.

/ˈmɔːtə/, U.S.

/ˈmɔrdər/

Forms: Middle English moorter, Middle English mortar- (in compounds), Middle English morteer, Middle English mortere, Middle English mortour, Middle English mortyer, Middle English–1500s mortare, Middle English–1700s morter, 1600s– mortar; Scottish pre-1700 moirter, pre-1700 mortare, pre-1700 mortour, pre-1700 mortur, pre-1700 mourtar, pre-1700 1700s– mortar, pre-1700 1800s morter.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French mortier; Latin mortārium.

Etymology: Partly < Anglo-Norman mortier, morter and Old French, Middle French mortier, specific sense of mortier mortar n.¹, and partly < classical Latin mortārium, specific sense of mortārium mortar n.¹ Compare Middle Dutch moorter, mortel, morter (Dutch mortel), Middle High German mortel, morter (German Mörtel).

a. Building. A pastelike material, originally consisting of sand, lime, and water, now usually a mixture of cement and water, which is applied to form the joints between stones or bricks and which, when set, bonds them together. Also: any of various other materials used for the same purpose.Sometimes with distinguishing word denoting a particular kind of mortar, as hydraulic, tarras, water mortar, etc.: see the first element. Cf. also gauged adj. 3, pozzolana n.In stone and mortar used to denote the essential materials used in building; see also similar extended uses of bricks and mortar n. and adj.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > cement or mortar > [noun]

limec725

mortara1300

cementc1300

simmona1450

magnetine1890

magnesia cement1909

society > occupation and work > materials > types of material generally > [noun] > building-material

timbera900

stuff1442

stone and mortar1534

bricks and mortar1576

building-material1833

fabric1849

a1300 (c1250) Floris & Blauncheflur (Vitell.) (1966) 230 (MED) Þat morter is imaked so wel, Ne may hit breke ire ne stel.

1340 Ayenbite (1866) 116 Þet guode mortyer huer-of me makeþ þe guode walles sarzineys.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 2246 Þe wark þai raised..Wit tile and ter, witvten stan Oþer morter was þer nan.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 294 Leyare, or werkare wythe stone and mortere, cementarius.

a1500 (?c1450) Merlin 27 (MED) He..comaunded hem to make a tour..and..to brynge ston and morter [Fr. mortier].

1534 Act 26 Hen. VIII c. 8 If the owner..doo not..with walles of morter and stone sufficiently inclose the same vacant grounde.

1592 R. Greene Quip for Vpstart Courtier sig. F4 And so spoiles hee much good morter & bricke.

1611 Bible (King James) Exod. i. 14 They made their liues bitter, with hard bondage, in morter and in bricke.

1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 199 The Moors build with Stone and Mortar..making small shew without, but delicately contrived within.

a1745 J. Swift Char. of Legion Club 178 We must give them better Quarter, For their Ancestor trod Mortar.

1765 Universal Mag. 37 58/2 Mortar..made..of chalk, sand, or hassock.

1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 530 In making mortar, particular attention must be paid to the quality of the sand.

1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xxiii. 226 Fragments of mortar..came dropping down.

1915 W. Cather Song of Lark iv. ii. 297 In this hollow..the Ancient People had built their houses of yellowish stone and mortar.

1966 D. Bagley Wyatt's Hurricane iv. 120 He knelt before the wall and began to use one of the scrapers to detach loose mortar from the crack.

1991 Pract. Householder Apr. 21 Plaster over the wall when the mortar has dried.

b. figurative.

ΚΠ

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xix. 321 (MED) Of his baptesme & blode..He made a maner morter..And þere-with grace bigan to make a good foundement.

a1425 (a1400) Northern Pauline Epist. (1916) Eph. ii. 14 (MED) For he is oure pees..in þe mene wal..with oute morter vndoande þe enemytese in his flesch.

1520 Chron. Eng. v. f. 43/1 The morter of a werke that I have begon behoveth to be tempred with your blood.

1562 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates in Wks. (1888) I. 14 The prophetis of it, spargeonit thaim with vntemperit morter [cf. Ezekiel 22:28].

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage v. xiv. 440 Seeking to repayre, with their untempered Mortar, the ruines.

1649 J. Owen Ουρανων Ουρανια 40 All that Antichristian mortar, wherewith from their first chaos they have been cemented.

1827 T. Carlyle Richter in Edinb. Rev. June 178 A trowel or two of biographic mortar.

1903 Speaker 21 Mar. 612/1 They regarded faith as the mortar which kept the bricks of society sticking together.

1984 D. E. Wayne Penshurst ii. 35 The ‘mortar’ which binds words in a sentence is not composed merely of grammatical connectives, nor even of strictly verbal phenomena.

c. In extended use: any substance that resembles or serves a similar purpose to mortar; esp. plaster used for facing brick, stone, wood, etc.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > plaster > [noun]

plasterlOE

mortar1440

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 344 Morter, for playsterynge, litura.

1574 J. Baret Aluearie M 435 Morter or clay mixed with straw, wherewith walles are dawbed, aceratum.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 512 To keepe mice from corne, make morter of the froth of oyle mingled together with chaffe,..then plaster the wals of your garnery therewith.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 64 I will tread this vnboulted villaine into morter, and daube the walles of a iaques with him.

c1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 101 The mill..pounded the raggs to morter for ye paper.

1797 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XIX. 339 (note) That coarse red clay, called mortar, is the basis of all the grounds in this part of Strathmore.

1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. iii. 587 The sorts of it [sc. plaster] are various; as, for instance, white lime and hair mortar on bare walls.

1864 D. Allan Hist. Sketches Kirriemuir 22 The soil..is for the most part a black mould, on a bottom of what is locally called morter.

1892 Jrnl. Archæol. Inst. No. 194. 155 Sticky gravel, termed in the midland counties ‘pit mortar’.

1968 Guardian 17 Feb. 9/8 A..gorgeously opulent edifice of éclairs bound with a mortar of chocolate and cream.

†2. Building, masonry. Also (in extended use): building operations. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > [noun] > building operations

worka1382

mortar1582

society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > building or constructing with stone > [noun] > stonework or masonry

stoneworkc1000

masonrya1425

mason-worka1450

mortar1582

stone-masonry1818

1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis ii. 35 No man, no morter can his onset forcibil hynder.

1662 B. Gerbier Brief Disc. Princ. Building 3 Those who say, That a wiseman never ought to put his finger into Morter.

1798 W. Hutton Life 43 I..altered the plan..till, when put in execution, it cost more than 700l. Mortar is rather apt to corrode the pocket.

Compounds

C1. General attributive.

mortar-engine n.

ΚΠ

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1480/1 Mortar-engine, a machine for grinding and combining materials into mortar.

mortar joint n.

ΚΠ

1791 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse §196 I found the mortar joints of the brick walling very compleat.

2000 A J Focus May 58/1 Brickwork with consistent mortar joints and accurate perpends.

mortar-maker n.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > producer > makers of other manufactured materials > [noun] > of other materials

mortar-maker1359

wax-maker1515

petre man1594

saltpetre-maker1611

starch man1699

varnish-maker1753

icemaker1775

kelper1808

black lead maker1813

bone man1834

kelp-burner1845

black-salter1866

1359 in M. C. B. Dawes Reg. Black Prince (1932) III. 362 Bayardours, mortermakeres, [and] wyndres [of stones].

1606 F. Holyoake Riders Dict. (new ed.) at Morter A morter maker or dawber, cœmentarius.

1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 806 The Floor of the gallery where the mortar makers and smiths worked.

1983 Man 18 416/2 The problems that mortar-makers (metateros) have in negotiating..for access to their raw materials.

mortar-making n.

ΚΠ

1597 S. Finche Let. 8 Feb. in A. C. Ducarel Some Acct. Town Croydon (1783) App. 152 Nowe we take morter-makinge in hande.

1892 Manufacturer & Builder May 120/2 In localities where a practically pure lime..is used for mortar-making, the efforescence on brick walls is unknown.

mortar-mill n.

ΚΠ

1819 P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. II. 381 Mortar mill, a machine contrived by Mr. Supple, for the purpose of saving labour in the making up of mortar, as well as doing the business more effectually, and at a trifling expense.

1867 A. A. Anderson U.S. Patent 72,440 Improved Mortar-Mill... My invention consists of a machine for grinding and mixing mortar.

1904 Athenæum 31 Dec. 908/2 Poplar and St. Pancras both run fan-engines, clinker-crushers, and mortar-mills.

1972 J. M. Crook British Museum 128 Thousands of visitors..came to know the clang of hammer and chisel, the whistling of labourers, and the rumble of the mortar mill.

mortar-tempering n.

ΚΠ

1860–4 Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.) at Mortar mill The mortar-tempering machine.

† mortar-treader n. Obsolete

ΚΠ

1602 T. Dekker Satiro-mastix sig. H2 I smelt the foule-fisted Morter-treader.

† mortar-treading n. Obsolete

ΚΠ

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) iv. sig. Nn3^v Parting with his sword one of his legges from him, left him to make a roaring lamentation that his morter-treading was marred for euer.

mortar tub n.

ΚΠ

1513–14 in R. K. Hannay Rentale Dunkeldense (1915) 289 In reformacione lie morter tubbis..xviij d.

1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 806 The Floor of the gallery where the mortar makers and smiths worked; shewing the situation of the mortar tubs.

mortar-built adj.

ΚΠ

1867 Sci. Amer. 2 Feb. 70/1 There was erected..a thirteen feet high stone and mortar built tower.

1900 A. Lang Hist. Scotl. I. iv. 68 Mortar-built stone edifices.

C2.

mortar bed n. a layer of mortar between courses of brickwork or masonry.

ΚΠ

1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. iii. 517 The propriety of the mortar beds being as thin as possible.

1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) iii. 235/1 The roof covering is usually turned up the wall to form a ‘skirting’ which is tucked into the mortar bed of the brickwork.

† mortar-liquid n. Obsolete = grout n.²

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > cement or mortar > [noun] > for stopping joints or cracks

lutec1400

luting1527

lutation1617

grout1638

lutum1719

fire lute1758

mortar-liquid1776

grouting1793

1776 G. Semple Treat. Building in Water 78 The Antients filled up their Work with Mortar-liquid.

† mortar-man n. Obsolete a person who makes or uses mortar, a builder.

ΚΠ

1544–5 in P.R.O. E101/504 (Publ. Rec. Office) No. 2. f. 106^v Mortermen.

1558 in R. K. Hannay Rentale Dunkeldense (1915) 359 To tua mortur men xviij d. on the day.

1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα iv. xvi. 513 While Ministers preach..with divided tongues,..they are likely to produce no better successes..than those..morter-men did, whose work deserved the nick-name of Babel.

1745 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 213/1 On Castle building... The plodding dull material mortar-man, spends half his life adjusting of his plan.

† mortar-wash n. Obsolete thin mortar.

ΚΠ

1779 Philos. Trans. 1778 (Royal Soc.) 68 889 They ought to be washed over with a brush, wet with mortar-wash.

1780 Farmer's Mag. Feb. 56 The mortar-wash I make use of..will grow dry in a few minutes.

Derivatives

ˈmortar-like adj.

ΚΠ

1704 G. London & H. Wise J. de la Quintinie's Compl. Gard'ner (ed. 4) II. iii. xx. 89 Rainy weather being apt to reduce the Mould to a Mortar-like consistence.

1888 C. H. Fagge Syst. Med. (ed. 3) I. 105 The calcified growth has a peculiar dull white chalky, or mortar-like appearance.

1988 Representations Spring 127 Courbet's oeuvre..with its famous mortarlike facture; the obsession with solidity, fullness, and massiveness.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

mortarv.¹

Brit.

/ˈmɔːtə/, U.S.

/ˈmɔrdər/

Forms: 1500s–1600s morter, 1800s– mortar.

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mortar n.²

Etymology: < mortar n.² Compare earlier mortared adj. and slightly earlier mortaring n.¹

Thesaurus »

Categories »

1. transitive. To plaster with mortar; to fix or join with mortar or a mortar-like substance.

2. transitive. In figurative contexts.

ΚΠ

1610 J. Donne Pseudo-martyr Pref. sig. C3 You are euer after his [sc. the Pope's] instruments, to build vp his spirituall Monarchy..and your selues must ciment and morter the wals with your blood.

1620 Abp. J. Williams Serm. Apparell 8 This rotten house of ours, the which (were it not continually mortered and repaired with meat and drinke) [etc.].

1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts ii. 292 Ye are living stones, ye must bee..firmly mortered upon the foundation of Christ.

1889 D. S. Copeland Hist. Clarendon 364 The first two [stone men] worked..till they were at last mortared, graveled and sanded by Mother Earth.

1908 Lit. Guide 1 Aug. 123/2 The book reads like an animated catalogue... What sociology there is is quite superficial, and does not half serve to mortar the bricks.

1992 J. M. Kelly Short Hist. Western Legal Theory x. 444 Christian morality had long since been inseparably mortared into the masonry of British society.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

mortarv.²

Brit.

/ˈmɔːtə/, U.S.

/ˈmɔrdər/

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mortar n.¹

Etymology: < mortar n.¹

transitive. To direct mortar fire upon; to hit with mortar shells.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > management of artillery > operate (artillery) [verb (transitive)] > bombard > assail with types of artillery

trench-mortar1916

minnie1930

mortar1944

1944 P. Brutton Jrnl. 26 May in Ensign in Italy (1992) vi. 61 See first Jerry prisoners. March up Route 6. Mortared.

1967 C. Connell World's Greatest Sieges xxix. 239 The Germans followed the rear-guard down to the water's edge..mortaring men and boats indiscriminately.

1974 Times 18 Mar. 6/6 In the towns, he said, the Arab garrisons had mortared and bombed Kurdish quarters.

1996 M. Urban UK Eyes Alpha (1997) xiii. 168 Heavy security around ministers and public places was evidently insufficient to deter the IRA from mortaring Downing Street.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

n.¹eOE

n.²a1300

v.¹1610

v.²1944

单词	mortar
释义	mortarn.¹ Brit. /ˈmɔːtə/, U.S. /ˈmɔrdər/ Forms: Old English Middle English–1500s mortere, Middle English moorter, Middle English mortair, Middle English morteer, Middle English mortel, Middle English mortier, Middle English mortyer, Middle English motar (transmission error), Middle English–1500s mortare, Middle English–1500s mortre, Middle English–1700s morter, Middle English– mortar, 1500s mortor, 1600s malter, 1600s moertor, 1600s mortore, 1600s mortroses (plural), 1600s morture; Scottish pre-1700 mortair, pre-1700 morter, pre-1700 mortor, pre-1700 mortour, pre-1700 mortyr, pre-1700 1700s– mortar. Origin: Probably of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Probably partly a borrowing from French. Etymons: Latin mortārium; French mortier. Etymology: In Old English < classical Latin mortārium receptacle for pounding, product of grinding or pounding (applied by Juvenal to drugs, and by Vitruvius to builder's mortar); in later use probably largely reborrowed < (i) Anglo-Norman mortier, morter, mortir, mortor and Middle French mortier receptacle for pounding (late 12th cent. in Old French; also in sense ‘builder's mortar’: see mortar n.²), small lamp (13th cent.), piece of artillery (c1450), mortier (1461; compare mortier n.), and their etymon (ii) classical Latin mortārium, in post-classical Latin also small lamp (frequently from 12th cent. in British sources), wooden mortar carried as instrument of punishment (1423 in Court Rolls of Maldon, Essex; also in Kent), piece of artillery (1480; 1550 in a British source), builder's mortar (from 13th cent. in British sources). See also mortar n.²Classical Latin mortārium is of uncertain etymology. Subsequent sense developments probably arise from similarity in shape to the ‘mortar’ of pharmacy. Compare forms in other Germanic languages < classical Latin mortārium (with forms frequently showing alteration apparently after the base of German morsch rotten, brittle, and with dissimilation of liquid consonants): Middle Dutch morsel , Old Saxon morsari , Middle Low German mortēr , mottēr , morten , Old High German mortāri , morsāri , morsali (Middle High German morsære , morsel , German Mörser , †Mörsel ), Old Swedish mortare (Swedish mortel ), Danish morter . Compare also Middle Dutch, Dutch mortier ( < Middle French mortier ). See also Germanic forms s.v. mortar n.² Further Romance cognates include Old Occitan morter , mortier (1192; Occitan mortièr ), Italian mortaio (late 13th cent.; a1502 in sense 4), Spanish mortero (1210), Portuguese morteiro (1619). 1. a. A receptacle of a hard material (e.g. marble, brass, wood, or glass), having a cup-shaped cavity in which ingredients used in pharmacy, cookery, etc., are pounded with a pestle. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > [noun] > grinder mortareOE mortle1570 mill1588 metate1625 potato-mill1812 food mill1857 Moulinette1936 Mouli1937 mouli-légumes1959 moulin à legumes1959 moulin1962 society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding > mortar mortareOE mortar stone1480 mortle1570 mortesse1614 mortarium1842 pounder1891 eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 311 Mortariola, mortere. OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Hatton) (O.E.D. transcript) (1984) ci. 148 Gepuna þonne eall tosomne on anum mortere. c1350 Nominale (Cambr. Ee.4.20) in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1906) 16* Morter pil et mundiloun, Morter pestelle and pootstikke. c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) 332 (MED) Herbes he took in on herbere, And stamped hem in a mortere. a1475 Liber Cocorum (Sloane) (1862) 7 (MED) Take wete..And do hit in a morter shene; Bray hit a lytelle. ?a1547 Ten Recipes Henry VIII in Vicary's Anat. Bodie of Man (1888) App. ix. 220 Take the rootes of marche mallowes..and brysse them a lytle in a mortre. 1588 in Of Good & Perfect Remembrance: Bolton Wills & Inventories (1987) 82 Item j brase pote j mortor iij kettells. 1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler viii. 171 Then beat these together in a Mortar . View more context for this quotation 1681 P. Bellon tr. F. de Monginot New Myst. Physick 26 Take of good red Coral,..make it into a gross Powder, in a Marble Mortar. 1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery ii. 30 Make a Force-Meat with Half a Pound of Veal [etc.]..all beat fine together in a Marble Mortar. 1790 J. Wedgwood in Trans. Philol. Soc. 80 308 To try whether this tedious process of solution could be expedited by triture or calcination, some of the mineral was rubbed in a mortar. 1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 438 By bruising a piece of enamel in an agate or porcelain mortar to a coarse powder like sand. 1894 Congress. Rec. 12 Dec. 236/1 The real Indian..raises..some corn on these 2 or 3 acres. He pounds it in a stone mortar. 1937 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 59 1725/1 A red isomeric form of gossypol has been isolated recently... Merely grinding the red form in a mortar converts it to the yellow. 1989 Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide Feb. 69/1 Any household of importance possessed several mortars in the Middle Ages, which they had to order from the local bell founder. b. figurative. Frequently in in a (also the) mortar.Chiefly in biblical translations of Proverbs 27:22, and usages echoing this. With the figurative use in quot. 1662 cf. Italian mortaro ‘Also used for a womans privities’ (Florio, 1598). ΚΠ a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) : Prov. (Bodl. 959) xxvii. 22 If þou bete togidere a fool in a morteer [L. pila],..shal not ben taken awey from hym his folye. c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xiii. 44 Her sauce was..vnsauourely grounde In a morter [c1400 C text mortel], post-mortem, of many bitter peyne. ?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. xxiii. f. 15^v (MED) Kest al in þe morter of meknes and breke hit smal wiþ þe pestel of drede of god. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Prov. xxvii. C Though thou shuldest bray a foole w^t a pestell in a morter like otemeell, yet wil not his foolishnesse go from him. 1612 B. Jonson Alchemist ii. iii. sig. E2 Sir, with an argument, Hee'll bray you in a Morter . View more context for this quotation 1662 M. W. Marriage Broaker v. i This Pestle shall ne're pound i' th widows mortar. 1855 R. Browning Pretty Woman vi, in Men & Women I. 130 But for loving, why, you would not, Sweet, Though we prayed you, Paid you, brayed you In a mortar. 1985 Bible (New Jerusalem) Prov. xxvii. 22 Pound a fool in a mortar among grain with a pestle, his folly will not leave him. 1997 Éire—Ireland Spring 14 Providence and economics are mashed together in the mortar of politics. †c. As a literal translation: a cavity in which to pound or grind something. Obsolete. ΚΠ tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) iv. 113 (MED) A morter [L. mortarium] faste is maad aboute the tre. 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 594 In Greece they have a cast by themselves, to temper and beat in morters, the mortar made of lime and sand..with a great wooden pestill. 1728 T. Cooke tr. Hesiod Wks. & Days ii, in tr. Hesiod Wks. I. 60 Provide a Mortar [Gk. ὄλμον] three Feet deep, and strong; And let the Pistil be three Cubits long. d. Any of various mechanical appliances or devices in which materials are pounded or ground. Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding mullet1398 mill1560 rammer1630 pulverizer1635 crackera1640 hand mill1656 grinder1688 mortar1733 pestle mill1773 pulverer1778 bruiser1809 smasher1822 muller1823 pug mill1824 crusher1825 pounding machine1839 pug1859 disintegrator1874 micronizer1934 1733 S.-Carolina Gaz. 28 July 3/2 Store-houses..with several Rice Mills, Mortars, &c. a winnowing House, an Oven, [etc.]. 1766 S. Clark Leadbetter's Royal Gauger (ed. 6) ii. xiv. 370 The Rags..are put into Troughs called Mortars, each Mortar having to it five Hammers. 1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 1255 For grinding the tobacco leaves into snuff, conical mortars are employed. 1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 158 Mortar,..the receptacle beneath the stamps in a stamp mill, in which the dies are placed, and into which the rock is fed to be crushed. 1902 R. N. Hall & W. G. Neal Anc. Ruins Rhodesia vi. 77 In no ruin, so far discovered, have the ancient mortars, or crushing-stones, or even gold quartz been discovered. †2. A bowl of wax or oil with a floating wick, used esp. as a night light. Later also: a kind of thick candle. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > nightlight mortara1398 crusell1401 mortar-light1555 watch-lighta1665 wax-lighta1715 veilleuse?1812 night lighta1823 bed-candle1850 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 245 Of seed of þe rape..is oyle y-made þat is nedefulle..in lampis & morteres of candelstikes. c1400 (?c1380) Cleanness (1920) 1487 Oþer louflych lyȝt þat lemed ful fayre, As mony morteres of wax merkked wythoute, Wyth mony a borlych best al of brende golde. a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) iv. 1245 For, by the morter which that I se brenne, Knowe I ful wel that day is nat far henne. a1475 Bk. Curtasye (Sloane 1986) l. 503 in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 315 A morter of wax..Þat alle nyȝt brennes in bassyn clere. 1530 Articles Reform. Royal Househ. in Archaeologia (1775) 3 156 Returning to the chaundry all the remains of mortars, torches, quarries, prickets and sizes. a1603 in J. Nichols Progresses Queen Elizabeth II. 56 Quarriers, Torches, and Mortroses. 1604 in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (1790) 305 Mortores, Torchetts, Torches, Quarrioures. 1641 J. Murrell Cookerie (ed. 5) 184 When your Soueraigne is in bed, draw the Curtaines, and see there be morter or waxe of perchours ready. 1852 D. Rock Church our Fathers III. i. viii. 89. A ‘mortar’ was a wide bowl of iron or metal..filled either with fine oil or wax, which was kept burning by means of a broad wick. c1865 H. Letheby in J. Wylde Circle of Sci. I. 93/2 The wicks of wax mortars and nightlights are made of flax. 1894 J. H. Wylie Hist. Eng. Henry IV II. liii. 247 Rushing up in alarm, the attendants found the light out in the King's mortar. †3. A weight or yoke of wood, worn or carried as an instrument of punishment. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > authority > punishment > public or popular punishments > [noun] > mortar hung round neck mortar1468 1468 Maldon (Essex) Liber B f. 12^v Alle maner of brethelde brauleres..for ther braulyng shull bere the morter accordyng to the olde custum of this toun. 1572 in A. Clark Shirburn Ballads (1907) 47 To the sonne of Simon Sawyer for the ringinge of the bason borne before the surgeon wearinge the morter about his necke for baudry [at Maldon, Essex]. 1637 in W. Boys Coll. Hist. Sandwich (1789) (modernized text) 708 A woman carries the wooden mortar throughout the town, hanging on the handle of an old broom upon her shoulder..for abusing mrs mayoress. 1789 W. Boys Coll. Hist. Sandwich 789 The..wooden mortar for punishment of scolds. 4. a. A short piece of artillery with a large bore and (from the 17th to the late 19th cent.) trunnions on the breech, used to discharge missiles, in later use esp. explosive shells, at high angles.Recorded earliest in mortar-gun: see Compounds 1a. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > mortar potgun?1470 mortar1547 mortar-piece1570 pot-piecea1578 bomb1684 coehorn1705 royal1743 royal mortar1867 mortar gun1997 1547 in H. L. Blackmore Armouries of Tower of London (1976) I. 262 A little gonne morter of brasse stocked and garnyshed with irone. 1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. xiv. 68 For Morters, or such chambers are only vsed for triumphs, there is no vse for them in this seruice. 1691 London Gaz. No. 2699/4 8 Mortars, two of which are of 18 Inches diameter. 1705 Boston News-let. 7 May 2/1 Capt. Moody plyed the Enemy so with great Guns, Bombs and Morters, that there was killed..between 180 and 200 men. 1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Mortar-Piece There are two kinds of Mortars; the one hung, or mounted on a Carriage.., call'd Pendent or Hanging Mortars: The other fixed on an immoveable Base, call'd Standing Mortars. 1800 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1834) I. 112 Howitzers will not answer at Jemalabad; and I have therefore ordered there a thirteen and a ten inch mortar. 1858 W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 65 Mortars are intended for three purposes; firstly, to bombard a town, or injure the defenders' artillery; secondly, to fire or overthrow the works; thirdly, to break through the vaulted roofs of barracks and magazines. 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 664 The number of men required is calculated for three reliefs,..15 per large mortar, and 9 per small mortar. 1931 C. E. Munroe & J. E. Tiffany Physical Testing Explosives 49 A charge of approximately 5 grams of blasting gelatin is fired in the mortar as the first and last shots of each day. 1969 Listener 12 June 813/3 The cough of mortars..and the clatter of sub-machine-guns. 1990 Soldier of Fortune Sept. 48/1 FMLN urban commandos fired what was apparently a homemade mortar at a National Guard installation. b. In extended use: any of various devices for firing a projectile with a high trajectory (as a firework, lifeline, etc.). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > light > firework > [noun] > contrivance for letting off mortar-piece1570 mortar1669 the world > action or operation > safety > rescue or deliverance > [noun] > means of > means of saving life > line or rope > contrivance for throwing mortar1669 1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. v. xiii. 83 Of Artificial Fire-Works. To make the Mortar-Piece of Wood and Past-Board. Provide a Wooden-Ruler of such bigness as you desire to make the Diameter of the Morter. 1749 W. Frederick tr. G. Ruggieri & G. Sarti Descr. Machine for Fireworks 9 Mortars with Air Ballons. 1792 Trans. Soc. Arts 10 203 Trials were made, by throwing a loaded Shell on shore, from a small mortar... To the Shell was attached a rope. 1829 A. Opie in C. L. Brightwell Memorials Life A. Opie (1854) 223 To..watch, lest any vessel should be in distress on the coast, that the mortar might be used. 1873 Cornhill Mag. 28 72 The rocket and mortar apparatus..has frequently done good service where a lifeboat would have been useless. 1878 T. Kentish Pyrotechnist's Treasury 117 Shells are hollow paper globes, fired vertically, from mortars. 1889 Cent. 448/3 Barbed shot, a shot having barbs or grapnels. It is fired from a mortar to carry a life-line to a wreck. 1968 B. England Figures in Landscape 173 A few seconds later a red star exploded in the sky. A mortar had been fired. 1978 P. Blanchard Margaret Fuller xix. 336 The carts carrying the lifeboat and mortar did finally arrive... The mortar, which had to be fired against the wind, was found to be useless. †5. = mortier n. See also mortar-cap n. at Compounds 2. Obsolete. [This sense and the compound mortar cap are found in English only in translations, and may not have had any independent existence (examples cited in later dictionaries belong to Rome n. Phrases 2). Davies Suppl. Gloss. erroneously places under this sense a passage from Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine (1650) iv. vi. 107, based on an obscure Talmudic text which (as translated by some scholars) describes the hypocritical Pharisee as ‘hanging down his head like a pestle in a mortar’.] ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > cap > types of > denoting office or profession > worn by high officials of france mortar1604 mortar-cap1686 mortier1728 1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies vi. xvi. 467 In some parts [they wear] as it were little morters [Sp. morteretes] or hattes. Phrases to go (also hop, etc.) to Rome with a mortar on one's head: see Rome n. Phrases 2. Compounds C1. General attributive. a. (In sense 1a.) (a) mortar-pestle n. ΚΠ a1500 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 626 Mortare pestelle, mortarium, pila. 1839 R. C. McLellan Foundling ii. vi. 59 Cart-wheel surround you; Fiery dragons carry you off, And mortar-pestle pound you! 1987 G. A. Forde (title) De mortar-pestle: a collection of Barbadian proverbs. (b) † mortar-fashioned adj. Obsolete ΚΠ 1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Lycoperdon The mortar fashioned lycoperdon. b. (In sense 1d.) mortar-crushing n. ΚΠ 1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 246 About two tons [of ore] treated by hand (mortar-crushing) yielded $8,000. c. (In sense 2.) mortar-light n. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > nightlight mortara1398 crusell1401 mortar-light1555 watch-lighta1665 wax-lighta1715 veilleuse?1812 night lighta1823 bed-candle1850 1555–6 S. Gardiner Lett. (1933) 503 Within the inner rayles was set iiij grete candelstyckes..and in every candelstycke a high percher of wood, and at the toppe of ether vij morter lightes. 1856 Orr's Circle Sci.: Pract. Chem. 460 The best description of candle manufactured from wax is the mortar-light, which is used either for night-watching or for heating dishes on the table. d. (In sense 4.) mortar battery n. ΚΠ 1708 London Gaz. No. 4470/2 The Mortar Battery on the Counterscarp..began to play. 1810 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1836) VI. 337 They have not yet broken ground..excepting to construct what I conceive to be a mortar battery. 2001 Def. & Security (Nexis) 17 Jan. (Armament & Mil. Technol. Suppl.) The border guards are reinforced with the Zu-23 air defense systems and a mortar battery. mortar bomb n. ΚΠ 1887 Cent. Mag. Sept. 789/2 The terre-plein or open surface, offered no shelter whatever, for mortar-bombs came upon us almost perpendicularly. 1994 Guardian 7 Feb. i. 8/1 United Nations commanders..trying to establish who fired the mortar bomb which killed nearly 70 people in a Sarajevo market on Saturday. mortar carriage n. ΚΠ 1862 Sci. Amer. 1 Mar. 131/1 The huge mortar..fixed upon one of Rodman's mortar carriages or beds. 1990 Internat. Def. Rev. (Nexis) 1 Feb. 149 A second mortar carriage rested on the other side of the trail. mortar gun n. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > mortar potgun?1470 mortar1547 mortar-piece1570 pot-piecea1578 bomb1684 coehorn1705 royal1743 royal mortar1867 mortar gun1997 1541 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1908) VIII. 120 For his expensis passing to Fowlis for ane mortar gun of found. 1997 New Pittsburgh Courier (Nexis) 26 Feb. a3 Tillman operated the mortar gun which is a short canon used for shooting shells at high angles. mortar platform n. ΚΠ 1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) at Platform Mortar Platform, a platform similar to that used with siege guns, but of smaller dimensions. 1997 Independent (Nexis) 20 Aug. (Internat. section) 8 Simensen, lazing in his deck-chair in the morning sunshine on the mortar platform. mortar shell n. ΚΠ 1650 Severall Proc. Parl. No. 65. 975 Four of our Morter shells fell into the middest of the House. 1862 Sci. Amer. 10 May 290/2 Some twelve shells in all were bestowed upon us,..including one..which we took for a mortar shell. 1992 M. Urban Big Boys' Rules xxi. 207 Temporary wooden buildings which offered no protection against mortar shells. mortar station n. ΚΠ 1812 in G. W. Manby Ess. Preserv. Shipwrecked Persons 32 Ships in danger of being wrecked on parts of the coast intermediate to the mortar stations. 1995 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 6 Sept. 2 British soldiers..were also in action, blasting Serb mortar stations with 30mm cannon. C2. mortar-bed n. (a) the part of a gun carriage on which the mortar rests (now rare); †(b) the bed on which the ore is crushed in a stamp mill (obsolete). ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > gun carriage > [noun] > base for gun flask1578 bed1598 bed-bolster1769 mortar-bed1769 sweep1837 swing-bed1842 saddle1848 stool-bed1859 mount1888 1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine sig. Cc4 The middle..is bent..to embrace the trunnions, and keep them fast in the mortar-bed. 1811 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) VII. 569 Have the carriages of the 24 pounders, as well as the mortar beds and howitzer carriages..put in a state to be fit for service. 1874 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 353 The mortar-beds constitute a series of inclined terraces,..and the pulp passing through the screens of one battery is discharged immediately into the one next in front. 1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Prise-bolts, the projecting bolts at the rear of a mortar-bed or garrison gun-carriage. † mortar-block n. Obsolete the foundation timber of a stamp mill. ΚΠ 1889 C. G. W. Lock Pract. Gold-mining 429 Mortars are often fixed directly upon vertical mortar-blocks. † mortar body n. Obsolete a paste used in the manufacture of porcelain mortars. ΚΠ 1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 1020 Mortar body, is a paste composed of 6 parts of clay [etc.]. † mortar-cap n. Obsolete = sense 5. ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > cap > types of > denoting office or profession > worn by high officials of france mortar1604 mortar-cap1686 mortier1728 1686 tr. J. Chardin Coronation Solyman 40 in Trav. Persia A Flat Bonnet, somewhat like the Mortar-Caps of the Presidents of the French Parliaments. † mortar casemate n. Obsolete a casemate built with a roof but no front wall, to provide an overhead shield for the mortars of a fortress. ΚΠ 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) IV. 138/2 Mortar casemates are vaulted chambers without a front wall employed..to secure the mortars of the fortresses from vertical fire. mortar-hole n. a hole in a rock used as a mortar in primitive ore-crushing. ΚΠ 1882 Amer. Naturalist 16 205 The great number of mortar holes which may be seen in the outcroppings of the permanent or fixed rocks in the immediate neighborhood. 1902 R. N. Hall & W. G. Neal Anc. Ruins Rhodesia vi. 78 Shallow hollows on the rocks where the quartz powdered in the mortar-holes was evidently reduced to the fineness required for washing. 1932 Man 32 31/1 In one of these mortar-holes in ‘Cave 9’, at Ellora, I found a worn stone hammer or pestle. mortar-man n. †(a) an apothecary (obsolete); (b) Military a soldier who operates or fires a mortar.Sense (a) apparently represents an isolated use. ΚΠ 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans I. 17 Prithee fellow; its one of thy lies, replied the mortarman. 1952 G. E. Thornton Handbk. Weapon Training x. 109 The auxiliaries are placed in position by the mortarman's assistant, who works backwards in co-operation with the mortarman. 1991 Combat & Survival Mag. Nov. 13/3 As a former mortar man, I know only too well how frustrating it can be to quickly work out the numerous calculations needed to send a bomb from A to B. † mortar-piece n. Obsolete = sense 4a. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > light > firework > [noun] > contrivance for letting off mortar-piece1570 mortar1669 society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > mortar potgun?1470 mortar1547 mortar-piece1570 pot-piecea1578 bomb1684 coehorn1705 royal1743 royal mortar1867 mortar gun1997 1570 in E. D. Morgan & C. H. Coote Early Voy. Russia & Persia (1886) II. 360 They haue also a great many of morter pieces or potguns, out of which pieces they shoote wild fire. 1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII v. iii. 45 Hee stands there like a Morter-piece to blow vs. View more context for this quotation 1761 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy III. xxii. 115 They are two mortar-pieces for a siege next summer. 1893 Dict. National Biogr. XXXV. 209/2 The cannon..was presented by the Maclellans to James II,..and it was probably on this account that the family used as a crest a mortar-piece. † mortar-press n. Obsolete rare a trough in which tobacco leaves are pressed before being cut. ΚΠ 1843 Penny Cycl. XXV. 17/2 The damp [tobacco] leaves are..laid in what is called a ‘mortar-press’. mortar tube n. the barrel of a mortar (sense 4a). ΚΠ 1862 Sci. Amer. 22 Nov. 333/1 Improvement in Explosive Projectiles for Ordnance. I claim the combination of the mortar tube, B, central tube, F, plate, D, and plug, E, with the shell, A. 1992 H. N. Schwarzkopf It doesn't take Hero viii. 118 At some point every night there would be a mortar barrage. The thunk of the rounds dropping into the mortar tubes was audible hundreds of yards away. mortar vessel n. now historical a kind of gunboat armed with mortars. ΚΠ 1813 R. Wilson Let. 10 July (1861) I. App. There are also several mortar-vessels, but the powder has been cut of such different strengths and altogether so weak, that the fire will be tardy and not very effective. 1855 in Russian War, 1855: Black Sea Official Corr. (Navy Rec. Soc.) (1945) 223 Your mortar-vessels might be tried for this service. 1912 Dict. National Biogr. 1901–11 III. 419/2 At the bombardment of Sveaborg he had command of a division of the gunboats and mortar vessels. mortar ware n. Ceramics (now historical) a very hard porcelain biscuit invented by Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95) and used by him in the manufacture of mortars. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > pottery or ceramics > [noun] > porcelain > English porcelain > by Wedgwood Egyptian black1784 bamboo1787 jasper1825 jasper-pottery1825 basalt1832 jasper-ware1863 mortar ware1865 1865 L. Jewitt Wedgwoods x. 187 Josiah Wedgwood's inventions and discoveries... Basaltes,..jasper, bamboo and mortar wares. 1900 F. Litchfield Pottery & Porcelain vii. 315 Wedgwood produced seven different kinds of ware: Queen's ware [etc.]..and mortar ware. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). mortarn.² Brit. /ˈmɔːtə/, U.S. /ˈmɔrdər/ Forms: Middle English moorter, Middle English mortar- (in compounds), Middle English morteer, Middle English mortere, Middle English mortour, Middle English mortyer, Middle English–1500s mortare, Middle English–1700s morter, 1600s– mortar; Scottish pre-1700 moirter, pre-1700 mortare, pre-1700 mortour, pre-1700 mortur, pre-1700 mourtar, pre-1700 1700s– mortar, pre-1700 1800s morter. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French mortier; Latin mortārium. Etymology: Partly < Anglo-Norman mortier, morter and Old French, Middle French mortier, specific sense of mortier mortar n.¹, and partly < classical Latin mortārium, specific sense of mortārium mortar n.¹ Compare Middle Dutch moorter, mortel, morter (Dutch mortel), Middle High German mortel, morter (German Mörtel). 1. a. Building. A pastelike material, originally consisting of sand, lime, and water, now usually a mixture of cement and water, which is applied to form the joints between stones or bricks and which, when set, bonds them together. Also: any of various other materials used for the same purpose.Sometimes with distinguishing word denoting a particular kind of mortar, as hydraulic, tarras, water mortar, etc.: see the first element. Cf. also gauged adj. 3, pozzolana n.In stone and mortar used to denote the essential materials used in building; see also similar extended uses of bricks and mortar n. and adj. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > cement or mortar > [noun] limec725 mortara1300 cementc1300 simmona1450 magnetine1890 magnesia cement1909 society > occupation and work > materials > types of material generally > [noun] > building-material timbera900 stuff1442 stone and mortar1534 bricks and mortar1576 building-material1833 fabric1849 a1300 (c1250) Floris & Blauncheflur (Vitell.) (1966) 230 (MED) Þat morter is imaked so wel, Ne may hit breke ire ne stel. 1340 Ayenbite (1866) 116 Þet guode mortyer huer-of me makeþ þe guode walles sarzineys. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 2246 Þe wark þai raised..Wit tile and ter, witvten stan Oþer morter was þer nan. Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 294 Leyare, or werkare wythe stone and mortere, cementarius. a1500 (?c1450) Merlin 27 (MED) He..comaunded hem to make a tour..and..to brynge ston and morter [Fr. mortier]. 1534 Act 26 Hen. VIII c. 8 If the owner..doo not..with walles of morter and stone sufficiently inclose the same vacant grounde. 1592 R. Greene Quip for Vpstart Courtier sig. F4 And so spoiles hee much good morter & bricke. 1611 Bible (King James) Exod. i. 14 They made their liues bitter, with hard bondage, in morter and in bricke. View more context for this quotation 1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 199 The Moors build with Stone and Mortar..making small shew without, but delicately contrived within. a1745 J. Swift Char. of Legion Club 178 We must give them better Quarter, For their Ancestor trod Mortar. 1765 Universal Mag. 37 58/2 Mortar..made..of chalk, sand, or hassock. 1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 530 In making mortar, particular attention must be paid to the quality of the sand. 1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xxiii. 226 Fragments of mortar..came dropping down. 1915 W. Cather Song of Lark iv. ii. 297 In this hollow..the Ancient People had built their houses of yellowish stone and mortar. 1966 D. Bagley Wyatt's Hurricane iv. 120 He knelt before the wall and began to use one of the scrapers to detach loose mortar from the crack. 1991 Pract. Householder Apr. 21 Plaster over the wall when the mortar has dried. b. figurative. ΚΠ c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xix. 321 (MED) Of his baptesme & blode..He made a maner morter..And þere-with grace bigan to make a good foundement. a1425 (a1400) Northern Pauline Epist. (1916) Eph. ii. 14 (MED) For he is oure pees..in þe mene wal..with oute morter vndoande þe enemytese in his flesch. 1520 Chron. Eng. v. f. 43/1 The morter of a werke that I have begon behoveth to be tempred with your blood. 1562 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates in Wks. (1888) I. 14 The prophetis of it, spargeonit thaim with vntemperit morter [cf. Ezekiel 22:28]. 1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage v. xiv. 440 Seeking to repayre, with their untempered Mortar, the ruines. 1649 J. Owen Ουρανων Ουρανια 40 All that Antichristian mortar, wherewith from their first chaos they have been cemented. 1827 T. Carlyle Richter in Edinb. Rev. June 178 A trowel or two of biographic mortar. 1903 Speaker 21 Mar. 612/1 They regarded faith as the mortar which kept the bricks of society sticking together. 1984 D. E. Wayne Penshurst ii. 35 The ‘mortar’ which binds words in a sentence is not composed merely of grammatical connectives, nor even of strictly verbal phenomena. c. In extended use: any substance that resembles or serves a similar purpose to mortar; esp. plaster used for facing brick, stone, wood, etc. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > plaster > [noun] plasterlOE mortar1440 Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 344 Morter, for playsterynge, litura. 1574 J. Baret Aluearie M 435 Morter or clay mixed with straw, wherewith walles are dawbed, aceratum. 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 512 To keepe mice from corne, make morter of the froth of oyle mingled together with chaffe,..then plaster the wals of your garnery therewith. 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 64 I will tread this vnboulted villaine into morter, and daube the walles of a iaques with him. View more context for this quotation c1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 101 The mill..pounded the raggs to morter for ye paper. 1797 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XIX. 339 (note) That coarse red clay, called mortar, is the basis of all the grounds in this part of Strathmore. 1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. iii. 587 The sorts of it [sc. plaster] are various; as, for instance, white lime and hair mortar on bare walls. 1864 D. Allan Hist. Sketches Kirriemuir 22 The soil..is for the most part a black mould, on a bottom of what is locally called morter. 1892 Jrnl. Archæol. Inst. No. 194. 155 Sticky gravel, termed in the midland counties ‘pit mortar’. 1968 Guardian 17 Feb. 9/8 A..gorgeously opulent edifice of éclairs bound with a mortar of chocolate and cream. †2. Building, masonry. Also (in extended use): building operations. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > [noun] > building operations worka1382 mortar1582 society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > building or constructing with stone > [noun] > stonework or masonry stoneworkc1000 masonrya1425 mason-worka1450 mortar1582 stone-masonry1818 1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis ii. 35 No man, no morter can his onset forcibil hynder. 1662 B. Gerbier Brief Disc. Princ. Building 3 Those who say, That a wiseman never ought to put his finger into Morter. 1798 W. Hutton Life 43 I..altered the plan..till, when put in execution, it cost more than 700l. Mortar is rather apt to corrode the pocket. Compounds C1. General attributive. a. mortar-engine n. ΚΠ 1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1480/1 Mortar-engine, a machine for grinding and combining materials into mortar. mortar joint n. ΚΠ 1791 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse §196 I found the mortar joints of the brick walling very compleat. 2000 A J Focus May 58/1 Brickwork with consistent mortar joints and accurate perpends. mortar-maker n. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > producer > makers of other manufactured materials > [noun] > of other materials mortar-maker1359 wax-maker1515 petre man1594 saltpetre-maker1611 starch man1699 varnish-maker1753 icemaker1775 kelper1808 black lead maker1813 bone man1834 kelp-burner1845 black-salter1866 1359 in M. C. B. Dawes Reg. Black Prince (1932) III. 362 Bayardours, mortermakeres, [and] wyndres [of stones]. 1606 F. Holyoake Riders Dict. (new ed.) at Morter A morter maker or dawber, cœmentarius. 1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 806 The Floor of the gallery where the mortar makers and smiths worked. 1983 Man 18 416/2 The problems that mortar-makers (metateros) have in negotiating..for access to their raw materials. mortar-making n. ΚΠ 1597 S. Finche Let. 8 Feb. in A. C. Ducarel Some Acct. Town Croydon (1783) App. 152 Nowe we take morter-makinge in hande. 1892 Manufacturer & Builder May 120/2 In localities where a practically pure lime..is used for mortar-making, the efforescence on brick walls is unknown. mortar-mill n. ΚΠ 1819 P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. II. 381 Mortar mill, a machine contrived by Mr. Supple, for the purpose of saving labour in the making up of mortar, as well as doing the business more effectually, and at a trifling expense. 1867 A. A. Anderson U.S. Patent 72,440 Improved Mortar-Mill... My invention consists of a machine for grinding and mixing mortar. 1904 Athenæum 31 Dec. 908/2 Poplar and St. Pancras both run fan-engines, clinker-crushers, and mortar-mills. 1972 J. M. Crook British Museum 128 Thousands of visitors..came to know the clang of hammer and chisel, the whistling of labourers, and the rumble of the mortar mill. mortar-tempering n. ΚΠ 1860–4 Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.) at Mortar mill The mortar-tempering machine. † mortar-treader n. Obsolete ΚΠ 1602 T. Dekker Satiro-mastix sig. H2 I smelt the foule-fisted Morter-treader. † mortar-treading n. Obsolete ΚΠ a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) iv. sig. Nn3^v Parting with his sword one of his legges from him, left him to make a roaring lamentation that his morter-treading was marred for euer. mortar tub n. ΚΠ 1513–14 in R. K. Hannay Rentale Dunkeldense (1915) 289 In reformacione lie morter tubbis..xviij d. 1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 806 The Floor of the gallery where the mortar makers and smiths worked; shewing the situation of the mortar tubs. b. mortar-built adj. ΚΠ 1867 Sci. Amer. 2 Feb. 70/1 There was erected..a thirteen feet high stone and mortar built tower. 1900 A. Lang Hist. Scotl. I. iv. 68 Mortar-built stone edifices. C2. mortar bed n. a layer of mortar between courses of brickwork or masonry. ΚΠ 1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. iii. 517 The propriety of the mortar beds being as thin as possible. 1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) iii. 235/1 The roof covering is usually turned up the wall to form a ‘skirting’ which is tucked into the mortar bed of the brickwork. † mortar-liquid n. Obsolete = grout n.² ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > cement or mortar > [noun] > for stopping joints or cracks lutec1400 luting1527 lutation1617 grout1638 lutum1719 fire lute1758 mortar-liquid1776 grouting1793 1776 G. Semple Treat. Building in Water 78 The Antients filled up their Work with Mortar-liquid. † mortar-man n. Obsolete a person who makes or uses mortar, a builder. ΚΠ 1544–5 in P.R.O. E101/504 (Publ. Rec. Office) No. 2. f. 106^v Mortermen. 1558 in R. K. Hannay Rentale Dunkeldense (1915) 359 To tua mortur men xviij d. on the day. 1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα iv. xvi. 513 While Ministers preach..with divided tongues,..they are likely to produce no better successes..than those..morter-men did, whose work deserved the nick-name of Babel. 1745 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 213/1 On Castle building... The plodding dull material mortar-man, spends half his life adjusting of his plan. † mortar-wash n. Obsolete thin mortar. ΚΠ 1779 Philos. Trans. 1778 (Royal Soc.) 68 889 They ought to be washed over with a brush, wet with mortar-wash. 1780 Farmer's Mag. Feb. 56 The mortar-wash I make use of..will grow dry in a few minutes. Derivatives ˈmortar-like adj. ΚΠ 1704 G. London & H. Wise J. de la Quintinie's Compl. Gard'ner (ed. 4) II. iii. xx. 89 Rainy weather being apt to reduce the Mould to a Mortar-like consistence. 1888 C. H. Fagge Syst. Med. (ed. 3) I. 105 The calcified growth has a peculiar dull white chalky, or mortar-like appearance. 1988 Representations Spring 127 Courbet's oeuvre..with its famous mortarlike facture; the obsession with solidity, fullness, and massiveness. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). mortarv.¹ Brit. /ˈmɔːtə/, U.S. /ˈmɔrdər/ Forms: 1500s–1600s morter, 1800s– mortar. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mortar n.² Etymology: < mortar n.² Compare earlier mortared adj. and slightly earlier mortaring n.¹ Thesaurus » Categories » 1. transitive. To plaster with mortar; to fix or join with mortar or a mortar-like substance. 2. transitive. In figurative contexts. ΚΠ 1610 J. Donne Pseudo-martyr Pref. sig. C3 You are euer after his [sc. the Pope's] instruments, to build vp his spirituall Monarchy..and your selues must ciment and morter the wals with your blood. 1620 Abp. J. Williams Serm. Apparell 8 This rotten house of ours, the which (were it not continually mortered and repaired with meat and drinke) [etc.]. 1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts ii. 292 Ye are living stones, ye must bee..firmly mortered upon the foundation of Christ. 1889 D. S. Copeland Hist. Clarendon 364 The first two [stone men] worked..till they were at last mortared, graveled and sanded by Mother Earth. 1908 Lit. Guide 1 Aug. 123/2 The book reads like an animated catalogue... What sociology there is is quite superficial, and does not half serve to mortar the bricks. 1992 J. M. Kelly Short Hist. Western Legal Theory x. 444 Christian morality had long since been inseparably mortared into the masonry of British society. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). mortarv.² Brit. /ˈmɔːtə/, U.S. /ˈmɔrdər/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mortar n.¹ Etymology: < mortar n.¹ transitive. To direct mortar fire upon; to hit with mortar shells. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > management of artillery > operate (artillery) [verb (transitive)] > bombard > assail with types of artillery trench-mortar1916 minnie1930 mortar1944 1944 P. Brutton Jrnl. 26 May in Ensign in Italy (1992) vi. 61 See first Jerry prisoners. March up Route 6. Mortared. 1967 C. Connell World's Greatest Sieges xxix. 239 The Germans followed the rear-guard down to the water's edge..mortaring men and boats indiscriminately. 1974 Times 18 Mar. 6/6 In the towns, he said, the Arab garrisons had mortared and bombed Kurdish quarters. 1996 M. Urban UK Eyes Alpha (1997) xiii. 168 Heavy security around ministers and public places was evidently insufficient to deter the IRA from mortaring Downing Street. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.¹eOEn.²a1300v.¹1610v.²1944
随便看	to be odd with to be of a gang to be of a mind to be of a person's bosom to be of a person's enmity to be of another's mind to be of bosom to be of comfort to be of common wone to be of consent to be of days to be of divers minds to be of enmity to be of good cheer to be of good comfort to be of good merchandise to be of less age to be of low sail to be of many minds to be of mind to be of occasionally in divers minds to be of occasionally in many minds to be of one mind to be of opinion to be of opinion that

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