▪ I. packing, vbl. n.1
(ˈpækɪŋ)
[f. pack v.1 + -ing1.]
I. The action of pack v.1
1. a. The putting (of things) together compactly, as for transport, preservation, or sale; the filling (of a receptacle) with things so put in.
| 1389 Act 13 Rich. II, c. 9. §1 Null merchant nautre homme achate ses leynes par celles paroles Goodpakkyng ne par autres paroles semblables. 1391 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 35 Pro pakkyng dictorum pannorum. 1494 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 23 Neither the Tale-fish nor small Fish should be laid double in packing. 1506 Burgh Rec. Edin. (Rec. Soc.) I. 109 Throw pakking and peling of merchand gude in Leith to be had furth of our realme. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 101 The night was employed in hastening and packing. 1802 M. Edgeworth Irish Bulls iv. 161 Little Dominick heaved many a sigh when he saw the packings up of all his school-fellows. 1841–71 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 755 A circumstance which much facilitates the packing of the abdominal viscera. 1897 Longmans' Geog. Ser. II. The World 333 Meat-curing and packing is a very important industry at Chicago and Cincinnati. [Cf. pack v.1 1 b.] |
b. The assembling of gregarious beasts or birds: see
pack v.
1 5.
| 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S.C. 303 The packing of birds is very interesting. |
c. Med. Wrapping in a wet sheet.
| 1861 Geo. Eliot Let. 10 Dec. (1954) III. 472 As I hope the Florentine hydropathist may not be a quack as Dr. Gully at Malvern certainly is, I shall be disappointed if there is no good effect to be traced to judicious ‘packing’ and sitz baths. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 51 The wet sheet packing, one of the most bruited of the hydropathic appliances. |
d. The transporting of goods on pack animals.
| 1843 Amer. Pioneer II. 162 Merchandise..was principally carried on pack horses until after 1788. Packing continued to be an important business in Kentucky until 1795. Ibid. 215 The grain would not bear packing across the mountains; a horse could not carry more than four bushels of it. 1897 Boston Daily Globe (evening ed.) 4 Aug. 5/2 Prices for packing across the pass have risen. 1948 Hungry Horse News (Columbia Falls, Montana) 24 Sept. 8/1 Roy owns a valuable string of pack horses and does considerable packing for the forest service. |
e. An extra charge added to the cost of delivered goods to cover the cost of packing them.
| 1901 Pitman's Business Terms, Phr. & Abbrev. 155 Packing... The charge made for packing. 1974 Parker's Wholesale Catal. (J. Parker Dutch Bulbs..Co.) Autumn 13/2 All our prices are inclusive of duty and packing. |
f. The spatial arrangement of the constituent atoms of a crystalline structure relative to one another.
| 1917 [see hexagonal a. 3]. 1945 C. W. Bunn Chem. Crystallogr. vii. 276 The mode of packing of atoms, ions, or molecules in crystals may be regarded as controlled by two principles—the principle of close packing.., and, where ions are concerned, the tendency for an electrically charged unit to surround itself with units of opposite charge. 1966 C. R. Tottle Sci. Engin. Materials iii. 54 The closeness of packing of atoms in a crystal lattice affects thermal and mechanical properties. 1973 H. D. Megaw Crystal Struct. ii. 54 Packing of ions as rigid spheres determines the coordination number (the number of anions surrounding a cation). |
II. 2. concr. a. Any material used to fill up a space or interstice closely or tightly; filling, stuffing.
Applied,
e.g., to a piece of some substance inserted in a joint, around a piston, etc., so as to render it air-tight or water-tight; a contrivance (such as a bag of flax-seed, which swells when wetted) for stopping the opening between the tube and the side of the boring in an oil-well; small stones embedded in mortar, for filling up the inside of a wall; in
Printing, a cloth, board, or the like, placed between the impression-cylinder and the paper, for equalizing the impression.
| 1824 R. Stuart Hist. Steam Engine 160 The ends of the wheels are made to move round steam-tight by packings or stuffings. 1837 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 12/1 They..form a perfectly secure water-joint, without any assistance of packing, lead, or other material. 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Packing, small stones imbedded in mortar, used to fill up the interstices between the larger stones in rubble work. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Packing, a quantity of wood or coals piled up to support roofs in a mine or for other purposes; the stuffing round a cylinder, etc. 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 221 (Rotary Press) It was customary to work entirely with soft packing—that is to say, with a thick blanket or cloth between the impression cylinder and the paper. |
b. slang. Food, particularly if of inferior quality.
| 1891 J. Bent Criminal Life 272 Packing,..food. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 219 Packing, rations. Food in general. 1973 ‘P. Malloch’ Kickback iv. 27 ‘When you've had the kind of packing I've had for three years, this is a treat.’ He..began to eat. |
III. 3. attrib. and
Comb. a. Used for, in, or in connexion with the packing of goods, as
packing-awl,
packing-cloth,
packing-crate,
packing-crib,
packing-house,
packing-knot,
packing-paper,
packing-plant,
packing-room,
packing-shed,
packing-stick,
packing-wood,
packing-yard.
b. Pertaining to or used in the packing of a piston, a joint, etc., as
packing-block,
packing-bolt,
packing-expander,
packing-gland,
packing-leather,
packing-nut,
packing-ring.
c. packing-board: see
quot.;
packing box, (
a) a box for packing goods in; also
attrib. = packing case; (
b) a stuffing-box around the piston-rod of a steam-engine;
packing case, a case or frame-work in which articles are packed or securely enclosed, for conveyance to a distance; also
attrib. used disparagingly of a type of modern architecture alleged to resemble packing-cases in its regularity and monotony;
packing density Computers, the density of stored information in terms of bits per unit of storage medium;
packing fraction Nuclear Physics, 10,000 times (
M-
A)/
A(or (
M-
A)/
M), where
M is the atomic weight of a nucleus and
A is its mass number;
cf. mass defect s.v. mass n.2 10 d;
packing needle = pack-needle;
packing-officer (see
quot.);
† packing-penny, a penny given at dismissal;
to give a packing-penny to, to ‘send packing’, to dismiss;
packing-press, a strong press, usually hydraulic, used to compress goods into small bulk for convenience of carriage;
packing-sheet, (
a) a sheet for packing goods in; (
b)
Med. a wet sheet in which a patient is enveloped in hydropathic treatment;
packing station,
spec. an official depot where eggs are graded and packed; also (with hyphen)
attrib.;
† packing whites, name for a kind of woollen cloth.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Packing-awl, one for thrusting a twine through a packing cloth or the meshes of a hamper. |
| Ibid., *Packing-bolt (Steam-engine), a bolt which secures the gland of a stuffing-box. |
| 1774 in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1914) LXXI. 214 To a *packing Box {pstlg}0. 9. 4. 1800 Jane Austen Let. 25 Oct. (1952) 77 The charge of 3s 6d for the Packing box. 1909 Daily Chron. 8 July 8/3 (heading) No ‘packing box’ houses. They are not turned out by the score or the hundred all to one pattern like packing cases. |
| 1881 Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., *Packing-board, the term applied to the boards used with poling boards over the intended soffit of an arch in tunneling, to the top of the heading wherever the earth shows symptoms of falling in. |
| 1842 Selby Brit. Forest Trees 212 The wood is soft and spongy, and only fit for *packing-boxes. |
| 1791 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 268 The frames, *packing cases and carriage. 1893 F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 26 A large open packing-case, in which had been stowed the trading goods. 1935 Fortnightly Apr. 410 So we are given the packing-case building—rectangular boxes with holes punched for doors and windows. 1961 Times 11 Apr. 4/2 Sir Jacob Epstein apparently intended a certain reproach to the ‘packing-case’ type of modern architecture in the bronze group, ‘Pan’. |
| 1890 Cent. Dict. s.v. Lenticel, The outer (not corky) cells of a lenticel are termed *packing or complementary cells. |
| 1859 W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1866) 44 For making *packing-crates. |
| 1958 Wescon Convention Record of IRE iv. 49/1 The first limitation in *packing density is the number of pulses per inch that can be recorded on each track, which is limited by the basic resolution of the head and tape combination. 1967 McLachlan & Molsom Data Processing xi. 171 The speed of reading and writing..will depend upon the physical speed of the tape past the read/write head, and the packing density of the information written. |
| 1927 F. W. Aston in Proc. R. Soc. A. CXV. 501 The mean gain or loss of mass per proton when the nuclear packing is changed from that of oxygen to that of the atom in question..will be called the ‘*packing fraction’ of the atom and expressed in parts per 10,000. 1938 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) xix. 179 The idea of the ‘packing fraction’ has been introduced, by which we understand the difference between the mass of the atom and the integral part of its mass-number, divided by the mass-number. 1949 Friedlander & Kennedy Introd. Radiochem. ii. 38 The mass defect Δ is the difference between the atomic mass M and the mass number A: Δ = M-A... The packing fraction f is the mass defect divided by the mass number: f = Δ/A. (Sometimes f is defined as Δ/M; the difference is negligible.) 1955 A. E. S. Green Nuclear Physics ii. 55 Packing fractions are positive (0·6 to 0 mMU) for the stable nuclei from 1 to 20, negative (0 to - 0·8 to 0 mMu for nuclei from 20 to 170, and positive again (0 to 0·6 mMU) for the very heavy nuclei. 1968 G. M. Mossop Advanced Level Atomic Physics ix. 150 The packing fraction is the mass defect per nucleon. |
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Supp., *Packing Gland, an annular piece, the cover of a stuffing box, which is screwed or otherwise forced into the stuffing box to expand the packing against the piston. |
| 1834 C. F. Hoffman Winter in West (1835) II. xxxii. 136 One of the *packing-houses, built of brick, and three stories high, is more than a hundred feet long, and proportionably wide. 1901 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 208/1 Two of the largest packing houses had in their cold-storage chambers no fewer than two hundred and sixteen million eggs. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Feb. 5/4 He was leading the campaign to organize packinghouse workers. 1977 Time 22 Aug. 43/1 By 14 he had quit school and started work as a janitor and a packing-house laborer. |
| 1871 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. May 300 *Packing knots are used for binding timber together. |
| 1662 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials III. 607 A sharp thing lyk a *paking neidle. 1880 L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery iv. 34 It should now be braced with twine by means of a packing needle. 1937 A. M. Miall Making Home Furnishings x. 161 Thread your long curved packing needle with string, and with a few large stitches through the hessian secure the tops of the springs to it. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Packing⁓officer, an excise-officer who superintends or watches the packing of paper, and other exciseable articles. |
| 1861 D. G. Rossetti Let. Jan. (1965) II. 392, I shall have it printed on common brown *packing-paper. 1939 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 305/2 Packing paper and cloth for export parcels. |
| 1598 B. Jonson Case Altered iii. iii, Will you give A *packing penny to virginity? 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Packing-penny-day, the last day of the fair; when all the cheap bargains are to be had. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 17 Mar. 2/5 Representatives of ten national *packing plant unions today pledged their support to the Amalgamated Order of Meat Cutters. Ibid. 9 Oct. 31/5 Fire, which apparently originated in a smokehouse last night, destroyed the packing plant of the H. F. Lewis Company. |
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 292 A very ingenious and useful *packing-press has been invented by Mr. John Peek. |
| 1854 Harper's Mag. Mar. 456/1 The ‘*packing-room’ is the loft of the gin-house. 1900 H. Lawson On Track 94 One day I went downstairs to the packing-room and saw a lot of phosphorus in jars of water. 1960 J. Betjeman Summoned by Bells ii. 12 Bang through the packing-room! |
| 1901 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 99/1 An expert to accompany the fruit from the orchard, through the *packing-shed, on to the port of shipment. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) vii. 100 Jack Starbrace had fallen over backwards into the packing shed. |
| 1545 Rates of Customs c j, Olde shetes called *packinge shetes the dossen. 1869 R. T. Claridge Cold Water Cure 81 Had this gentleman been subjected to the Packing-sheet followed by Tepid-bathing. |
| 1930 E. Brown Brit. Poultry Husbandry 347 *Packing stations. 1938 L. Pearce-Gervis Compl. Poultry Keeper & Farmer v. 150 Each grade has its own particular colour..and contains the registered number of the packing station. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 1 Mar. 55/3 Many of us..are not at all happy about current packing-station prices. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Packing-stick, a woolding stick; one used in straining a twine around a rolled fleece of wool in tying. |
| 1483 Act 1 Rich. III, c. 8 §4 Eny Clothes called *Pakkyng whites. |
| 1816–30 Bentham Offic. Apt. Maximized, Extract Const. Code (1830) 64 note, Should peradventure any *packing-worthy occasion happen to take place. |
| 1883 A. J. Adderley Fisheries Bahamas 6 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) The sponges are taken to the *packing⁓yard, where they are sorted, clipped, soaked in tubs of lime-water, and spread out to dry in the sun. |
▪ II. ˈpacking, vbl. n.2 [f. pack v.2] † a. Private or underhand arrangement; fraudulent dealing or contriving, plotting: see
pack v.
2| a 1529 Skelton Death Earl Northumbld. 71 Ther was fals packing, or els I am begylde. 1587 Harrison England ii. iii. (1877) i. 77 Such packing..is vsed at elections, that..he that hath most friends,..is alwaies surest to speed. 1603 Dekker Batchelors Banquet Wks. (Grosart) I. 208 Then fals hee into a frantick vaine of Iealousie: watching his wiues close packing. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 225 The forging and packing of miracles. c 1656 Bramhall Replic. ii. 103 If there be no miscarriage, no packing of Votes, no fraud used..like that in the Councel of Ariminum for..rejecting homo-ousios. |
b. Corrupt constitution or manipulation of a deliberative body, etc.: see
pack v.
2 4.
| 1653 [F. Phillips] Consid. Crt. Chancery 20 Suborning or packing or laying of Juries. 1821 Bentham (title) The Elements of the Art of Packing as applied to Special Juries, particularly in cases of Libel Law. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 512 About the packing of the juries no evidence could be obtained. 1884 Pall Mall G. 23 July 1/1 The packing of Parliaments hardly secured to the Stuarts a perpetual lease of power. |
▪ III. ˈpacking, ppl. a. [f. pack v. + -ing2.] 1. That packs or is engaged in packing: see the verbs.
| 1636 Davenant Wits v. i, The nimble packing hand. 1890 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 25 Sept. 2/3 One large packing-firm [in S. California] will this year lose $50,000 on prunes alone. |
2. As the second element in
adj. combs.: habitually carrying,
esp. of a weapon, as
pistol-packing, etc. (See
pack v.
1 9 a.)
| 1936 E. Ambler Dark Frontier xi. 174 How do you suppose we're going to stop a mob of eight dagger-packing Greeks? 1943, etc. [see pistol-packing ppl. adj. s.v. pistol n. 2]. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Nov. 664/4 He is forced into carrying a Luger-packing German entomologist on a hunt for a rare and mysterious beetle. |