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Webster 1913 Edition


Finery

Fin′er-y

,
Noun.
1.
Fineness; beauty.
[Obs.]
Don’t choose your place of study by the
finery
of the prospects.
I. Watts.
2.
Ornament; decoration; especially, excecially decoration; showy clothes; jewels.
Her mistress' cast-off
finery
.
F. W. Robertson.
3.
[Cf.
Refinery
.]
(Iron Works)
A charcoal hearth or furnace for the conversion of cast iron into wrought iron, or into iron suitable for puddling.

Webster 1828 Edition


Finery

FI'NERY

,
Noun.
1.
Show; splendor; gaiety of colors or appearance; as the finery of a dress.
2.
Showy articles of dress; gay clothes, jewels, trinkets, &c.
3.
In iron-works, the second forge at the iron-mills. [See Finary.]

Definition 2024


finery

finery

English

Noun

finery (countable and uncountable, plural fineries)

  1. (obsolete) Fineness; beauty.
  2. Ornament; decoration; especially, excessive decoration; showy clothes; jewels.
  3. (ironworking) A charcoal hearth or furnace for the conversion of cast iron into wrought iron, or into iron suitable for puddling.
    • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 160:
      In front of the finery hearth in which the sow is melted down again, the finer is working with a long iron bar called a ringer (from French 'ringard') with which he keeps the molten iron in motion by stirring, an essential stage in the process of refining.

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