bidding, vbl. n.
(ˈbɪdɪŋ)
[f. bid v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The offering of a price for an article; a bid.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 8819 (Gött.) Bot for na biding [v.r. beting, beding, profur] þat þai bide Ne miht þai do it stand in stede. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2050/4 The Bidder to advance 6d. per Gross upon each bidding. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola (1880) I. i. i. 15 Let me have the bidding for that stained suit of yours, when you set up a better. 1878 Black Gr. Past. 310 He had listened to one or two of the biddings. |
b. Card-playing. The act or process of making a bid or bids (see
bid n. 2). Also
attrib.| 1880 ‘Trumps’ American Hoyle 229 A player having the highest bid, must declare the suit he plays in as soon as the bidding ceases. 1908 W. Dalton Auction Bridge vii. 103 The bidding is quite the most interesting, as well as the most exciting, feature of Auction Bridge. 1908 L. Hoffmann Five Hundred 14 The bidding is continued till no player will go any further. 1928 [see score n. 22]. 1929 M. C. Work Compl. Contract Bridge p. xii, To claim that any sound bidding system can be reduced to the simplicity of a multiplication table. 1958 Listener 6 Nov. 753/2 Over Two Diamonds I bid Two Hearts rather than Three Diamonds to preserve bidding space. |
† 2. The action of asking pressingly, of begging or requesting; request, desire, entreaty.
Obs.| a 1225 Ancr. R. 108 Er þen þet biddunge arere eni schaundle. c 1340 Cursor M. 7131 (Trin.) Þat bruyd was of biddyng bolde, Sampson al þe soþe hir tolde. 1340 Ayenb. 194 No þing ne is zuo diere y-boȝt; ase þet me heþ be biddinge. |
† 3. The action of praying; prayer.
Obs.| 1297 R. Glouc. 280 Þoru byddynge of Seyn Dunston, ys soule com to blys. 1340 Ayenb. 219 Moyses ouercom amalec . be his holy biddinges. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 35 Byddynge or praynge, oracio, deprecacio, supplicacio. |
4. Invitation, summons.
| 1810 Tannahill Kebbuckston Wed., We a' got a bidding, To gang to the wedding. 1869 Times 18 Aug., The Pope sent a bidding to the Patriarch of Constantinople..the Patriarch returned a distinct refusal. |
| attrib. 1863 Miss Sewell Chr. Names II. 401 The beed-stick—bidding-stick, or summons to the muster. |
5. A command, order, injunction.
to sit any one's bidding (
Sc.): to neglect his order to go.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 3093 Þi biding wil we do ful fayn. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. xxix. (1495) 499 By byddynge of his fader. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 34 b, I haue not founde the disobedyent to my byddynges. 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. v. 93, I shall not breake your bidding, good my Lord. 1634 Rutherford Lett. xliii. (1862) I. 132, I would..swim through the water ere I sat His bidding. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. App. 790 Whatever Godwine did he did at the bidding of his lord. |
6. bidding of beads,
beads-bidding;
bidding of prayers,
bidding prayer. As to these expressions there has been a series of curious misapprehensions. The original meaning down to the Reformation was ‘praying of prayers,’
i.e. saying of prayers, praying;
cf. bid v. 7 e. From an early date in the Christian church, it was the custom to request the prayers of the faithful in behalf of certain persons and things; and in the 16th c., in England, forms of allocution or direction to the congregation, telling them whom and what to remember in ‘bidding their beads’ or ‘prayers’ were authoritatively put forth. As
bid in the sense of ‘pray’ was now becoming obsolete, the meaning of the expression was forgotten after the Reformation, and
bid taken in the sense of ‘order, direct,’ so that in the reign of Elizabeth the ‘bidding of prayers’ was applied to the allocution itself, as if
= ‘the directing or injoining of prayers.’ With the later use of the
vbl. n. as a gerund directly governing an object, we have in the 17th c. ‘the form of bidding prayers’ or ‘prayer’ (
= precationem hortandi); and later still, a misunderstanding of the grammatical construction in this phrase has given rise to the vulgar error of calling this exhortation to the people (in which ‘concionatores populum hortabuntur ut secum in precibus concurrat’ Sparrow
Collect. Articles, 1671) ‘the bidding-prayer,’ as if it were itself a kind of prayer qualified by the attribute ‘bidding.’
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 69 Þurh festing and þurh wacunge, and ec þurh ibodenes biddunge. [1349 in Coxe Forms Bid. Prayer 11 Ye shulle stonde up and bydde your bedys..Ye shull also bydde for the stat of Holy Cherche, etc.] 1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII, xxv, In al..their sermons, collacions, biddinges of the beades. 1539 Hilsey Primer, An order and form of bydding by the Kynges Commandment. Ye sholl praye for the whole congregasion, etc. 1563 Homilies ii. Idolatry (1859) 236 For the which [the cross] they pray in their beads bidding. a 1746 Lewis in Coxe Forms Bid. Prayer Pref. 12 Two ancient forms of bidding the bedes or praying the prayers on Sundays and Holydays 1349, 1483. |
| c 1550 Injunct. Edw. VI in R. Glouc. (Hearn) 624 The fourme of biddyng of the common prayers. Fyrst you shall pray for the whole congregatyon of the true chrysten and catholyke churche of Chryste. And specyally for the churche of Englande and Irelande, etc. 1559 Injunct. D iv, The fourme of bidding the prayers to be used generally in this uniforme sorte. Ye shall praye for Christs holy catholic church, etc. 1622 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 257 This form of bidding Prayers is very ancient. 1680 Old Puritan Detect. 5 A Form..of Bidding Prayer, wherein the Priest was not to speak to God, but only to the people, exhorting them to pray instantly for such and such persons and things. 1685 Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. iv. 224 At the Bidding of Prayers, which was a direction for the People what to pray for in their private Devotions. 1732 Neal Hist. Purit. I. 49 The custom of bidding prayer, which is still in use in the Church, is a relick of Popery. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. viii. 126 What they call bidding prayers, or an exhortation to pray for such and such things. 1885 Oxford Univ. Cal. 31 The Form of Bidding Prayer before the Latin Sermons. |
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., We have a form of these bidding-prayers in the apostolical constitutions. 1840 Coxe Forms Bid. Prayer Pref., A concise view of the history of the Bidding Prayer. 1879 Wace Bampt. Lect. vi. 157 The bidding prayer read at the commencement of these Lectures is but an echo of this ancient supplication. 1885 Public Opin. 9 Jan. 36/2 That there should not be wanting, in the language of the bidding prayer, a due supply of fit persons qualified to discharge the functions of Royalty. |