frontispiece

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"There," she said, "I knew there would be a copy on board, but I am more bewildered than ever; the frontispiece is an exact portrait of you, only you are dressed differently and do not look"--the girl hesitated--"so ill as when you came on board Ormond looked up at the girl with a smile, and said You might say with truth, so ill as I look now Oh, the voyage has done you good.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun An illustration that faces or immediately precedes the title page of a book, book section, or magazine.
  2. noun Architecture A façade, especially an ornamental façade.
  3. noun Architecture A small ornamental pediment, as on top of a door or window.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • At the sale of the original drawings executed by 'Phiz' for Martin Chuzzlewit this frontispiece, which is an epitome of the salient characters and scenes in the novel, was sold for L35. —  Charles Dickens and Music
  • The miniature portrait was prettily reproduced as a frontispiece, there was a collotype copy of a page of the original manuscript, a contemporary print of Tomb Park, and a map of the campaign. —  The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh
  • Opposite the frontispiece were eight signatures and a dedication from 'The Arctic Society'. —  Tales Of The Gurrier
  • The fourth and fifth editions received verbal changes here and added paragraphs there The sixth edition differs from the fifth in the addition of the author's portrait as a frontispiece, the addition of an answered question to the appendix and the listing of certain lecture topics, with press notices and letters The book seems to be meeting a demand for accurate information briefly and clearly stated THE AUTHOR Chicago, November 1, 1908 FOREWORD Several years ago the author was asked by his students to present to them some of the facts of Sexual Physiology and Hygiene. —  The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction Also Sexual Hygiene with Special Reference to the Male
  • It has been found possible to omit some portions of these without impairing the interest or value of the narrative or excluding any useful information Of the three illustrations, the frontispiece is a photographic reproduction of one of Danckaerts's pen-and-ink sketches accompanying the diary. —  Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Alteration (influenced by piece) of French frontispice, from Late Latin frontispicium, façade of a building : Latin frontis, genitive of frōns, forehead, front + Latin specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. A perverted form, simulating piece, of *frontispice, from Old French frontispice, the frontispiece, or front of a house, French frontispice = Spanish Portuguese frontispicio = Italian frontispizio, from Middle Latin frontispicium, a beginning, the front of a church, literally “front view,” from Latin frons (front-), the front, + specere, view, look at: see species, spectacle, spy.
  2. frontispiece, n.
 

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/ˈfrɑntɪspis/
by American Heritage

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