▪ I. gossiping, vbl. n.
(ˈgɒsɪpɪŋ)
[f. gossip v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. gossip.
1. A christening or christening-feast. Now dial.
| a 1627 Middleton Chaste Maid ii. i. Wks. (Dyce) IV. 27 You'll to the gossiping Of master Allwit's child? 1728 Brice's Weekly Jrnl. (Exeter) 30 Aug., Last Sunday Afternoon was celebrated here a Gossipping, or held a jovial Meeting of Good Wives and Sweethearts, to solemnize the Baptism of a Child. 1756 J. Willme Sepherah Shelosh 201 in Palatine Note Bk. (1881) I. 118 At the First Gift of whose Name (commonly called a Gossiping or Up⁓sit-Feast of Urbanity) there was a very great Rejoising, of many Neighbours and Relations. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Gossipping, a christening feast. Hence the act of frequently attending such gatherings. |
† 2. A meeting of friends and acquaintances, esp. at the birth of a child; also gen. a merry-making.
| 1557 North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. ii. vii. (1568) 96 b, They remember more the gossippinges that they haue to go, then their sinnes, which they ought to lament. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 419 Will you walke in to see their gossipping? 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 506 They chew these leaves; and in their gossippings or visiting of their friends, they are..presented with them. 1721–1800 Bailey s.v., A gossiping, a merry meeting of gossips at a woman's lying in. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Child Angel, Methought..I was present..at an Angel's gossiping. |
3. a. The action of talking idly, or tattling; an instance of this. b. An assemblage, where this is the chief occupation.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Taylor's Goose Wks. i. 105/1 The fashion of her prate Our wiues at Gossipings doe imitate. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 310 ¶9 Give us a Speculation on Gossipping. 1765 Foote Commissary iii. Wks. 1799 II. 36 These kind of women are a good deal given to gossiping. 1791 Boswell Johnson i. (1848) 1/2 A considerable portion is not devoid of entertainment to the lovers of literary gossiping. 1791–1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1858) III. 381 The gossiping of a profound politician..often, by a spontaneous stroke, reveals the individual. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. (1859) 22 They talked those matters over in their evening gossipings. 1870 M. Bridgman R. Lynne I. xvii. 293, I shall be heartily glad to leave this place, with all this impertinent gossiping and scandal. |
4. A literary composition of a light and chatty character. rare.
| 1814 L. Hunt Feast Poets (1815) 117 Mr. Walter Savage Landor—author of an epic piece of gossiping called Gebir. |
5. attrib.
| 1628 Earle Microcosm., Meer Gull Citizen (Arb.) 93 His friendships are a kinde of Gossiping friendships. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) v. xvi, Those gossiping scenes of a play in which the lacqueys and waiting-maids lay their heads together. 1835 W. Irving Tour Prairies 99 The Captain's lodge..was a kind of council fire and gossiping place for the veterans of the camp. |
▪ II. gossiping, ppl. a.
(ˈgɒsɪpɪŋ)
[f. gossip v. + -ing2.]
That gossips or indulges in light and idle talk: a. of persons.
| 1618 G. Mynshul Ess. Prison 21 A prisoner is as much beholding to such leape-frog acquaintance, as a man shaken with the Ague to euery gossipping woman hee meetes. 1692 L'Estrange Fables cclxiii. 229 A Bevy of Jolly, Gossipping Wenches. 1846 Mrs. Gore Eng. Char. (1852) 15 People boast of a new acquaintance, as ‘a pleasant gossiping fellow’. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. vii, The good woman, kindly and gossipping, seemed rather pleased than otherwise with having somebody come in to talk with. |
b. of conversation and literary composition.
| 1709 Shaftesbury Char. (1711) I. 148 Who..wou'd set her [religion] on the same bottom with Parish-Tales, and Gossiping Storys of Imps, Goblins [etc.]. 1729 Law Serious C. i. 5 If you was to ask him..why he gives himself up to an idle gossiping conversation? 1750 H. Walpole Let. H. Mann 1 Sept., This I call a very gossiping letter. 1831 Mrs. Trollope in L'Estrange Friendships Miss Mitford (1882) I. viii. 227 My book is gossiping, and..faithfully true to the evidence of my senses. 1860 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 111 An idea for my series of gossiping papers. 1882 W. Ballantine Exper. xix. 194 A gossiping sketch, and claiming no controversial importance. |
| transf. 1847 Longfellow Ev. i. i. 22 Distaffs spinning the golden flax for the gossiping looms. |
Hence ˈgossipingly adv., in a gossiping manner.
| 1817 J. Gilchrist Intell. Patrimony 141 The most superficial [philosophers were] public and gossipingly social. 1875 N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 209 Such was the formula by which we were first gossipingly made acquainted with the subject. |