▪ I. mowing, vbl. n.1
(ˈməʊɪŋ)
[f. mow v.1 + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of mow v.1
| 1494 Nottingham Rec. III. 278 Paid for mowyng and teddyng. 1575 Stanford Churchw. Acc. in Antiquary XVII. 171 It. for moyng and kockyng of an acre of pulsse. 1858 Glenny Gard. Every-day Bk. Dec. 283/2 Mowing must not be neglected where you have to keep the grass in good order. |
b. concr. The quantity of grass cut at one time; also pl. grass removed by mowing.
| 1764 Ann. Reg. 48, I sold the first, second, third, and fourth mowings at a shilling per rod. 1802 W. Forsyth Fruit Trees xxv. (1824) 349 You must lay some short grass mowings..at the bottoms of the large baskets. |
2. U.S. Land on which grass is grown for hay.
| 1786 Mem. Amer. Acad. Sci. (1793) II. 120 This extent contains..as fine ploughland and luxuriant pasture and mowing, as I had before seen. 1788 [see orcharding 2]. 1869 Mrs. Stowe Old Town Folks iv. (1870) 33 And be off lying in the mowing, like a partridge, when they come after ye. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as mowing crook, mowing-crop, mowing ground, mowing land, mowing-machine, mowing meadow; mowing grass, grass reserved for mowing; mowing-machine bird, the grasshopper warbler, Locustella nævia.
| 1943 Antiquity XVII. 203 To use a *mowing-crook such as one still sees used in connection with the swap-hook in this country. |
| 1766 Museum Rust. VI. 30 Burnet will rarely make a *mowing-crop the first year. |
| 1773 Ann. Reg. 112 A horse had got into his *mowing-grass. 1884 Jefferies Life of Fields 50 Only a few [bees] go down to the mowing grass. |
| 1636 in 1st Cent. Hist. Springfield, Mass. (1898) I. 158 Less than three acres of *mowinge ground. 1654 Rec. Early Hist. Boston (1880) VI. 17 Twenty acres more or lesse of mowing ground upon the marsh. 1722 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1906) XLII. 90 [To pay damages for] digging in any Corne field,..mowing ground. 1770 in Ibid. (1872) XI. 31 My little mare had provided for herself, by leaping out of a bare pasture into a lot of mowing ground. 1787 G. Washington Diaries (1925) III. 222 The same difference was equally obvious on a piece of mowing grd. not far distant from it. |
| 1640 in Connecticut Hist. Soc. Coll. (1912) XIV. 357 One parsell called Swamp, now *mowing land. 1704 Proprietors' Rec. Waterbury, Connecticut (1911) 60 No man shal stak horses in the moing land in said feild. 1816 North Amer. Rev. III. 428 At the distance of five or six miles it begins to wind gently through large tracts of fine rich mowing land. 1858 C. L. Flint Milch Cows 169 The grasses differ widely; and their value as feed for cows will depend..on the management of pastures and mowing-lands. |
| 1823 H. R. Doc. 17th U.S. Congress 2 Sess. No. 36. 6 Improvement in the *mowing machine, Feb. 13, [1822], Jeremiah Baily. 1838 H. W. Ellsworth Valley Upper Wabash v. 47, I have a plan in view..and that is, to introduce the mowing and grain-cutting machine into this state. 1884 Roe Nat. Ser. Story viii, The mowing machine would be used in the timothy fields. |
| 1887 A. C. Smith Birds Wiltsh. 154 [The Grasshopper Warbler] is..known as the ‘*mowing-machine bird’, in allusion to its remarkable note. |
| 1799 Washington Writ. (1893) XIV. 231, I am not sanguine enough to expect that it will make good *mowing meadow. |
▪ II. mowing, vbl. n.2
(ˈmaʊɪŋ)
[f. mow v.2 + -ing1.]
The process of placing in a mow.
| 1572 Huloet (ed. Higins), Mowghing or heaping, aceruatio. 1828–32 in Webster; and in later Dicts. |
▪ III. mowing, vbl. n.3
(maʊ-, ˈməʊɪŋ)
[f. mow v.3 + -ing1.]
The action of making grimaces; an instance of this; also, derision.
| 1382 Wyclif Hosea vii. 16 This the mowyng, or scornynge, of hem in the lond of Egypt. c 1430 Stans Puer ad Mensam 29 in Babees Bk. 278 Grennynge & mowynge at þi table eschewe. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 54 If som Smithfeild Ruffian take up..som new mowing with the mouth. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 7 Because of their marueilous and diuers mowings, mouings, voices, and gestures. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle xi. (1842) 248 He skipped up to us..with sundry moppings and mowings. 1881 [see mopping vbl. n.1]. |
▪ IV. † ˈmowing, vbl. n.4 Obs.
[f. mowe (see may v.1) + -ing1.]
Ability.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. iv. 99 (Camb. MS.) The Mowynge of shrewes [orig. malorum potestas] which Mowynge the semyth to ben vnworthy nis no mowynge. |
▪ V. mowing, vbl. n.5
see mow v.4
▪ VI. mowing, ppl. a.
(ˈmaʊɪŋ, ˈməʊɪŋ)
[f. mow v.3 + -ing2.]
Grimacing; mocking, derisive.
| a 1518 Skelton Magnyf. 2124 To mockynge, to mowynge, to lyke a iackenapes. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 358/1 And then should stande vp and preache vppon a stoole and make a mowyng sermon. 1858 S. Wilberforce Let. in R. G. Wilberforce Life (1881) II. xi. 394 To get rid of the nauseous Romanizing peculiarities of these mowing apes. |