addorse

English

Etymology

See addorsed. Compare French adosser (and thence, Spanish adosar).

Verb

addorse (third-person singular simple present addorses, present participle addorsing, simple past and past participle addorsed)

1. To place back-to-back, to place with the back to (something else's back).
   • 1907, Logan Pearsall Smith, Sir Henry Wotton, The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, page 455:

     I replied (out of a former letter from your Lordship) with some marvel why this Signory did not by their own resident in England motion the matter to the resident there of the States rather than addorse it upon his Majesty.

   • 1989 November 1, Howell Chickering, Thomas H Seiler, The Study of Chivalry: Resources and Approaches, ISD LLC, →ISBN, page 380:

     ... arranged pairs of imaginary beasts; each faces a mirror-image counterpart along a “hind” axis. The band can thus be read in either of two ways and at the same time: as pairs of affronting and / or addorsing griffins.

   • 2015 April 1, Jonathan Bayliss, Gloucesterbook, Drawbridge Press, →ISBN:

     Then there at the step, briskly addorsing themselves, the master swings back to the center and drains the scourings like a thirsty housewife as he tidies up his formal mess, while the butler returns his less hallowed vessels to the […]

   • 2018 March 12, A Companion to Medieval Genoa, BRILL, →ISBN, page 228:

     The addorsing of a French Gothic outer portal to a Byzantine-style inner portal illustrates Genoa's position between west and east at a crossroads in the Mediterranean. Along the north wall of the cathedral, Byzantine-style frescoes of […]

   • 2021 March 5, Padma Kaimal, Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space, University of Washington Press, →ISBN, page 103:

     In the spatial language of Hindu temple architecture and sculpture, addorsing can signify that the two items joined back-to-back are aspects of the same beings or principle. Here that arrangement sets up a figural and spatial analog of […]