▪ I. questing, vbl. n.
(ˈkwɛstɪŋ)
[f. quest v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. in various senses.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. xix, The noyse was..lyke vnto the questyng of xxx coupyl houndes. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. Pref. (1556) 10 After two or three questynges, he lept to the great Olyphante. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xi. (1632) 238 A long questing and beating for some game. 1700 Jer. Collier 2nd Def. Short View 118 All this Questing has sprung but very little Game. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 109 Nothing is more certain than Dash's questing,..for a better spaniel never went into the field. 1839 Bailey Festus vi. (1848) 63 Must thou still Revel in bootless questings? 1923 M. Sadleir Desolate Splendour iv. 72 From externals only need the weary questing of a stranger mind seek teaching or enlightenment. |
▪ II. questing, ppl. a.
(ˈkwɛstɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That quests, in senses of the vb.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. iii. 25 Than the remanent of that questing sort,..Wythdrawis. c 1600 Drayton Miseries Q. Margaret cxlvi, When they heare the questing Spaniels gone. 1714 Earthquake Peru i. 80 Even the Questing-brothers presume to interrupt People at their Prayers. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. xiii, Thread the brake like questing hound. 1888 P. Fitzgerald Fatal Zero xxvii. 168 That questing, roving eye..that looks out of the corners sharply. |