▪ I. gelding, n.
(ˈgɛldɪŋ)
[a. ON. gelding-r, f. geld-r geld a.; cf. gelda geld v.1]
† 1. A gelded person, a eunuch. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. xxxvii. 36 Putiphar, the geldyng of Pharao. 1483 Cath. Angl. 152/2 A Geldynge..eunuchus. 1548 Udall, etc. tr. Erasm. Par. Matt. xix. 12 The gospell also hath his Eunuches very blessed, whiche be not geldynges of nature, nor gelded of men. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 741 Lysimachus..thought great scorn that Demetrius should reckon him a gelding. 1693 Dryden Juvenal vi. (1697) 151 The Venerable Guelding..O'er-looks the Herd of his inferiour Fry. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Gelding, an eunuch. |
2. A gelded or castrated animal, esp. a horse.
| 1380 Test. Karleolensia (1893) 134 Et qe Lawrence eit sie demure en vie un hakney bay geldyng et xl. s. 1420 E.E. Wills (1882) 53 Þat Acris Mersk haue þe grey geldyng. 1520 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 116 My blak, trotting gelding w{supt} a white fote. 1634 Heywood & Brome Lanc. Witches ii. Wks. 1874 IV. 191 Give me the Key oth' Stable. I will goe see my Gelding. 1643 in Clarendon Hist. Reb. vii. §347 Six hundred light Geldings for Recruits. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 116 ¶7 The jolly Knight, who rode upon a white Gelding. 1815 Scott Guy M. ii, He..took his grey gelding and joined Clavers at Killiecrankie. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. VI. 236 A grey gelding was led up for Philip. |
3. With a mixture of senses 1 and 2.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 691, I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare. a 1621 Beaum. & Fl. Thierry & Theod. i. i. (1621) B 2 b, Or curse me heauen If all your guilded knaues..Be not made ambling Geldings. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vi. x, As for Jones, he swore, if he caught him at his house, he would qualify him to run for the gelding's plate. |
† 4. Applied to a tree (see quot.). Obs.
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 75 a, As long as the tre is very yong the fruite hath no stone within him and therefore suche are called geldynges. |
5. Used appositively (quasi-adj.).
| a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems, etc. (1677) 65 A Gelding Earl. 1691 Lond. Gaz. No. 2638/4 A black Gelding Colt. 1693 Dryden Persius v. (1697) 485 Guelding Priests. |
Hence geldinˈgeity, nonce-wd. [after corporeity, etc.], the quality of being a gelding.
| 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 190 Colteity, horseiety, and geldingeity, must always continue themselves, in whatever beast inexisting. |
▪ II. gelding, vbl. n.
(ˈgɛldɪŋ)
[f. geld v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. geld in various senses.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xvii. (1495) 424 Cocke hyghte Gallus and hath that name of geldynge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 190/1 Geldynge of beestys, or fowlys, castracio. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §67 Than shall ye se the oxe calfe, ferre greatter euery waye, than the bull..there is noo cause, but the geldynge. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 182 b, This kind of gelding of your hives. 1656 Sanderson Serm. (1689) 31 In gelding of good Authors by expurgatory indexes. c 1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Guide ii. lviii. (1738) 217 The Gelding of a Foal is an easy operation. 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. i. 25 Ant-hills..the other plan is, to throw them, or what is provincially termed ‘gelding’. 1884 J. Phin Dict. Apic., Prune, to cut out old combs so that new may be built. Called by the older writers gelding. |
| attrib. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Castradera, the cutting, or gelding knife. |