▪ I. praying, vbl. n.
(ˈpreɪɪŋ)
[f. pray v. + -ing1.]
a. The action of the vb. pray; prayer, earnest request.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 476 Þou mayst dreme of sum euyl þyng Þat may turne to better for þy preyyng. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 519 God curseþ siche mennis blissinge and preyingis. c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. 5 (Harl. MS.) Prayinge, Almysdede, and fastyng. 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 22 The Saxons come atte praing of the britons ayenst the pictes. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §165 There be dyuers maner of prayenges..some openly & some pryuatly. a 1704 Dodd in M. Henry Fam. Relig. H.'s Wks. 1853 I. 260/1 Either praying will make a man give over sinning, or sinning will make a man give over praying. 1879 Browning Ned Bratts 253 Satan's..whisper shoots across All singing in my heart, all praying in my brain. |
b. attrib. and
Comb. = Used for or in prayer, as
praying-cushion,
praying-ground,
praying-house,
praying-place,
praying-stool, etc.;
praying-carpet = prayer-
carpet;
praying-cylinder;
praying-desk = prayer-
desk;
praying-drum = prayer-wheel 1;
praying flag-staff, a staff bearing a prayer flag (see
prayer1 6 d);
praying jenny,
machine = prayer-wheel 1; also
transf.;
praying mat,
rug = prayer-
carpet;
praying-scarf,
-shawl = prayer-
scarf;
praying-wheel = prayer-wheel 1;
prayingwise adv., in the manner of one praying.
| 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 201 The old Emir..throwing his *praying carpet on the ground. |
| 1842 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 173, I made myself..a sort of Persian couch out of the *praying-cushions. |
| 1884 Gilmour Mongols 143 These *praying-cylinders seem to be seldom left long at rest. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 14 May 2/1 A *praying-desk..and a table for an altar were placed in the middle of the room, and priests carried in the sacred icon from the old house of Peter the Great. |
| 1886 All Year Round 14 Aug. 34 Like a Buddhist priest's rotatory *praying-drum. |
| 1877 T. W. R. Davids Buddhism 211 Everywhere in Tibet these *praying flag-staffs meet the eye. |
| 1935 Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men i. ii. 39 He went way down in de swamp behind a big plantation to de place they call de *prayin' ground, and got down on his knees. 1967 W. Soyinka Kongi's Harvest 55 You must hurry or the confusion Will be worse than shoes before the Praying-ground at Greater Beiram. 1976 Sunday Times (Lagos) 26 Sept. 3/1 (caption) The scene at Obalende praying ground with the Lagos Chief..reading his address. |
| a 1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. Ser. ii. (1849) 402/1 A *praying-house, or chapel. |
| 1817 Edin. Rev. XXVIII. 313 The followers of the grand Lama..have invented *praying-jennies. |
| Ibid., The Kurada, or *praying machine. |
| 1826 S. Stallybrass Jrnl. 16 July in E. Stallybrass Mem. Mrs. Stallybrass (1836) iv. 203 An old man..was travelling sixty versts on foot, though not destitute of a horse, for the purpose of turning the praying machine for a week,..in order to atone for past misconduct and drunkenness. 1879 Good Words 745/1 In the great temple there is a figure of Matreya, the coming Buddha... We..found ourselves before the top of the great praying machine, a revolving structure. 1972 C. Stephenson Merrily on High 185 Eastern [Orthodox] spiritually has tended to regard monks as primarily ‘praying machines’. There has never been the tradition of ‘scholar monks’ which we have had in the west. |
| 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. li. 543 To step rudely upon the sacred *praying mats. 1894 M. Dyan All in a Man's K. (1899) 92 Half-reclining on a praying-mat was a young girl. |
| 1844 Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 107 The splendid marble court, studded with Mussulman *praying places. |
| 1847 Thackeray Cane-Bottom'd Chair vi, That *praying-rug came from a Turcoman's camp. |
| 1887 Pall Mall G. 3 Mar. 6/2 Charged..with stealing three ‘*praying scarfs’..from the Jewish Synagogue, at Bayswater. |
| 1892 Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. 3 Their phylacteries and *praying shawls. |
| 1887 E. Gilliat Forest Outlaws 247 The *praying-stool, the whip for flagellation, and the one mat. |
| 1871 Alabaster Wheel of Law p. xlvii, The *praying-wheel, a box full of texts, the turning of which is supposed to be as efficacious as the actual repetition of them. 1889 Century Mag. Jan. 371/1 The praying-wheel exists in old chapels in Brittany as a religious toy, formerly used with rites half magical under the sanction of the local clergy. |
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 983 This Italian Mantis..hath six feet like the Locust, but the foremost thicker and longer than the other, the which because for the most part she holds up together (*praying-wise) it is commonly called with us Preque Dieu. |
| 1679 C. Nesse Antichrist 236 Our *praying-work which comes up as incense. |
▪ II. ˈpraying, ppl. a. [-ing2.] a. That prays.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 289/2 Praynge, precans, precarius, precabundus. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxi. i, To thee my praying voice doth fly. 1697 M. Henry Life P. Henry Wks. 1853 II. 729/2 Christ's last breath was praying breath. 1765 T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. I. 285 A piece of revenge, which Philip caused to be taken upon John Sausaman, a praying Indian. 1892 Rider Haggard Nada 226 The white praying man, who had come..to teach us people of the Zulu. 1931 F. L. Allen Only Yesterday iv. 80 The ‘praying Colonels’ of Centre College. |
b. praying band = prayer circle s.v. prayer1 6 d;
praying-insect, the
mantis (
praying mantis, or
praying locust), so called from the position in which it holds its fore-legs;
praying mantis = praying-insect.
| 1883 Century Mag. Sept. 788/2 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is the lineal descendant of the Woman's Crusade of 1874, whose first ‘*praying band’ was led..by Mrs. Thompson. 1900 C. W. Winchester Victories of Wesley Castle ii. 41 He had seen [him]..conducting a revival meeting with a praying-band, of which he was leader. 1937 Sun (Baltimore) (D ed.) 25 May 4/5 On the left sits a row of younger women—the ‘praying band’ or ‘shout band’. |
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1818) II. 221 The genera Mantis and Phasma—named *praying-insects and spectres. |
| 1706 *Praying Locust [see mantis]. |
| 1895 *Praying mantis [see mantis]. 1899 [see mule-killer s.v. mule1 5 c]. 1961 L. van der Post Heart of Hunter xii. 161 My old coloured nurse Klara, who had a Bushman mother..showed me my first praying mantis. 1973 M. R. Crowell Greener Pastures 40 They have established a cease fire, thanks to a praying mantis. |
Hence
ˈprayingly adv., in a praying manner.
| 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. xi. 93 To speak prayingly. |