ploughing, plowing, vbl. n.
(ˈplaʊɪŋ)
[f. plough v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of the verb plough; the result of this, a ploughed furrow.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 73 In deluyng al, or plowyng, or dichynge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 405/2 Plowynge, or erynge, aracio. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §8 In all maner of plowynge, se that thy eye, thy hande, and thy fote do agree, and be alwaye redy one to serue a-nother. 1648 Milton Observ. Art. Peace xxii, One [Act] prohibiting the plowing with Horses by the Tail. 1763 Mills Pract. Husb. II. 197 On sounding the plowings, I found them deeper. 1864 D. G. Mitchell Wet Days at Edgewood 38 Columella urges, like Cato, frequent ploughings. |
b. Carpentry. The planing of a groove with a ‘plough’; the groove so made.
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 47 It is a good method to..unite the different planks by ploughing and tonguing. 1837 Whittock, etc. Bk. Trades (1842) 103 Grooving or ploughing, by which a narrow channel is excavated out of the thickness of the timber. |
c. Univ.
slang. The rejection of a candidate in an examination; plucking.
| 1882 E. J. Worboise Sissie xxxiv, He just escaped plucking or ploughing—I forget which Dr. Heavisides said—‘by the skin of his teeth’. |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
ploughing-team,
ploughing-time;
ploughing-day: see
quot.;
ploughing-iron = plough-iron;
ploughing-land,
ground, arable land;
ploughing-match, a competitive exhibition of ploughing.
| 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., *Ploughing-day, the day on which the farmer who has taken a new farm asks, and receives, the assistance of his neighbours' Draughts in getting the necessary ploughing done. |
| 1755 N. Jersey Archives XIX. 483 The whole is good Meadow and *Plowing Ground. |
| 1636 Massinger Bashf. Lover i. ii, In a cause like this, The husbandman would change his *ploughing-irons To weapons of defence. |
| 1694 Lond. Gaz. No. 2977/4 A Farm, containing near 160 Acres of Land,..most *plowing Land,..with the advantage of Commoning. |
| 1812 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 196 The original *ploughing matches were warmly patronized by Mr. Erskine of Mar. 1845 Ainsworth's Mag. VII. 369 Unfortunately, my lord [sc. a servant] got a premium at a ploughing-match. 1882 [see match n.1 7]. 1949 E. Blunden After Bombing 41 Here was a set of anglers, there the ploughing-match. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 17 Nov. 6/5 The 1976 Hampshire County Ploughing Match will be at Upper Silkstead Farm, Poles Lane, Otterbourne, next Saturday. |
| a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1766) II. 25 Vexed to see such waste made upon their estates, in *plowing time especially. 1896 Manning in Cath. Mag. Mar. 187 The next three or four years of your life..are like the ploughing-time and the sowing-time in the year. |