▪ I. receiving, vbl. n.
(rɪˈsiːvɪŋ)
[-ing1.]
1. The action of the verb receive, in various senses. Also pl., what is received.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 377 Criste..dampned þe ressauyng of þe lordeschip þe whiche siluestre toke of constantyne. c 1450 Lydg. & Burgh Secrees 1824 Of metys & drynkes [to] knowe dyuersite, With proporcioun and tyme of Receyvyng. 1472–3 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 55/1 By Indentures to be made of all such retayndres, receyvyngs and perceyvynges. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 10 Yf any mortall synne be forgoten, by the receyuynge of this sacrament it is forgyuen. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 836 He caused all his brothers daughters to be conueyed into his palace with solempne receauing. 1642 W. Mountagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 306 The petition of the Houses concerning the receiving of the Yorkshire petition. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T., Matt. xx. 13 Thou shouldst be glad of thy Brother's receivings. 1931 Writer's Digest Oct. 28 (To) fall for receiving, to be convicted to having stolen property in one's possession... ‘He caught me with the rocks, so I fell for receiving.’ 1956 E. Grierson Second Man ii. 37 He was also in trouble again with the police: a little receiving. 1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 11d/7 Paul Jones of Cal, who caught 10 passes against Arizona last Saturday, leads in receiving with 13. |
2. attrib. a. Of the nature of, pertaining or relating to, receiving.
| 1681 J. Flavel Meth. Grace vi. 115 This receiving act..is that upon which both our righteousness and eternal happiness do depend. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xv. 352 Bladders and bags..are very useful in many receiving or transferring operations. 1883 Act 46 & 47 Vict. c. 52 §5 (Bankruptcy Act) The Court may..make an order, in this act called a receiving order, for the protection of the estate. 1930 Daily Express 30 July 2/7 Receiving Orders are announced in the ‘London Gazette’. 1977 Private Eye 1 Apr. 4/1 Harry Alan's financial affairs last attracted attention in 1973 when Air Express Travel obtained a receiving order against him for {pstlg}700. |
b. Of places: Intended or serving for the receipt or reception of things, persons, etc., as
receiving country,
receiving depot,
receiving home,
receiving-house,
receiving-office,
receiving pen,
receiving-room,
receiving-ship,
receiving-station,
receiving-yard.
In some cases the sense approaches that of the
ppl. a.| 1938 Washington Post 21 Dec. 6/1 Refugees would be allowed to leave Germany for a ‘*receiving country’. 1958 J. J. Spengler in B. Thomas Economics of Internat. Migration ii. 17 (title) Effects produced in receiving countries by pre-1939 immigration. |
| 1970 Soviet Weekly 13 June 11 Our laundry has 32 *receiving depots and washes for 150,000 people. |
| 1967 U.S. Supreme Court Reports CCCLXXXVII. 27 The fact of the matter is that, however euphemistic the title, a ‘*receiving home’..for juveniles is an institution for confinement. 1973 Washington Post 13 Jan. a5/2 Under the plan children in ‘predisposition status’ and under Receiving Home authority will be transferred into one of five categories. |
| 1824 E. Weeton Jrnl. May (1969) II. 280, I wished to see the General Post Office, so..I took that letter all the way there, instead of putting it into one of the *receiving Houses nearer at hand. 1832 Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. 47 A receiving-house for letters and parcels. 1854 E. E. Hale Kanzas & Nebraska ix. 224 A boarding-house or receiving-house, in which three hundred persons may receive temporary accommodation on their arrival. 1900 S. A. Nelson ABC of Wall St. 157 Receiving houses, houses which make a business of receiving and selling cash grain. 1908 Daily Chron. 21 Apr. 1/6 He should..see that the receiving house clause was given the very fullest effect to. |
| c 1865 in R. Whitehouse London Album (1980) Pl. 70, Midland Railway, *Receiving Office. 1885 List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) 2 The Midland Railway Company will also receive Goods at the following Receiving Offices. 1972 Classification of Occupations (Dept. Employment) II. 366/2 Receiving office assistant, receives from customers articles requiring service and returns finished articles at a receiving office. |
| 1931 *Receiving pen [see crush n. 4 c]. |
| 1830 Lytton P. Clifford viii, As it was rather late in the day when Paul made his first entrée at Bridewell, he passed that night in the ‘*receiving-room’. 1846 G. Dodd Brit. Manuf. VI. 184 [The] sail-cloth is taken to a ‘receiving-room’, where it is examined, freed from lumps and irregularities, measured, and weighed. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 618 The patient walks into the receiving room of the hospital for a diagnosis. 1978 M. Puzo Fools Die v. xxix. 333, I noticed that most of the men threw their car keys on the table in the first receiving room. |
| 1830 Marryat King's Own xl, A guard-ship is a *receiving-ship for officers and men, until they are enabled to join..their.. ships. 1846 A. Young Naut. Dict., Receiving-ship, a vessel employed at any port to receive supernumeraries, or pressed, or entered men for the Royal Navy. 1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 3 Nov. 2/3 A third class ensign on the receiving ship Columbia lying at the New York Navy Yard. 1978 K. Bonfiglioni All Tea in China iv. xiii. 180 The only other vessels in the anchorage were the receiving ships. |
| 1895 Daily News 19 Dec. 5 There is only one branch telegraph *receiving-station besides the Central. 1939 War Illustr. 28 Oct. 219/1 From his bed in an R.A.F. medical receiving station hidden away in the woods ‘somewhere in France’. |
| 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 217 These..animals he managed..to impel into the large *receiving yards. 1923 Receiving yard [see forcing vbl. n. 3 a]. |
c. Of things: designed for the reception of radio signals or the like, as
receiving aerial,
receiving apparatus,
receiving circuit,
receiving set (also
fig.),
receiving station.
| 1923 E. W. Marchant Radio Telegr. & Teleph. iii. 24 The exact arrangement of the receiving aerial may be varied within fairly wide limits. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 267 This highly inefficient transformer action is improved if the receiving aerial is so constructed as to resonate at the desired frequencies of reception. |
| 1908 Receiving apparatus [see pick v.1 21 i]. 1925 Times 28 May 20/4 Such a standard must obviously be based upon a consideration of two factors—namely, the limitations of the present transmitting and receiving apparatus; and, secondly, the æsthetic element. |
| 1923 E. W. Marchant Radio Telegr. & Teleph iv. 38 When the coherer was first used in connection with receiving circuits, it was connected between the aerial and the ground. 1955 Radio Times 22 Apr. 3/2 A special type of receiving circuit is necessary for F.M. |
| 1916 Lit. Digest (N.Y.) 1 Jan. 13/2 His outfit comprised only a cheap home made receiving set! But it did the work, just the same. 1937 Discovery Nov. 334/2 His [sc. the shrew's] bewhiskered snout is a receiving-set fitted to pick up any broadcast interesting to a shrew. 1953 A. Huxley Let. 9 Aug. (1969) 682 Receiving sets grafted into the tissues of animals, so as to make them robots responsive to the radioed will of their masters. 1975 Listener 4 Dec. 738/2 A fee required of each owner of a receiving set. |
| 1923 E. W. Marchant Radio Telegr. & Teleph. iii. 23 A number of vertical wires are attached to a suspended horizontal wire and brought down in a fan-shape to the receiving station. 1977 G. W. H. Lampe God as Spirit ii. 54 Divine communications at the subconscious level, for which the actual recipients had acted simply as passive receiving stations. |
3. Special combinations.
receiving barn U.S., a stable in which horses are placed before a race to prevent tampering;
receiving blanket N. Amer., a soft blanket in which to wrap a baby (
cf. receiver1 6 a);
receiving line orig. U.S., a row of persons by whom guests are greeted in turn on arrival.
| 1946 Sun (Baltimore) 26 Oct. 8/4 Refusal of George D. Widener to allow his equine star, Lucky Draw, to compete in the Pimlico Special simply because of the receiving barn is to be regretted. 1949 Ibid. 29 Apr. 18/4 There has been no doping case since the rules governing the receiving barn were revised last fall. 1974 Tilley & Plowden This is Horse Racing 181 Receiving barn, facility where horses are isolated for certain period before post time, to minimize chances of tampering. |
| 1926 Infants' Dept. Oct. 5028/1 Layette... 1 Receiving blanket. 1944 K. Hardy Sewing for Baby viii. 214 You will need two cotton receiving blankets. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 Sept. 12/8 (Advt.), Since mid-summer we have paid out Four Hundred and Twenty-one Dollars for the basic essentials in layettes; shirts, diapers, gowns, and receiving blankets. |
| 1933 H. L. Ickes Diary 17 Nov. (1955) I. 125 He told Anna in the receiving line last night that he was going to order me down there. 1971 M. Lee Dying for Fun xl. 189 Millie Panhard Geltzer went to the Woman of the Year Luncheon... She shook hands with the receiving line. |
▪ II. receiving, ppl. a. (
rɪˈsiːvɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.] 1. That receives, in senses of the
vb. In some cases not clearly distinct from
prec. 2 b.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V Prol. 27 Horses..Printing their prowd Hoofes i' th' receiuing Earth. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 149 [Persian] women when they goe abroad, wrap themselues in a large receiuing sheet. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 191 Water-Engines..raise it..into receiving Cisterns. 1804 Larwood No Gun Boats 14 Masts..nicely and accurately appropriated to the receiving boat. 1840 Cottager's Manual 22 in Lib. Usef. Kn., Husb. III, The receiving tank..has another pipe from the inside with a funnel. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Receiving Rods, auxiliary cage guides at insets and at pit tops. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 819 The outermost of the three layers is known as..the sheath or the receiving layer. |
2. receiving end, the position that receives a transmitted signal or discharged object. Usu.
fig., used loosely in
colloq. phr. to be on (or at) the receiving end, to be the (unfortunate) recipient of some action, event, etc.; to bear the brunt, to suffer.
| 1933 [see invert v. 2 g]. 1937 H. L. Ickes Diary 2 Oct. (1955) II. 219, I shall refuse to be at the receiving end of any more brickbats. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §674 Catcher's position, receiving end. 1946 B. Pemberton in S. H. Adams Alexander Woollcott xiv. 142 But it [sc. the nature of Woollcott's criticism] was hell for those on the receiving end. 1949 J. Szigeti With Strings Attached xxxiii. 302 It cannot be the love of music pure and simple, for we share this with multitudes who either are on the receiving end alone or, not content with this, also aspire to the satisfaction of making music themselves. 1955 W. C. Gault Ring around Rosa vi. 78 Jan had just brought a right hand from right field and the wrestler had been on the receiving end. 1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest viii. 151 His experience of guerrilla warfare had been, as it were, on the receiving end; for he had served before the war on the North-West Frontier and in Palestine. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio x. 176 Dialling is rather more of a performance than being on the receiving end of a phone call. 1968 G. Jones Hist. Vikings iii. ii. 202 As in Scandinavia, so at the receiving end in Europe the times were favourable to the art and practice of v{iacu}king. 1976 J. Snow Cricket Rebel 134 The wrist had been on the receiving end of a Dennis Lillee bouncer. |