Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An ornamental drapery hung across a top edge, as of a bed, table, or canopy.
- noun A short drapery, decorative board, or metal strip mounted especially across the top of a window to conceal structural fixtures.
- transitive verb To supply with valances or a valance.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A kind of damask used for furniture-coverings, made of silk, or silk and wool. Also valentia, Valencia.
- noun 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.’
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Hanging drapery for a bed, couch, window, or the like, especially that which hangs around a bedstead, from the bed to the floor.
- noun The drooping edging of the lid of a trunk, which covers the joint when the lid is closed.
- transitive verb To furnish with a valance; to decorate with hangings or drapery.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Short
curtain that hangs along the top edge of awindow . - noun A decorative
framework used to conceal the curtain mechanism and so on at the top of a window. - noun bedding A short, decorative
edging of cloth that hangs from themattress to thefloor .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a decorative framework to conceal curtain fixtures at the top of a window casing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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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.
Archive 2008-03-01 2008
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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.
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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" Scola, Nancy 2008
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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" 2008
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Eat Pray Love valance and ponder the oft-asked question: Where does the word valance come from?
Fast Company 2010
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[2.2] A valance is a short piece of drapery that extends across the window to conceal the support rods.
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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 Art of Living in Australia ; together with three hundred Australian cookery recipes and accessory kitchen information by Mrs. H. Wicken Philip E. Muskett
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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_.
Hamlet William Shakespeare 1590
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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.
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Mirror in the Style of Serge Roche, estimate $500-$800 There are some very personal things, like a trompe l'oeil painted curtain valance.
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