▪ I. ˈresting, vbl. n.1
Also 4–6 restyng; 4 ristynge; 5 resteng.
[f. rest v.1 + -ing1.]
1. a. Rest, repose, inactivity.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6846 Ox and ass, womman and knaue, Þat dai sal þai resting haue. 1382 Wyclif Lev. xxv. 4 The seuenthe..ȝeer of the loond shal be the saboth of the restynge of the Lord. c 1450 Lovelich Grail lv. 306 Sire kyng, I warne the here behoveth non Resteng forto be. 1590 J. Stockwood Rules Const. 54 Verbes that betoken bodily moouing, going, resting, or dooing. 1611 Cotgr., Relaschement, a reposing, resting, refreshing. 1660 Thorndike Due Way §39 No man dare to maintain that both were or are tied to the same measure of resting. 1703 tr. Van Oosten's Dutch Gardener 18 The resting of a Tree, you commonly perceive on a Bud. 1850 Browning Christmas Eve xix, To..enjoy the gentle resting From further tracking. 1877 Cornh. Mag. Oct. 389 I'm quite ready to rest as long as you like. I consider resting my strong point. |
b. A pause or stop for rest.
| 1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. 52 A very aged woman, who..through..weakness made five or six restings by the way. |
c. Theatr. Unemployment; being without an acting job.
| 1924 G. B. Stern Tents of Israel vi. 85 A young singer..[who] had sold all her things during her long period of enforced ‘resting’. 1960 Times 28 Sept. 15/1 My theatrical colleagues who are only too familiar with the long periods of ‘resting’—which being out of work is so politely called. 1973 J. Burrows Like an Evening Gone i. 12 Though what..she did with herself in the great metropolis, in the frequent intervals of ‘resting’—she didn't take typing jobs. |
2. a. Rest in a particular place; a place where one rests or may rest, a resting-place.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 6654 Abrahams bosum ys a dwellyng Þat holy men haue yn restyng. 1382 Wyclif Ps. cxxxi[i]. 8 Ris, Lord, in to thi resting; thou and the arke of thin halewing. 1587 Golding De Mornay iv. (1592) 43 God..hath not his resting in another but in him selfe. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. i. 6 Here let vs rest, if this rebellious Earth Haue any resting for her true Kings Queene. 1611 Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. (1614) 87/1 To seeke their resting among the vast mountaines. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 237 Such resting found the sole Of unblest feet. |
b. A rest-house.
| 1879 Mrs. A. G. F. E. James Ind. Househ. Managem. 27 Huts and restings, or dâk-bungalows, are usually furnished with a bed, a table, and two or three hard chairs. |
3. Reliance, confidence; a remaining satisfied.
| 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 221 There is no building vpon our selues, but a hopefull resting vpon the Lord. 1650 Baxter Saints' R. iii. §2. 40 marg., It is a Resting on the deceiving promise of the Devil for Justification. 1739 Waterland Wks. (1823) VIII. 279 In order to guard the more strongly against a common failing, viz. the resting in a string of unmeaning words. |
4. attrib. a. In sense ‘of rest’, as
resting-day,
resting-hour,
resting-period,
resting-time,
resting-while.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handicrafts 678 The Last shall be the very Resting-day. 1840 R. Bremner Excursion Denmark, etc., II. 357 The resting-hour of noon. 1895 Funk's Stand. Dict., Resting period. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 717/2 Resting period.., any time in the life of a plant, or plant organ, when no growth or other activity appears to be in progress. 1952 Resting period [see aspect n. 14]. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 139 For things that lacke a resting time, can neuer long indure. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. iv. (1868) 14 Þo þinges þat I hadde lerned of þe among my secre restyng whiles. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love i. ix. (Skeat) I. 24 Suche as I have lerned thee in our restinge-whyles. |
b. In sense ‘serving for rest’, as
resting-chair,
resting-fold,
resting-ground,
resting-house,
resting-point,
resting-room, etc.
| c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. I. 328 Fling herself on the *resting-chair. c 1878 G. Stewart Shetland Tales (1892) 6 Pointing to a settle or ‘restin' chair’ which stood at one side of the fireplace. |
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstrel I. 111 The mellow low and bleat, Greeting..*Resting-fold and milking-pail. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 Oct. 10/3 Feeding and *resting grounds scattered over the country for the use of birds during migration. |
| 1879 Mrs. A. G. F. E. James Ind. Househ. Managem. 33 At a dâk-bungalow, or travellers' *resting-house... These resting-houses are found in every station. |
| 1587 Golding De Mornay xviii. 323 Both of them together being the *restingpoint of the whole man. 1866 J. H. Newman Gerontius §3. 24 And memory lacks its natural resting-points, Of years, and centuries, and periods. |
| 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. A ij, I petition you would afford our aged Traveller to take up a *resting room at last in your study. |
| 1674 J. B[rian] Harv. Home vii. 48 An everlasting *resting seat. |
| 1813 Byron Corsair i. vi, In pensive posture leaning on the brand, Not oft a *resting-staff to that red hand. |
c. With
condition,
state, etc., passing into
ppl. a.;
resting stage (
Cytology)
= interphase n. 1.
| 1857 Henfrey Bot. §797 In the resting condition they contain oil and albuminous matters. 1885 G. L. Goodale Physiol. Bot. (1892) 389 The ‘resting’ state of some plants cannot be shortened by any increase in the amount of oxygen furnished. 1896 E. B. Wilson Cell ii. 53 There are..some undoubted cases..in which the centrosome remains undivided during the resting stage and only divides as the process of mitosis begins. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 828 The eyes remain in their static or resting position. 1932 [see interphase n. 1]. 1957 C. P. Swanson Cytol. & Cytogenetics iii. 48 Cells in interphase, or the resting stage, are characterized by a nucleus that shows little or no definable structure, except for the nucleoli and the prochromosomes. |
▪ II. † ˈresting, vbl. n.2 Obs. [f. rest v.3] The action of checking or arresting. Also
attrib.| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P. R. vii. xxxvii. (Bodl. MS.), Whanne bodies beþ not fulle clensed in resting of þe feuer. 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 285 Paid for entrynge of a pleynt in the Cownter.., and the restynge, xij. d. c 1500 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 95 To helpe the officers of the cite..for resting of mysdoers. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccxii. 261 Takynge of..prisoners, or restynge of any persone, their goodes or marchandyses. 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 75 For fear off restyng I lye in the sentuary. 1616 Shetland Witch Trial in Dalyell Darker Superst. Scot. (1834) 118 He tauld Garth that thair was ane woman in Delting..quha culd give him ane resting threid. |
▪ III. † ˈresting, vbl. n.3 Obs.—1 [f. rest a. Cf. reese v.1] Becoming rancid.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 33 For to save venysone fro restyng. |
▪ IV. ˈresting, ppl. a. [f. rest v.1] 1. a. That rests or is taking a rest.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. xx. (Bodl. MS.), Resting men shul ete and drinke lasse þanne trauailling men. 1648 Herrick Hesper., Rest Refreshes, A resting field Will, after ease, a richer harvest yield. 1878 Hardy Ret. Native i. ii, As the resting man looked at the barrow. 1898 C. J. C. Hyne Capt. Kettle 213 Fishing craft, dredgers, and the other resting traffic of the Tyne. |
b. Bot., in
resting bud,
resting spore,
resting cell, etc.; also in
Cytology, as
resting (= interphase) cell,
resting nucleus;
Zool.,
resting egg, a fertilized egg which can survive the winter or other unfavourable period before hatching.
| 1857 Henfrey Bot. §796 Seeds and resting-spores..are organized in a manner especially adapted to preserve the latent vitality from injury by external influences. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 388 These true spores..may be called resting or inactive spores. 1895 Sci. Progress III. 333 Structural changes in the resting nucleus, which lead up to the formation of the reduced number of chromosomes, and which I have termed collectively the synapsis. 1896 M. Hartog in Cambr. Nat. Hist. II. viii. 200 The fertilised eggs are of the kind termed ‘winter’ or ‘resting’ eggs. 1904 Nature 24 Nov. 76/2 Figures are given of resting-buds, twigs and their transverse sections [etc.]. 1934 Biol. Rev. IX. 160 Among the Cladocera..the same female may produce both females and males (by parthenogenetic reproduction) and resting eggs (by gameto⁓genetic reproduction). 1953 H. L. Edlin Forester's Handbk. ii. 22 The shoot increases in length only during the annual period of active growth. It grows..by actively dividing cells within the bud at its tip. When autumn comes, this suspends its activity, and becomes a resting bud, protected by bud scales, which remains dormant until the following spring. 1960 L. Picken Organization of Cells iv. ii. 103 The conflict between the genetic evidence, that the persistence of serial order of discrete genetic units in the linkage groups is of primary importance; and the light microscope evidence, that chromosomes are not visible in the resting nucleus in a majority of cells. 1975 J. B. Jenkins Genetics i. 27 In the resting, or interphase, cell the chromosomes are in an uncoiled condition and thus difficult to see. 1976 Freshwater Biol. VI. 408/1 Lack of food is probably the most important factor stimulating resting egg production. |
c. Theatr. Between acting jobs; unemployed.
| 1958 A. Wilson Middle Age of Mrs Eliot ii. 143 The rich ‘resting’ stage stars. 1969 M. Pugh Last Place Left xxiii. 178 The waitress..looked like a resting actress who did her resting in daytime. 1971 M. Babson Cover-up Story iv. 43 We still had the dubious privilege of representing two ‘resting’ actors. |
2. Remaining stationary.
| 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. i. 61 The Northerne Starre, Of whose true fixt, and resting quality, There is no fellow in the Firmament. |
3. Restful.
rare.
| 1896 A. Beardsley Let. 17 Nov. (1970) 205, I wish Mabel could have started from Southampton. I do hope her crossing may be quiet and resting after all her hard work. |
Hence
ˈrestingly adv.| a 1400 Hylton Scala Perf. (W. de W. 1494) ii. xxi, That there be no thynge of thyn own worchynge that thou wolt lene vpon restyngly. |