APPLIANCE

appliance
Noun

Plural: appliances

Etymology: from the verb apply + -ance. The Latin plicare is the ulterior etymology of the verb apply.

First definition: action of applying; this is, the action of placing in contact or proximity; application.

Synonyms: to approximate, conjoin, connect, approach, near

Antonyms: to separate, disunite, disconnect

It may be approximately translated by aplicación, in Spanish; application, in French; applicazione, in Italian.

[…] wooden daggers, rendered hard by the appliance of fire. Joel Samuel Polack (Manners and customs of the New Zealanders)

[I] demonstrated to my own satisfaction, what has since been frequently observed and publicly asserted, that the vapour of chloroform mixed with atmospheric air is a supporter of respiration.The end is attained by the appliance of the sponge a little distance from the nostrils. The Veterinarian; or, MonthlyJournal of Veterinary Science

[…] to spur on a horse by the heels, to excite his action by the appliance of the heels, spurs. John Bellenden Ker (An essay on the archaeology of our popular phrases)

It would seem as if he had consoled himself by frequent appliances to the bottle. Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne (The Wrong Box)

Second definition: metaphorically: action of using something incorporeal, as if by getting a contact or approximation between it and an end (purpose, appropriation, etc.)

Before proceeding further I shall describe the apparatus, its appliance, and the advantages to be derived from its use. London medical gazette, volume 22

[…] the demand for its appliance [of the barometer] in the laboratory is almost ceaseless. Campbell Morfit (Chemical and pharmaceutical manipulations)

Few subjects are more interesting than the discovery in the materials which surround us of a force, hitherto unknown, its transfer from natural sources, and its appliance to machinery, its introduction as a new and precious tool into the great workshop of the world. Samuel Reynolds Hole (A little tour in America)

Third definition: a thing, corporeal or incorporeal, used as a means for someone to do something.

Synonyms: apparatus, device, adminicle

It may be approximately translated by adminículo, aparato, in Spanish; adminicule, in French; apparecchio, in Italian.

Bill has now brought me some new appliances, as I've also learned to masturbate satisfactorily. He brought me, for instance, a very sophisticated dildo with a rubber bulb, which one fills with warm soapy liquid. When I jerk off with it, which is frequent because Bill travels quite a lot, I use it to fuck myself (it's nine inches long, like Bill), but when I'm ready to come, I just squeeze the bulb, and the warm soapy liquid just like Bill's semen squirts into my cunt, so it's pretty much like having Bill there. Nancy Friday (Forbidden Flowers)

From about the age of twelve, I entered into another and more advanced stage in my course of instruction; in which the main object was no longer the aids and appliances of thought, but the thoughts themselves. John Stuart Mill (Autobiography)

The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, […], there was wine. Edgar Allan Poe

[…] he spends his whole small income upon chemical and electrical appliances. Arthur Conan Doyle (The Doings of Raffles Haw)

Omnibuses convey you, if you please, from a convenient part of the town to the beach and back again; you have a clean and comfortable bathing-machine, dress, linen, and all appliances; and the charge for the whole is half-a- franc, or fivepence. Charles Dickens (Reprinted Pieces)

It has its reading-rooms, its library, its chemical laboratory, its museum, its art department, its lecture hall, and its long list of lectures on subjects of various and comprehensive interest, […]. Very well. But it may be asked, what are the practical results of all these appliances? Charles Dickens (Speeches)

With the earliest light of the next morning, men were at work upon the river, and other men - most of whom volunteered for the service - were examining the banks. All the livelong day the search went on; upon the river, with barge and pole, and drag and net; upon the muddy and rushy shore, with jack-boots, hatchet, spade, rope, dogs, and all imaginable appliances. Charles Dickens (The Mystery of Edwin Drood)

[Ellis] bought elaborate gymnastic appliances. Octave Thanet (The Stout Miss Hopkins's Bicycle)

Here the visitor, all unconscious of Mrs. Sparsit's magnanimous words, repeated his knock so loudly that the light porter hastened down to open the door; while Mrs. Sparsit took the precaution of concealing her little table, with all its appliances upon it, in a cupboard, and then decamped up-stairs, that she might appear, if needful, with the greater dignity. Charles Dickens (Hard Times)

[…] his boat had no cushion for a sitter, no paint, no inscription, no appliance beyond a rusty boathook and a coil of rope, and he could not be a waterman. Charles Dickens (Our Mutual Friend)

[…] all the means and appliances of pleasure and enjoyment were there. Richard F. Burton (Vikram and the Vampire)

They have nests of wooden platters for pans, the oldest and rudest of all mechanical appliances. Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron (To The Gold Coast for Gold)

We have no appliances here for the education of an actress. William Black (Macleod of Dare)

[…] a variety of toilet appliances. William Dean Howells (The March Family Trilogy)

After a prolonged absence at this stage of the entertainment, he at length came back with a casket of precious appearance containing twigs. These I steeped in hot water, and so from the whole of these appliances extracted one cup of I don't know what for Estella. Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)

Within the tower there are beautifully finished rooms-two tiny tea-rooms and a dressing-room, and also a real effective kitchen, with all necessary appliances for a repast or a pic-nic. Benjamin Silliman (A Visit to Europe in 1851)

Patient visits suddenly became quicker and easier on the doctors, and vibrators were soon marketed as home appliances in women’s magazines and mail-order catalogs, where they were hyped as cure-alls for headaches, asthma, “fading beauty,” and even tuberculosis! Lou Paget (Oral Sex Technique)

In the great towns in our country immense stores of books are provided for us, with librarians to class them, kind attendants to wait upon us, and comfortable appliances for study. William Makepeace Thackeray (The Newcomes)

It was equipped with […] every appliance for health and comfort. William D. Howells (Through the Eye of the Needle)

Other English vocables derived from, or compounded with one of the radicals of Latin plicare: ply (noun, verb), plying, accomplice, accompliceship, complice, complicitous, complicity, complexion (noun, verb), complexioning, complex (noun, verb, adj.), complexing, complexify, complexification, complexifying, complexified, complexional, complexionally, complexioned, complexionless, complexity, complexly, complexness, uncomplex, uncomplicated, complicate, complicated, complicatedly, complicatedness, complication, complicity, complicacy, deploy (noun, verb), deployed, deploying, deployment, display (noun, verb), displayable, displayed, displayer, displaying, displayment, undisplayed, employ (noun, verb), employability, employable, employed, employee, employer, employing, employment, unemployed, unemployment, unemployable, unemployability, unemploy, disemploy, disemployed, disemployment, re-employ, re-employment, explicate, explicated, explicating, explication, explicative, explicatively, explicatory, unexplicated, inexplicable, inexplicableness, inexplicability, inexplicably, explicit, unexplicit, unexplicitly, inexplicit, inexplicitly, inexplicitness, exploit (noun, verb), exploited, exploiting, exploitability, exploitable, exploitage, exploitation, exploitative, exploitee, exploiter (noun, verb), exploiterer, exploiting, exploitive, exploiture, unexploited, implicate (adj. verb), implication, implicational, implicationally, implicative, implicatively, implicativeness, implicit, implicitly, implicitness, implied, impliedly, unimplicated, imply, implyment, perplex, perplexing, perplexable, perplexed, perplexedly, perplexedness, perplexer, perplexing, perplexingly, perplexity, perplexment, unperplex (verb), unperplexed, plait (noun, verb), plaited, plaiter, plaiting, plaitless, plash (verb), plasher, plashing, plashment, pleach (noun, verb), pleaching, pleached, pleacher, pliant, pliantly, pliantness, ply (noun, verb), plying, plight, reply (noun, verb), replying, replyingly, replyist, unreplied, unreplying, splay (verb, noun), splayed, splaying, supple (adj., verb), suppled, supplely, unsupple, unsuppled, unsupplicated, suppliant, suppliantness, suppliantly, supplicant, supplicantly, supplicate, supplicated, supplicating, supplicatingly, supplication (noun, verb), supplicationer, supplicator, supplicatorily, simple, simple-minded, simple-mindedness, simple-mindedly, simpleness, simpleton, simplex, simplicial, simplicist, simplicistic, simplicity, simplicize, simplification, simplificator, simplificatory, simplified, simplifiedly, simplifier, simplify, simplifying, simplism, simplist, simplistic, simplistically, simply, double (noun, verb), doubleness, doubler, doublet, doubleted, doubling, doubly, duplicate (noun, verb), duplicating, duplicable, duplicability, duplicated, duplicatedly, duplicating, duplication, duplicative, duplicature, duplicity, duplicitous, treble (noun, verb, adj.), trebled, trebleness, trebling, trebly, triple (noun, verb, adj.), tripled, tripleness, triplet, triplex (noun, verb), triplexity, triplicity, triplexed, triplicate (verb, adj.), triplicating, triplicated, triplication, triplicative, triplicature, triply, quadruple (noun, verb, adj.), quadrupled, quadrupler, quadruplet, quadruplex (noun, verb), quadruplicate (verb, noun, adj.), quadruplicating, quadruplication, quadruplicature, quadruplicity, quadrupling, quadruply, multiple (noun, verb, adj.), multiplet, multiplex (verb, noun, adj.), multiplexed, multiplexing, multiplexer, multiplexity, multipliable, multipliableness, multiplicability, multiplicable, multiplicand, multiplicate, multiplication, multiplicational, multiplicative, multiplicatively, multiplicator, multiplicity, multiplied, multiplier, multiply (adv., verb), multiplying, application, applicative, applicatively, applicator, applicatory, applied, applier, applicate (adj., noun), applicant, applicancy, applicably, applicableness, applicable, applicability, appliance