c1400 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe (Cambr. Dd.3.53) (1872) ii. §26. 35 The excellence of the spere solide..shewyth Manifeste the diuerse assenciouns of signes in diuerse places.

c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (Roxb.) xxv. 115 Sum has..astrolabres of gold, sum speres of precious stanes.

?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Aaii Whan I shall teche you the spere.

1556 R. Record Castle of Knowl. 73 Set your Sphere before you, and first turn it so that bothe the Poles may touch the Horizont.

1674 J. Moxon Tutor to Astron. & Geogr. (ed. 3) App. 201 As a Sphear is an Astronomical Instrument, it is a complication of material Circles only, so fitted together that they represent all the imaginary Circles and motions of the eighth Sphear, and the Circles and motions of all the Planets about the Earth.

1701 T. Tuttell Descr. Math. Instruments in J. Moxon Math. made Easie (ed. 3) 19 Sphere, made of Silver or Brass Hoops, or Rings, representing the Principal Circles of the Sphere (called a material Sphere).

1774 J. Bryant New Syst. (new ed.) I. 341 They had the use of the sphere, and were acquainted with the zodiac.

1821 Turner's Easy Introd. Arts & Sci. (ed. 18) 172 He [Atlas] was..the first who represented the world by a sphere.

1864 H. Spencer Illustr. Progress 172 Then came the sphere of Berosus,..and the quadrant of Ptolemy.

c1374 G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde v. 1809 His lighte gost ful blysfully is went Vp to þe holwghnesse of þe seuenþe spere.

c1381 G. Chaucer Parl. Foules 59 After shewede he hym the nyne speris.

c1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 65 Yn ordynance of þe heuens and of þe speres, and þe disposicioun of þe planetes.

c1450 Treat. Astrol. (Ashm. 337) 8 b In the firmament above the viij spere there is a brode cercle ful of sterris.

?a1533 J. Frith Bk. answeringe Mores Let. (1548) 62 Y^e hyghest sphere.. with his swift mouying doth violently drawe the inferiour Spheares with him.

1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 10 This region do in contayne .x. spheres.

1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xxvii. sig. N3^v Some will know Heauen as perfectly, as if they had been hurried about in euery Spheare.

1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §49 I grant that two bodies placed beyond the tenth Spheare..could not behold each other. View more context for this quotation

1695 Ld. Preston tr. Boethius Consol. Philos. i. (1712) 8 He saw of every wandring Star The various Motions through each Sphear.

1827 R. Pollok Course of Time II. x. 247 The spheres stood still, and every star Stood still and listened.

1841 E. W. Lane tr. Thousand & One Nights I. 20 This notion of the seven heavens appears to have been taken from the ‘seven spheres’.

c1381 G. Chaucer Parl. Foules 61 Aftyr that the melodye herde he That comyth of thilke speris thryes thre.

c1400 Pilgr. Sowle (1859) v. i. 70 The cause of this melodye is the merueylous mouyng, and wonderfull tornyng of the spyeres.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) iii. i. 109 I had rather heare you, to solicit that, Then Musicke from the spheares . View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) v. ii. 83 His voyce was propertied As all the tuned Spheres . View more context for this quotation

1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 191 Our Organs are the Musick of the Spheres to them.

1733 A. Pope Ess. Man i. 228 If Nature thunder'd in his opening ears, And stunn'd him with the music of the Spheres.

1827 R. Pollok Course of Time I. i. 24 The chiming spheres, By God's own finger touched to harmony.

a1882 D. G. Rossetti Site Mulberry Tree 12, in Wks. (1886) I. 285 This deaf drudge, to whom no length of ears Sufficed to catch the music of the spheres.

1633 S. Marmion Fine Compan. iv. i He may be styl'd a civil gentleman, ten spheres below a fool.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica i. iii. 12 Although their [i.e. tutelary spirits] condition and fortunes may place them many Spheres above the multitude.

1859 G. Meredith Ordeal Richard Feverel I. xviii. 284 Ere long he meets Ralph, and discovers that..he has distanced him by a sphere.

?1592 Trag. Solyman & Perseda i. i. 29 Love. Now will I vp into the brightsome sphere, From whence I sprung, till [etc.].

1680 R. Graham Poems 2 She..from her lower Circle there Took flight into an higher Sphær.

1817 T. Moore Lalla Rookh iv. 344 If there be some happier sphere, Where fadeless truth like ours is dear.

1863 J. Thomson Sunday at Hampstead ii. iv Being lord in Mohammed's seventh sphere.

1865 W. E. H. Lecky Hist. Rationalism (1878) I. 337 A future sphere, where the injustices of life shall be rectified.

a1500 Lancelot of Laik (1870) 170 The mychty gode of loue, That sitith hie in to his spir abuf.

1509 S. Hawes Joyfull Medit. xvi Now gentyll Jupyter..Sendynge downe trouthe from thy fulgent spere.

1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet i. v. 17 A tale..whose lightest word Would..Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres.

1621 J. Lane Tritons Trumpet (B.L. MS Reg. 17B. xv) f. 3 But Chaucer shee bidds com down off his spheare.

c1760 T. Smollett Ode to Blue-ey'd Ann 23 When nature from her sphere shall start.

1815 W. Scott Lord of Isles vi. xxxvi. 272 He..greeted him 'twixt joy and fear, As being of superior sphere.

1595 E. Spenser Amoretti lx, in Amoretti & Epithalamion sig. D7^v Mars in three score yeares doth run his spheare.

1595 E. Spenser Amoretti lx, in Amoretti & Epithalamion sig. D7^v The spheare of Cupid fourty yeares containes.

a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) i. i. 88 He is so aboue me In his bright radience and colaterall light, Must I be comforted, not in his sphere . View more context for this quotation

1678 Young Man's Calling 66 You are ready..to..complain, that the orbe and sphære in which you are placed is low and mean.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 28 Any Man, who shined in such a Sphere in that Age in Europe.

1735 J. Swift Humble Addr. to Parl. in Wks. IV. 232 I should think my self obliged in Conscience to act in my Sphere according to that Vote.

1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 112 I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in. View more context for this quotation

1820 W. Scott Monastery II. ii. 29 The young lady, who seemed to have dropped amongst them from out of another sphere of life.

1885 J. Ruskin Præterita I. vii. 210 The change, for her, was into a higher sphere of society.

1839 J. H. Newman Parochial Serm. IV. xiii. 235 Each knows little about what goes on in any other sphere than his own.

1847 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xx. 193 It was an assurance to him that his power extended beyond his own immediate sphere.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) ii. vii. 14 To be call'd into a huge Sphere, and not to be seene to moue in't. View more context for this quotation

1635 A. Stafford Femall Glory 219 Divinity not being the spheare wherein my studies move.

1714 A. Pope Rape of Lock (new ed.) ii. 14 Ye know the Spheres and various Tasks assign'd; By Laws Eternal, to th' Aerial Kind.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. iii. 21 A village is..too narrow a sphere for him. View more context for this quotation

1853 C. Brontë Villette I. viii. 141 That school offered for her powers too limited a sphere.

1884 R. Paton Sc. Church vii. 62 Other labourers in similar spheres had left the gloom unbroken.

1643 R. Baker Chron. Kings of Eng. iv. 124 All this while the King had moved within his own Spheare, and had done nothing out of the Realme.

?1677 S. Primatt City & Covntry Purchaser & Builder 55 They do buy their materials at cheaper rates than those out of whose sphere it is.

1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels II. 266 Not..thrusting into Business above our Capacity and proper Sphere.

1780 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) IV. iv. 68 Each personage is distinct from the rest, acts in his sphere, and cannot be confounded with any other of the dramatis personæ.

1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 175/1 In his new sphere Seckendorf showed the same activity and good will towards the people as before.

1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. I. xxxiii. 495 Each of which [sc. executive and legislative powers] forms its view as to the matters falling within its sphere.

1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine iv. i. 10 The Temple, where this glorious Plate shined in its proper sphear.

1704 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion III. xv. 478 He..told them, that all the time he was in France, he was out of his Sphere.

1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting II. iii. 143 He was no sooner at Rome, than he found himself in his sphere.

1832 H. Martineau For Each & All i She is in her own sphere wherever there is grace, wherever there is enjoyment.

1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida ii. sig. D2 Ladie, erect your gratious summetry: Shine in the spheare of sweete affection.

a1668 W. Davenant News from Plimouth i. i, in Wks. (1673) 2/2 London, the Spheare of Light and harmony.

1704 J. Swift Disc. Mech. Operat. Spirit i, in Tale of Tub 290 There are three general Ways of ejaculating the Soul, or transporting it beyond the Sphere of Matter.

1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 169. ⁋5 They see a little, and believe that there is nothing beyond their sphere of vision.

1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. 105 In this course, he came within the sphere of the trade wind.

1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. i. 7 Extending principles which belong altogether to building, into the sphere of architecture proper.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 8 The sphere of mind was dark and mysterious to him.

1661 A. Cowley Vision Cromwell 27 The bounds of those Laws which have been left them as the sphere of their Authority.

1667 J. Dryden Let. to Sir R. Howard in Annus Mirabilis 1666 Pref. All which, by length'ning of their chain, makes the sphere of their activity the larger.

1726 Bp. J. Butler 15 Serm. xii. 229 The Sphere of Action of..the greatest Part of Mankind is much narrower than the Government they live under.

1783 E. Burke in 9th Rep. Commons Sel. Comm. Bengal, Bahar, & Orissa iii. 29 The spirit..prevailed not only in Bengal, but seems more or less to have diffused itself through the whole Sphere of the Company's Influence.

1836 W. Irving Astoria II. 27 The distrust..had increased in proportion as they approached the sphere of action.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xx. 39 Miss Ophelia resolved to confine her sphere of operation and instruction chiefly to her own chamber.

1726 Bp. J. Butler 15 Serm. xv. 309 A Sphere of Knowledge..to our Capacities.

a1797 E. Burke Ess. Abridgm. Eng. Hist. (rev. ed.) in Wks. (1812) V. 529 He agreed to an accommodation, which..only left to himself a sphere of government as narrow as his genius.

1863 A. P. Stanley Lect. Jewish Church I. iii. 72 His history belongs henceforth to a wider sphere.

1866 Duke of Argyll Reign of Law ii. 55 They belong to wholly different spheres of thought.

1879 J. A. Froude Cæsar xiii. 179 Cæsar could only wish for a long absence in some new sphere of usefulness.

1885 Earl Granville in Hertslet Map of Africa by Treaty (1894) II. 596 A Memorandum of Agreement for separating and defining the spheres of action of Great Britain and Germany in those parts of Africa where the Colonial interests of the two countries might conflict.

1885 Earl Granville in Hertslet Map of Africa by Treaty (1894) II. 598 Their respective spheres of influence in the territories on the Gulf of Guinea.

1890 C. W. Dilke Probl. Greater Brit. II. v. 193 Our South African ‘sphere’.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 25 July 1/2 There is no necessary opposition between the sphere of influence policy and the ‘open-door’ policy.

1950 L. Fischer in R. Crossman God that Failed 223 It provided for a spheres-of-influence division of the areas accessible to Soviet–Nazi aggression.

1973 A. Broinowski Take One Ambassador iv. 43 The Japanese themselves are told they can't resort to force, even in what they see as their own sphere of influence.

1981 Times 21 Feb. 13/5 A programme of reform [in Poland] sufficiently limited to reassure the Russians that their sphere of influence is safe.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. cxxvii. 1368 Þe spere is a figure yschape al round, and is pere to þe solid in alle parties.

c1400 Pilgr. Sowle (1483) v. xiv. 107 Alle thre dymensions in a round body nys but the same, and yf ther be ony difference the spere is not parfyte.

1556 R. Record Castle of Knowl. 17 A Sphere is a sound figure, made by the tournynge of half a circle, tyll it ende where it began to be moued.

1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. xi. f. 315^v A Sphere is a figure most apt to all motion, as hauing no base whereon to stay.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage i. ii. 10 Neyther is it yet absolutely round and a perfect sphere.

1698 J. Keill Exam. Theory Earth (1734) 223 A Sphere..whose Center of Gravity coincides with its Center of Magnitude.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. (at cited word) Parallel planes, which divide the diameter of a sphere into equal parts, divide the surface of the sphere into equal parts at the same time.

1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. 204 The diameter..on which the generating circle turns is called the axis of the sphere, and its extremities..are called the poles of the sphere.

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) I. 394 Draw the complete plan, and project..the external form of the sphere.

a1631 J. Donne Poems (1650) 7 Shine here to us, and thou art every where; This bed thy center is, these wals, thy spheare.

1934 C. C. Krieger tr. W. Sierpínski Introd. Gen. Topol. vi. 77 The set K(p,r) (where p ε M, and r > 0) is called an open sphere of centre p and radius r.

1959 E. M. Patterson Topol. i. 3 Since all spheres are homeomorphic, we speak of the sphere, rather than a sphere.

1968 E. T. Copson Metric Spaces iii. 32 If we impose on the set..of all ordered pairs of real numbers the metric ρ(x,y) = max {|x₁ − y₁|, |x₂ − y₂|} the spheres are squares.

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. i. f. 3^v The iudgement of auncient wryters as touchynge the bignesse of the Sphere and compasse of the Globe.

1663 S. Patrick Parable of Pilgrim (1687) xxxvi. 470 To colour the cheeks of our Apples, and enlarge the Sphere of our Cabbages.

1827 T. Hood Plea Midsummer Fairies i, in Plea Midsummer Fairies & Other Poems 1 With a broader sphere The Moon looks down on Ceres and her sheaves.

1830 Ld. Tennyson Mermaid in Poems 30 All things..Would lean out from the hollow sphere of the sea.

1858 W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 79 Until the flat surface is nearly equal to the diameter of the sphere of the ball.

?1611 G. Chapman tr. Homer Iliads xiv. 154 A girdle, whose rich sphere a hundred studs impress'd.

1878 H. P. Gurney Crystallogr. 32 The diameter of the sphere of projection which is at right angles to the zone plane is called the zone axis.

1895 N. Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. ii. 27 On the sphere of projection, and the principles of its stereographic representation.

a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 235 The riȝt hond holdynge þe spere, þat is þe roundenesse and þe liknesse of þe world.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. lxxxxi^v A hande of golde holdyng a spere of the worlde.

1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie iii. x. sig. H3^v A hall, a hall, Roome for the Spheres, the Orbes celestiall Will daunce Kemps Iigge.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) i. i. 67 All kinde of Natures That labour on the bosome of this Sphere . View more context for this quotation

17.. Watts Hymn, ‘God is a Name of my Soul adores’ ii Thy Voice produc'd the Sea and Spheres.

1837 C. Babbage 9th Bridgewater Treat. iii. 57 He has traced the orbits of earth's sister spheres.

1871 J. S. Blackie Four Phases Morals i. 20 We attempt ambitiously to measure the remote movement of the spheres.