▪ I. ˈnetting, n.1 dial.
[Prob. f. net v.3, although this is not recorded till much later; but cf. also the synonymous MLG. nette (MDa. nættæ, MSw. nätte, näcte, necte; G. netze), f. nat wet.]
Urine, esp. as used for washing with.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xliv. (Lucy) 275 Þane ves it tald þe presydent þat wischcrafte..vith nettyng [printed nect-; L. lotium] mocht be lousit sone. Þane gert he caste on hire..Of netting [printed nect-] a gret quantyte. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 794 Hoc locium, ley and nettyng. 1557 Court Leet Rec. Manchester (1884) I. 40 Any undecente or noysome thinge as..Nettinge or Fylthe. 1691 Ray N.C. Words (ed. 2) 52 Netting, Chamber-Lee, Urin. 1796 Pegge Derbicisms (E.D.S.) 48 ‘Old netting’, old urine; so called from neat or net, as being us'd in washing. 1828– in dial. glossaries (Durham, Yks., Lanc., Linc., Leic.). 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., She killed her two swaarms of bees; she poured netting on the hives. |
▪ II. ˈnetting, n.2 [f. net n.1 or v.1 + -ing1.] 1. Naut. A coarse network of small ropes used now or formerly for various purposes, as to prevent boarding, keep off splinters or falling spars, stow hammocks or sails in, etc.
| 1567 G. Fenner in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 149 They had prepared their false nettings. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. xxviii. 71 Seruing in trimming the sayles, and others the nettings and foretop sayles. 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 14 A grating, netting or false decke for your close fights. 1673 Dryden Amboyna iii. i, Up with your Fights and your Nettings prepare. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. viii. 379 The mats, with which the galeon had stuffed her netting, took fire. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 170 Quarter-deck netting is suspended over the officers heads, to prevent any thing falling thereon, in time of action. 1837 Marryat Dog Fiend x, The men..came up with their hammocks.., which they put into the nettings. 1867 Latham Black & White 116 A steamer just arrived had..her nettings frozen into a solid wall. |
b. attrib. as
† netting-deck,
netting-sail.
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 17 A drift sayle, a crosiack, a netting sayle. 1627 ― Seaman's Gram. vii. 32 A Netting saile is..a saile laid ouer the Netting, which is small ropes from the top of the fore castle to the Poope. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 289 A Netting-Deck very well fitted over her Main-Deck, to hinder Boarding. |
2. Nets or network used for various purposes.
| 1846 T. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. I. 141 It will be needful to cover the beds..with netting to keep off the birds. 1863 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 27 In the netting overhead are plentiful stores of bottles of milk. 1883 Walsh Irish Fisheries 7 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.), Over 1200 miles of netting for the fleet;..the largest amount of netting in use in the world..at any one fishery. |
▪ III. ˈnetting, vbl. n. [f. net v.1 + -ing1.] 1. a. The process of making a net.
| 1785 E. Sheridan Jrnl. 20 June (1960) ii. 58, I called at the toyshop and desired my purchases to be properly pack'd..—there is a box for you to put your netting in while you work it and to keep it in when you are idle, with lock and key. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 279 Netting is a mode of entwining the thread so that each mesh is fastened with a knot. 1883 Standard 26 June 3/3 Its process consists in the looping of a thread, after the manner of netting, into circles. |
b. attrib. as
netting-box,
netting-case,
netting-cotton,
netting-needle,
netting-pin,
netting-weight, etc.
| 1801 M. Edgeworth Gd. Fr. Governess (1831) 178 There was a pretty little netting-box upon the table. |
| 1790 F. Burney Diary Jan. (1905) IV. xlii. 348 The air of common employment was such, that..everything of that sort was spread about..—workboxes, netting-cases, etc. etc.! |
| a 1817 Jane Austen Northang. Abb. (1818) II. x. 194 Assured of Isabella's having matched some fine netting-cotton. 1865 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. (1866) II. xviii. 185 The netting-cotton she was using kept continually snapping..from the jerks of her nervous hands. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1523/1 Netting-machine. |
| a 1817 Jane Austen Persuasion (1818) III. xi. 234 He fashioned new netting-needles and pins with improvements. 1832 in A. Adburgham Shops & Shopping (1964) iv. 38 Knitting, netting and mending needles. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre II. ii. 44, I try to concentrate my attention on these netting-needles, on the meshes of the purse I am forming. 1854 Dickens Hard T. i. xi, Mrs. Sparsit, easily ambling along with her netting-needles. 1918 N. Duncan Battles Royal 6 It is said of our people that they are born with a netting needle in their hand and an ax by the side of their cradle. 1942 [see battle-twig]. 1973 W. Elmer Terminol. Fishing iv. 256 Two instruments are used for braiding or mending nets, the netting-needle, on which a certain amount of twine is wound, and the spool. |
| 1808 H. More Cœlebs xxii. I. 324, I have known a lady..search for her netting-pin, in the midst of Cato's soliloquy. |
| 1813 M. Edgeworth Harry & Lucy I. 260 It..was intended to be used as a netting weight. |
2. The action, or right, of fishing with a net or nets; an occasion of fishing with a net.
| 1875 F. T. Buckland Log-Bk. 158 Not a single one was seen or heard of during the whole of the netting. 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 26 Sept. 13/3 Till about twenty years ago the netting was in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Eyre. |