body linen.adj.
/ˈbɒdɪ lʌɪn/, U.S. /ˈbɑdi ˌlaɪn/ A. n.
1. Chiefly Typography. Originally: = body stroke n. at body n. Compounds 2. Now chiefly: the mean line, or the area between the base line and mean line (cf. mean line n. at mean adj.2 Compounds).
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society > communication > printing > printed matter > printed character(s) > [noun] > stem or thick stroke
body line1741
body mark1876
body stroke1898
1741 Methodist 32 The Line which joins the Top or Bottom with the Body-line.
1883 Mechanics 27 Jan. 69/2 The horizontal hair lines should be added after the body lines of a word are made.
1909 W. Heyny Mod. Lettering 63/2 Features of G are employed for O, and the third body line is started with a heavy, curved stroke.
1932 V. R. Portmann Man. Typogr. for College Students iv. 20 The capitals and ascenders are almost twice the height of the small letters while the descenders barely go below the body line.
1998 B. Greg & S. Wils Tips on Type (rev. ed.) 35/2 The only exception to these three types [of lower-case letters] is small t which breaks the body line but has no ascender.
2. The posture or disposition of the body, esp. regarded as an aspect of technique in dance or sport. Cf. line n.2 7g.
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society > leisure > dancing > ballet > [noun] > movements > disposition of body and limbs
body line1898
line1912
1898 Mass. Med. Jrnl. Apr. 150 This lower chest breathing tends to throw the body line forward at the waist, with the hips and shoulders back.
1942 Life 12 Jan. 43 (caption) Mastery of modern tap dancing and classical ballet enables Betty Bruce to emerge from a difficult double turn with this beautiful coiled body line.
1971 Los Angeles Times 4 Feb. vii. 3/6 The idea is to make your trick..look better than your opponents' by arm angle, finger positions and the relationship of head to body so you present a cleaner body line to the judges.
2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 16 Aug. b5/6 Vanessa Thiessen stood out for the whole-bodied resiliency of her dancing and for her expressive body line.
3. Cricket (originally Australian). Chiefly in form bodyline. Also with capital initial. Bodyline bowling (see sense B.). Also: the 1932–3 Ashes series in Australia notable for the use of such bowling; the period of controversy surrounding this series. Now chiefly historical.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > bowling > [noun] > manner of bowling > specific
fast bowling1816
lobbing1824
bias bowling1833
windmill1867
fast-medium1890
flick1897
whip1903
swerve-bowling1930
body line1933
tweaking1949
swing bowling1953
spin-bowling1955
seam-bowling1956
pace bowling1958
nip1963
wrist-spinning1963
1933 Canberra Times 20 Jan. 1/2 Gregory and I [sc. E. A. MacDonald] were hailed as the originators of body-line but we were straight up and downers, and bowled to the ordinary field.
1937 P. G. Wodehouse Let. 7 May in Yours, Plum (1990) i. 65 He was extraordinarily interesting about body-line, and the picture he drew of conditions during the Jardine–Larwood tour were almost exactly like an eyewitness's description of the Spanish war.
1965 Times 16 June 4/7 He went to Australia as a player in 1934-35, when E. R. T. Holmes led a team whose purpose was to heal the scars of bodyline.
1998 R. Cashman in B. Stoddart & K. A. P. Sandiford Imperial Game ii. 49 Although the MCC rejected the Australian cable that the tactics were ‘unsportsmanlike’, the tactic of Bodyline was effectively banned.
2008 G. Growden Jack Fingleton xvi. 197 One of the highlights of his 1948 England trip had been..to meet Harold Larwood for the first time since Bodyline.
B. adj.
Cricket (originally Australian). Chiefly in form bodyline. Also with capital initial. Designating fast, often short-pitched bowling aimed at the leg stump or the batter's body, with a concentration of fielders close in on the leg side; of, relating to, or characterized by this kind of bowling. Now chiefly historical.Bodyline bowling developed out of leg theory (see leg n. Compounds 2b) and was originally also known (esp. in Britain) as fast leg theory. It was introduced, to great controversy, by the England captain Douglas Jardine (1900–58) on the Ashes tour to Australia in 1932–3, chiefly as a strategy to combat the batting of Donald Bradman (1908–2001), and remains principally associated with that tour. Changes in the laws effectively ended its use soon afterwards.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > bowling > [adjective] > manner of bowling
straight-arm1807
straight-armed1827
round-arm1835
round hand1847
underhand1850
round-armed1854
wristy1867
fast-medium1873
under-arm1877
quick1899
windmill1900
body line1932
1932 Australasian (Melbourne) 10 Dec. 27/4 It has many names, such as bowling at the leg stump,..leg theory, or bodyline offensive.
1933 Times 19 Jan. 12/6 The Australian Cricket Board of Control has sent the following telegram to the M.C.C.: ‘Body-line bowling has assumed such proportions as to menace the best interests of the game.’
1955 I. Peebles Ashes ix. 93 Voce did so [sc. took ten wickets], aided by a wet wicket, and Larwood by a bodyline field.
1975 Herald (Melbourne) 11 Oct. 27/1 It won't be another Bodyline series, but the Tests between Australia and the West Indies this summer will be a blood and guts battle of brute speed.
2002 A. Clarke Polished Hoe (2003) i. 16 My gran-mother tell me that Golbourne was the fastest body-line fast-bowler the Island o' Bimshire ever produce.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1741