▪ I. singeing, vbl. n.
(ˈsɪndʒɪŋ)
Also 7 cingeing, etc.
[f. singe v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb., in various senses. Also fig.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 453/1 Seengynge,..ustillacio. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Chamusquina, singeing with fire. c 1626 Bacon Advt. touching Holy War (1629) 40, I remember Drake, in the vaunting stile of a Souldier, would call this Enterprise: The Cingeing of the King of Spaines Beard. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Sheering, Some use the Phrase Sheering of Hats, for the passing of Hats made of Wooll over the Flame of a clear Fire...Others call this Flaming and others Sindging. 1764 Harmer Observ. iv. §23. 183, I do not remember an account of any things being prepared for food by singeing. 1800 Patent Specif., Bleaching, Dyeing, etc. (1859) 78 All kinds of woollen cloth..may be finished..by singeing instead of cropping or shearing. 1820 Byron Juan v. cli, The singeing of a single inky whisker. 1859 Cornwallis New World I. 177 The forest, instead of being burnt up, merely showed signs of singeing. 1895 J. L. Maxwell Life W. B. Thomson x. 101 My attention was drawn to an intolerable smell of singeing. |
b. Comb., as singeing-furnace, singeing-lamp, singeing plate, singeing-machine, singeing stove, etc.
| 1800 Patent Specif., Bleaching, Dyeing, etc. (1859) 78 Drawing the cloth..over the singeing plate. 1805 J. Luccock Nature of Wool 158 For this purpose he employs the shears, the singing stoves and the press with its heated plates. 1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. ii. 48 Singeing-furnace. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xxvii, Flirtation, after all, was not necessarily a singeing process. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2186/2. 1884 Ibid. Suppl. 813/2 A gas singeing machine intended for removing or dressing the nap on woven goods. |
▪ II. ˈsingeing, ppl. a.
[-ing2.]
That singes; burning, scorching.
| 1598 Yong Diana 286 Then thornes More sharpe and pricking with thy singing scornes. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. ii, May I be numd with horror, and my vaines Pucker with sing'ing torture. 1891 M. M. Dowie Girl in Karp. 229 In the singeing heat of..ten o'clock. |
Hence ˈsingeingly adv.
| 1655–87 H. More App. Antid. (1712) 220, I confess that the Bodies of Devils may be not only warm, but sindgingly hot. Ibid. 221. |