Middle English Dictionary Entry
stōn-wal n.
Entry Info
| Forms | stōn-wal n. Also stounwal. |
| Etymology | OE stān-weall |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
Note: For other forms see ston n. & wal n.(1).
1.
(a) A wall or rampart made of stone or masonry; -- also coll.; within ~, inside a castle; (b) in proverbs and conventional comparisons.
Associated quotations
a
- c1175(OE) Bod.Aelfric OT (Bod 343)30/349 : Ða openode ðeo sæ togeanes Moyses & þet water him stod swylce stanweallæs bufon heoræ hæfdum.
- c1275(?a1200) Lay.Brut (Clg A.9)1014 : Þær he gon aræren riche ane burhe..mid hæȝe stan walle.
- (a1382) WBible(1) (Bod 959)SSol.2.14 : My culuer, in þe holis of the ston, in þe chyne of a ston wal, shew þou to me þi face.
- a1400 NVPsalter (Vsp D.7)143.17 : Noght es fallinge ofe stanewalle swa. Ne forthgange, ne crie in waies ofe þa.
- a1425(c1385) Chaucer TC (Benson-Robinson)2.47 : Ek som men grave in tree, some in ston wal, As it bitit.
- c1432 Bishop Notes in PMLA 49 (Cmb Dd.14.2)455 : Sire Iohn'..breke a pese of þis seyd Abbotis stoun' wal in þe suth' syde of þis seyd lane.
- c1450(c1400) Sultan Bab.(Gar 140)2838 : For thai be byseged with-in ston-walle.
- (1473-4) Acc.St.Edm.Sarum15 : In makyng of holes in the stone walles of the north Ile.
- a1500 Add.37075 Gloss (Add 37075)69/308a : Maceries: a stone wall.
- a1500 Conq.Irel.(Rwl B.490)51/2 : Har good brodyr..was besegyd in place febilly garnesyd, but a dyche and a hegge of thornys vpon, and a lytil stone wal.
- a1525(?1436) Cov.Leet Bk.185 : The orden þat þey prior be not suffered to make no more off þe Stan wall vndur þey priory in Seynt Mich[aels] Churcheyerd.
- 1543(1464) Hardyng Chron.B (Grafton)p.330 : The wind was so boistous The stone walles, steples, houses, and trees Were blow doune.
b
- a1425(a1400) PConsc.(Glb E.9 & Hrl 4196)577 : A best þat men Lynx calles..may se thurgh thik stane walles.
- c1460(a1449) Lydg.Look TM (Hrl 2255)42 : The Lynx with lookyng percith a stoon wal.
- c1450 Alph.Tales (Add 25719)60/2 : Þe flude..sparrid vp þe kurk-duris & þe wyndows, as it had bene turnyd into a thyng þat had bene faste as þe stone wall.
- a1475(?a1430) Lydg.Pilgr.(Vit C.13)9880 : I..fond in hym no breth at al, But ded & cold as a ston wal.
- c1475(c1420) Page SRouen (Eg 1995)p.22 : Hunger brekythe the stone walle.
- c1475(a1449) Lydg.Prayer Edmund (LdMisc 683)63 : O laureat marter! stable as a stoon wall, Pray for all tho that calle the in ther neede.
- 1532-1897(c1385) Usk TL (Thynne:Skeat)76/104 : The lynx..may seen thorow many stone walles.