orphrey
Americannoun
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an ornamental band or border, especially on an ecclesiastical vestment.
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gold embroidery.
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rich embroidery of any sort.
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a piece of richly embroidered material.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of orphrey
1300–50; Middle English orfreis (later construed as plural) < Old French < Medieval Latin aurifrisium, variant of aurifrigium, for Latin phrase aurum Phrygium gold embroidery, literally, Phrygian gold
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This sprang from the tailors' way of seaming together strips of fabric, which were then reinforced with a decorative vertical band called an orphrey.
From Time Magazine Archive
The lower border and the orphrey with coats of arms do not belong to the original cope and are of somewhat later date.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3 "Convention" to "Copyright" by Various
The orphrey is divided into tabernacles containing an archbishop, two bishops, and three kings and queens.
From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess
At Coire, in the Grisons, is a very beautiful chasuble, of which the orphrey is of the school of the elder Holbein or Lucas Cranach, applied and raised so as to form a high relief.
From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess
In the middle of the orphrey is a figure of Our Lord holding the orb in His left hand and with His right hand raised in benediction.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3 "Convention" to "Copyright" by Various
About their necks were brilliant collars with orphreys crusted, as were the robes, with carbuncles.
From Là-bas by Wallace, Keene
So fair a house Hallblithe deemed he had never seen; for it was wrought all over with histories and flowers, and with hems sewn with gold, and with orphreys of gold and pearl and gems.
From The Story of the Glittering Plain; or, the land of Living Men by Morris, William
From this time onward, however, the embroidery became ever more and more elaborate, and with this tendency the orphreys were broadened to allow of their being decorated with figures.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 8 "Chariot" to "Chatelaine" by Various
The orphreys, or straight borders, which go down on both fronts of the cope, are decorated with heraldic charges.
From The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Less essential are the orphreys on the hem of the arms and the fringes along the slits at the sides and the lower hem.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 "Dagupan" to "David" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
