Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An ornamental drapery hung across a top edge, as of a bed, table, or canopy.
- n. A short drapery, decorative board, or metal strip mounted especially across the top of a window to conceal structural fixtures.
- v. To supply with valances or a valance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A kind of damask used for furniture-coverings, made of silk, or silk and wool. Also valentia, Valencia.
- n. A short curtain used upon a bedstead, or in some similar way, either around the frame upon which the mattress rests (a base-valance), or around the head of the canopy (a tester-valance).
- To furnish or decorate with a valance: figuratively used in the quotation for ‘to decorate with a beard.’
Wiktionary
- n. Short curtain that hangs along the top edge of a window.
- n. A decorative framework used to conceal the curtain mechanism and so on at the top of a window.
- n. bedding A short, decorative edging of cloth that hangs from the mattress to the floor.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Hanging drapery for a bed, couch, window, or the like, especially that which hangs around a bedstead, from the bed to the floor.
- n. The drooping edging of the lid of a trunk, which covers the joint when the lid is closed.
- v. To furnish with a valance; to decorate with hangings or drapery.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a decorative framework to conceal curtain fixtures at the top of a window casing
Etymologies
- Middle English. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The 6-inch ruffle on Lillibeth's dress, was a cotton eyelet curtain valance we had kept in a drawer with laces because we had no use for it but thought it might be useful for some stitchery item some day.”
“Morningside Analytics 'John Kelly, details Sanchez, has developed 3D modelings that shine light on everything from "term valance" -- that is, the semantics employed by different clusters of online conversations to talk about everything from "home schooling" to "preemptive war" -- to topics that bookmarking reveals to be of deep interest in some sectors but spark little visible online feedback.”
Daily Digest: On Blogosphere Imaging, SEC's XBRL, and "White-Collar Populism"
“Eat Pray Love valance and ponder the oft-asked question: Where does the word valance come from?”
“[2.2] A valance is a short piece of drapery that extends across the window to conceal the support rods.”
“The drapery which thus hangs down is dignified by the name of a "valance," and though originally intended for the purpose of embellishment and ornamentation, it is better that decorative art should be more limited in its application, so as not to interfere with the free circulation of air throughout the room.”
“The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the tester of a bed.] [Footnote II. 55: _Com'st thou to beard me_] To _beard_ anciently meant to set _at defiance_.”
“The reasons for this sloppiness in rear-end design is attributable to a number of factors including cost cutting installing a valance as a cover-up would cost more.”
“Mirror in the Style of Serge Roche, estimate $500-$800 There are some very personal things, like a trompe l'oeil painted curtain valance.”
“The valance of the large picture window matched the blue and white pattern on the bed.”
“The Car of Tomorrow also replaced the rear spoiler (on the body) with a rear wing (above the body) and replaced the front valance (aluminum curtain under the front bumper) with a front splitter.”
The Huffington Post: Dawn Teo: NASCAR Car of Yesterday: Emblematic of the Detroit Problem
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘valance’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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phrontistery-v
from phrontistery.info
vulviform, vulvar, vulturine, vulpine, vulpicide, vulpecular, vulnerose, vulsella, vulnerary, vulnerate, vulgus, vulgo and 396 more...
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tatterdemalion's list
chrysalis, colloquy, peroration, syncretism, dickering, gamelan, dictatress, adventurism, untenable, presumption of fa..., lovelorn, bawdily and 47 more...
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Curtains
bakufu, portière, drapery, drape, cortina, arras, sheer, lambrequin, drop, drop curtain, drop scene, shower curtain and 33 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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-ance
the act of; quality or state of being; a thing that
utterance, vigilance, conveyance, dissonance, constancy, valance, consonance
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Words of the Dying Earth
Tales of the Dying Earth is a 2002 anthology volume featuring four novels by Jack Vance: The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous.
Throughou...deodar, deodand, pelgrane, leucomorph, blister-bush, russet, black burdock, gunmetal, spatterlight, carrack, concertina, terce and 280 more...
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Ulysses
This is a list of the more difficult English words found in James Joyce's Ulysses. It will continually be updated as I read along. The list is in reverse chronological order, meaning that the last ...
equine, untonsured, corpuscle, prelate, parapet, dactyl, jejune, lancet, jalap, barbican, valise, dewsilky and 377 more...
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Textiles
A list from the 1911 edition of "Words: Their Spelling, Pronunciation, Definition, Application" by the Gregg Publishing Company.
aigrette, a la mode, Amazon, applique, armure, baize, balbriggan, balmoral, batiste, bedticking, bobbinet, buckram and 88 more...
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Ulysses
words from ulysses
gelid, valance, jarvey, qualm, loam, lintel, costive, hauch, quop
Tweets
Looking for tweets for valance.
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