Meaning of overfront | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A false overshirt, jacket, or vest that is attached to the bodice or shirt of a garment.
2. A decorative wall hanging or dorsal that sits behind the altar and matches the netherfront.

Examples

“No 2—Is the Overfront, forming a jacket that opens over the fullness.”

“The straight overfronts and back of the gown were made in Ondine silk , shot blue and faint yellow with an opalescent effect”

“A garment of the general character described, comprising an open-front under-body shirt, and an over-front thereon consisting of a lower abdominal body portion having lateral extensions attached to the side portions of the under-body shirt, and divergent upwardly extended strap portions connected to the shoulder portions of the under-body shirt, said overfront being connected to said under-body shirt adjacent its lower edge whereby to form pockets between the under-body shirt and the over-front.”

“Or when they had four columns to hold up the overfront and riddells, these were often utilised to carry a taper on each.”

“It seems quite possible that the 'greater sorte' of silk pictures in particular were intended to adorn an altar, either as an overfront, a netherfront or even a reredos.”

“The most noteworthy altar-cloths were a set given by Alice Chester, the overfront representing our Lord rising out of the Sepulchre, sometimes called our Lord's Pity, with a netherfront and two curtains all "of one work."”

CEFR level