▪ I. galloping, vbl. n.
(ˈgæləpɪŋ)
Also 7–9 gallopping.
[f. gallop v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb gallop.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 140, I did heare The gallopping of Horse. Who was't came by? a 1687 Cotton Poems (1689) 93 His [Pegasus'] days of galloping are ended, Unless I with the spur do prick him. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. II. 251 Others fancied that they heard the galloping of horses over their heads. 1890 Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 101 Galloping about there was..but often the rides were long, weary, and unexciting. |
2. attrib. as galloping country, galloping sound; galloping sketch, a sketch of a locality made after a rapid ride through it.
| 1812 Sir R. Wilson Priv. Diary (1861) I. 110 For the first twelve miles we proceeded slowly, although over very fine galloping country. 1826 Scott Woodst. iv, There was a distant rustling among the withered leaves, a bouncing or galloping sound on the path. 1851 J. S. Macaulay Field Fortif. 248 Even galloping sketches have their uses. |
▪ II. galloping, ppl. a.
(ˈgæləpɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That gallops, in senses of the vb. galloping consumption: a consumptive disease which makes rapid progress.
| 1642 Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 69 For the Italians have a Proverb, that a galloping horse is an open sepulcher. 1646 Buck Rich. III, i. 37 The King..pursued the Duke, not only with a galloping Army, but with Edicts and Prescriptions. 1674 R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 130 Having for many months laboured under a Galloping Consumption and made use of diverse Physicians in vain. 1697 Lond. Gaz. No. 3336/4 Stole..a bright bay Mare..a true Yorkshire galloping Breed. 1802–12 Bentham Rationale Jud. Evid. (1827) v. 64 The father in full vigour, the son in a galloping consumption. |
| fig. 1755 J. Amory Mem. (1769) II. 167 No galloping eyes, or the least inattention in their devotion. 1770 N. Nicholls in Corr. w. Gray (1843) 115 What a blessing it is to have a galloping imagination. 1897 A. Morrison Child Jago xxxiv, Ever since they had taken him he had been oppressed by this plague of galloping thought. |
b. galloping nun: (see quot. 1715; Milton's allusion is obscure).
| 1641 Milton Animadv. (1851) 199 Our Liturgie hath run up and down the world like an English gallopping Nun, proffering her selfe, but we heare of none yet that bids money for her. 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 152 Having espous'd one of the Countessess of Mansfield, who had been a Chanoness or Dame of the Monastery of Girrisheim, a Temporal Religious Pensioner, or what is vulgarly call'd a Galloping-Nun, without any Votes [i.e. vows]. |
c. Mil. galloping carriage = ‘galloper carriage’; see galloper 5.
| 1883 Daily News 27 July 2/1 A ‘galloping carriage’ designed by Lord C. Beresford to carry a Nordenfeldt gun. |
2. Comb.: † galloping-like a., having the appearance of a good galloper.
| 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4839/4 Lost, or Stole..a strait, young, gallopping-like bay Mare. |