purfle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to finish with an ornamental border.
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to decorate (a shrine or tabernacle) with architectural forms in miniature.
noun
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of purfle
1275–1325; Middle English purfilen < Middle French porfiler to make or adorn a border, equivalent to por- pro 1 + filer to spin, derivative of fil thread < Latin fīlum. See profile
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:
Alive or dead, Riton used them despitefully; for it was his wont to shave the beards of these kings, and purfle therewith a cloak of furs that he wore, very rich.
From Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut by Mason, Eugene
He made some good instruments, but did not purfle them.
From Violins and Violin Makers Biographical Dictionary of the Great Italian Artistes, their Followers and Imitators, to the present time. With Essays on Important Subjects Connected with the Violin. by Pearce, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
This toll was established because sir Crudor, with whom she was in love, refused to marry her till she had provided him with human hair sufficient to "purfle a mantle" with.
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Hast aught plotting in the hem of thy purfle, or in thy holiday ruff and fardingale?
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 by Roby, John
This gorgeous-broider'd with rich sentences: That fair and purfled round with merriments.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 9 by Various
His horse, a charger of the largest size, and well able to sustain his vast weight, was trapped in crimson velvet, purfled with ermines.
From Windsor Castle by Ainsworth, William Harrison
Her belt was of some costly Byzantine stuff, all purfled with gold threads.
From The Pobratim A Slav Novel by Jones, P.
These futile trappings but recall Degenerate worshippers who fall In purfled kirtle and brocade To 'parel the white Mother-Maid.
From Poems by Thompson, Francis
Some of this maker's instruments are very unfinished, many not being purfled, and having only a single coat of varnish.
From The Violin Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators by Hart, George
RUPPERT, FRANCIS, Erfruth, made some excellent instruments of a very flat model, but generally omitted the linings and corner blocks as well us the purfling.
From Violins and Violin Makers Biographical Dictionary of the Great Italian Artistes, their Followers and Imitators, to the present time. With Essays on Important Subjects Connected with the Violin. by Pearce, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
His instruments are of the flat model of Stradiuarius but have the edges larger and the purfling further from the sides.
From Violins and Violin Makers Biographical Dictionary of the Great Italian Artistes, their Followers and Imitators, to the present time. With Essays on Important Subjects Connected with the Violin. by Pearce, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
It is used here and there in contrary direction, as the grain of the several parts of the purfling does not run quite level.
From The Repairing & Restoration of Violins 'The Strad' Library, No. XII. by Petherick, Horace
The purfling is a trifle wider, but narrower than that afterwards used.
From The Violin Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators by Hart, George
The lower end of the joint near the purfling will require a little additional cramping together.
From The Repairing & Restoration of Violins 'The Strad' Library, No. XII. by Petherick, Horace
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.
