DCHP-3

front, the

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1an. — Ont.

the settled land along the shores of Lake Ontario and, sometimes, Lake Erie.

The 'front "along the Lake Ontario shore expanded inland with advancing settlement, bringing about the extended meanings below.

Quotations

1799
Lancaster . . . extends nine miles, which is the ordinary size of all townships, and extending back 12 miles from the front.
1835
Even those who are only five or six miles from Peterborough call themselves backwoodsmen and Peterborough itself the great Metropolis is reckoned amongst semibarbarous regions by the dwellers in the front.
1902
. . . the Front, in all matters pertaining to culture and fashion thought itself quite superior to the more backwoods country of the Twentieth.
1953
All the way along the Front, as the shores and the lower lakes were termed, settlement worked back into the bush. . . .
1964
Many an early settler hired out as a chopper for a farmer along "the front", or worked at a saw-mill. . . .
1bn.

the transcontinental railway and the communities along and south of it, the farthest advance of civilization for many years.

Quotations

1913
On the fourteenth of December, a prospector, who had been working in the vicinity of Rupert House, arrived in Moose Factory with his partner, a guide, and a dog team, en route for the "front."
1931
I remember being of a party where one of the guides was asked how he could go such long periods without news from the "front," as the railroad is called.
1cn.

the settled, civilized part of the country.

See: frontier(def. 3)

Quotations

1913
"Cariboo gold," his father had called it, and said that it was sent down in numberless bags to "the front," and the stage brought it.
1933
Few books were well read and wherever possible sons and daughters were sent to College either abroad or "at the front.
2n. — Obs.

the block or range of lots laid out along the river, lake, or base line marking the beginning of a township; also, the line of this boundary.

Quotations

1786
In the Townships surveyed on River La Fenche I found twenty eight Families settled in front, some with very considerable Improvements.
1829
The townships are farther divided into concessions, by lines running parallel to the river, lake, or settled township, which is called the front.
1834
The land after all was not to be had, but McCall determined to buy the front and be contented with the remainder of his land behind at some distance.
3n. — Nfld

See quotes.

See: ice ((n.))(def. 1)

Quotations

1933
. . . on the "Front"--as the Seal Fishery on the east coast of Newfoundland is termed (in contradistinction to that of the "Gulf," which is the smaller west-coast Seal Fishery). . . .
1935
All steamers with the exception of the Ranger sailed for the "front" of the island, while the latter is prosecuting the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
1956
The "Front," as the ice-hunters call the stretch of sea between Funk Island . . . and the Straits. For this Front is the whelping ground, on which the babes will be born and where the ice-hunters will go after them--babes and grown-ups--with batt and gaff, hitting them on the head and dragging them to a "pan" or store-pile on the ice.
1966
No quota on the number of pelts taken is imposed on the Front, and the hunters may kill adults, something not allowed in the Gulf at this time of year.
4n.

in eastern Ontario, the part of a township fronting on the St. Lawrence River and having a separate council.

Quotations

1966
The Front of Escott was given the approval to take possession of Hill Island by the Ontario Municipal Board in December, 1964. The Front of Leeds and Landsdowne protested and took back the island in July of last year.