sash

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sæʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

Etymology 1

From Arabic شَاش (šāš, “muslin cloth”).

Noun

sash (plural sashes)

1. A piece of cloth designed to be worn around the waist.

   Synonyms: belt, cummerbund, obi, waistband

2. A decorative length of cloth worn over the shoulder to the opposite hip, often for ceremonial or other formal occasions.
3. (obsolete) Alternative spelling of shash (“the scarf of a turban”)
   • 1650, Thomas Fuller, “ The Land of Moriah”, in A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London: J. F. for John Williams , →OCLC, book II, paragraph 24, page 303:

     So much for the ſilk in Judea called Sheſh in Hebrevv, vvhence haply, that fine linen or ſilk is called Shaſhes vvorn at this day about the heads of eaſtern people.

Derived terms

• lap sash seatbelt
• sashery
• undersash
• unsash

Translations

Verb

sash (third-person singular simple present sashes, present participle sashing, simple past and past participle sashed)

1. (transitive) To adorn with a sash.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter IV to the Earl Fitzwilliam, in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, London: C. and J. Rivington, 1826, Volume 9, p. 46,

     the Costume of the Sans-culotte Constitution of 1793 was absolutely insufferable but now they are so powdered and perfumed, and ribanded, and sashed and plumed, that there is something in it more grand and noble, something more suitable to an awful Roman Senate, receiving the homage of dependant Tetrarchs.

Etymology 2

From sashes, from French châssis (“frame (of a window or door)”), taken as a plural and -s trimmed off by the late 17th century. See also chassis.

Noun

sash (plural sashes)

1. The opening part (casement) of a window usually containing the glass panes, hinged to the jamb, or sliding up and down as in a sash window.
   • 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. , London: W Chetwood, ; and T. Edling, , published 1722, →OCLC, page 91:

     One Morning he pulls off his Diamond Ring, and vvrites upon the Glaſs of the Saſh in my Chamber this Line, You I Love, and you alone.

   • 1823, Clement Clarke Moore, “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” (“The Night before Christmas”),

     Away to the window I flew like a flash,

     Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter II, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 10:

     "In judging of that tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," says an old writer—of whose works I possess the only copy extant—"it maketh a marvellous difference, whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside, or whether thou observest it from that sashless window, where the frost is on both sides, and of which the wight Death is the only glazier."

   • 1908, Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale‎, Book 4, Chapter 2:

     She chiefly recalled the Square under snow; cold mornings, and the coldness of the oil-cloth at the window, and the draught of cold air through the ill-fitting sash (it was put right now)!

2. (software, graphical user interface) A draggable vertical or horizontal bar used to adjust the relative sizes of two adjacent windows.

   Synonym: splitter

3. (sawmilling) The rectangular frame in which the saw is strained and by which it is carried up and down with a reciprocating motion; the gate.
4. (chemistry) A window-like part of a fume hood which can be moved up and down in order to create a barrier between chemicals and people.
   • 1915 April, W. A. Hamor, “Description of the New Building of the Mellon Institute”, in The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry‎, page 334:

     Each hood is equipped with two sliding sashes, glazed with polished plate wire-glass; […]

   • 2008, Kenneth L. Williamson, Katherine M. Masters, Macroscale and Microscale Organic Experiments‎, published 2015, →ISBN, page 35:

     […] it [fume hood] also affords an excellent physical barrier on all four sides of a reacting system when the sash is pulled down.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sash (third-person singular simple present sashes, present participle sashing, simple past and past participle sashed)

1. (transitive) To furnish with a sash.
   • 1741, Samuel Richardson, Pamela‎, London, Volume 3, Letter 1, p. 2:

     The old Bow-windows he will have preserv'd, but will not have them sash’d,

Derived terms

• unsashed

References

Anagrams

• shas, šâhs, šāhs