volunˈteering, vbl. n.
[f. volunteer n. and v.]
The action of serving, or offering one's services, as a volunteer.
| 1691 Dryden K. Arthur Prol. 47 If you Gallants lose, to all appearing You'll want an Equipage for Volunteering. 1706–7 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i, I warrant you, our Friends imagine that we are gone a volunteering. 1758 H. Walpole Corr. (1837) I. 381 Has he stolen to Southampton and slipped away a-volunteering..to conquer France in a dirty shirt and a frock? 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 199 Numbers of young nobility were willing to run a-volunteering in her defence. 1805 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. III. 316 We encourage volunteering to prevent enlisting. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xli, How strange it is of you to run down volunteering, when it's done to defend you..in case of need. 1858 Merc. Marine Mag. V. 112 The law permitting the volunteering from the merchant ship to a ship of war should be altered. |