▪ I. blowing, vbl. n.1
(ˈbləʊɪŋ)
[f. blow v.1 + -ing1.]
1. a. gen. The action expressed by the vb. to blow.
| c 1000 ælfric Judges vii. 16 (Bosw.) Heora byman him to ðære blawunge. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clvii. (1495) 708 Wyth blowynge of wynde. a 1422 Le Venery de Twety in Rel. Ant. I. 153 Ye shul change your speche and blowyng booth too. 1621 Sir R. Boyle in Lismore Pap. (1886) II. 17 My 2 new ffurnaces..had ffier to begin theer blowing put into them. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 178 This impious blowing upon other people's reputations. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 279 Saving..boring and powder..avoiding the trouble and danger of blowing. |
b. Cotton Manuf. The cleansing of cotton. Cf. blower1 3 c (a).
| 1844 [see scutching vbl. n.2 1]. 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts I. 955 The willowing, scutching, or blowing, an operation which removes the seeds and dirt, and prepares the material in the form of a continuous lap. |
c. The shattering (of a bird) in shooting. (Cf. blow v.1 24 d.)
| 1892 W. W. Greener Breech-Loader 271 No one could detect the ‘blowing’ of a single bird. |
d. (See quot.)
| 1881 R. Hunter et al. Encycl. Dict., Blowing of Firearms (Gunnery), the art or operation of constructing firearms in such a way that the vent or touch-hole is run or ‘gullied’, and becomes wide, allowing the powder to blaze out. |
e. blowing off: the action or process of firing (a rifle) to cleanse the barrel.
| 1893 Daily News 2 Feb. 2/6 The ammunition..was issued in packets of ten, thus allowing for blowing off and for one compulsory sighting shot. |
f. fig. Boasting, bragging. U.S., Austral., etc. Cf. blow v.1 6 a.
| 1840 Congress. Globe App., 9 Jan. 50/1 [I advise them] to treat with contempt and scorn, all the blasting, blowing, blustering, and bullying displays they may see. 1873 Trollope Austral. & N.Z. I. 387 A fine art much cultivated in the colonies, for which the colonial phrase of ‘blowing’ has been created. 1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds ix. 134 Its bright and saucy editorials excelled all specimens extant of Kansas blowing. |
2. a. Breathing; hard breathing; esp. of animals.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 75 Hore loking, hore blawing, hore smelling, heore feling. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. ciii. (1495) 847 Brockes holdeth in the brethe and blowynge. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §87 Broken wynded, and pursyfnes, is but shorte blowynge. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Bufido, the puffing and blowing of a horse. 1815 Scott Guy M. xlv, Listening for the blowing of an otter. 1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads xix. (1884) 143 Until they see the ‘blowing’ of an eel, as the bubbles issuing from the mud are termed. |
† b. Swelling, tumefaction. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxxxvi. (1495) 582 The saphire hath singuler vertue to swage blowynge. |
c. The formation of bubbles or blisters in the texture of a manufactured article.
| 1872 Spons' Dict. Engin. v. 1547 As the pressure is kept on the metal until it is well set and solid, such a thing as blowing will never, or very seldom take place. |
d. = bloat n. 1 b. (Cf. blow v.1 22 c.)
| 1891 R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. xxii. 301 Cattle not accustomed to an abundant supply of green food are liable to suffer from ‘hoven’ or ‘blowing’ after eating it. |
e. Of a tin of food (see quot.).
| 1950 J. G. Davis Dict. Dairying 43 ‘Blowing’ of condensed milk, the bulging or bursting of tins of condensed milk usually due to the production of carbon dioxide by fermentation of the sugar by micro-organisms, usually yeasts. |
3. a. The oviposition of flesh-flies, and formerly of other insects. † b. concr. The ‘blote’ or egg of a flesh-fly or other insect (obs.).
| 1558 Bp. Watson Sev. Sacr. xxiv. 153 A fleshe flye..wyll leaue fylthy blowinges in the fleshe. 1577 Holinshed Chron. iii. vi. 229 Beyond the seas..they stampe and streine their combs, bees, and young blowings altogither into the stuffe. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 320 Bees are bred of Bees, either of their blowings, or some other matter of their generation. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. ix. 209 The blowings of Flies, and almost all kind of Insects. |
4. blowing up, an explosion; colloq. a scolding.
| 1772 Phil. Trans. LXIII. 44 The blowing up of a magazine of gun-powder. 1820 G. Simpson Jrnl. 18 Aug. in Hudson's Bay Record Soc. Publication (1938) i. 17 Mr. Clarke gave him what is vulgarly called ‘a good blowing up’. 1839 Haliburton Letter-bag Gt. West iv. 42, I would give him a good blowing-up. 1874 Mrs. H. Wood J. Ludlow Ser. i. xxv. 448, I..received a good blowing up from Mr. Brandon for my pains. |
5. a. Comb., as blowing-cone, a volcanic cone by which vapours escape from a subterranean molten lake; blowing-cylinder, the air-cylinder of a blast-engine; blowing-engine (= blowing-machine); blowing-furnace, a blast furnace used in glass-working; † blowing-house, a tin-smelting house; blowing-iron, -pipe, -tube (Glass-working), an iron tube used in blowing glass; blowing-machine, (a) any mechanical contrivance for producing a blast of air; (b) a machine for cleansing and separating fur in hat-manufacture; (c) an apparatus forming part of the machine for cleansing the cotton in cotton-manufacture; (d) an apparatus for blowing glass-ware (Cent. Dict., 1889); blowing-pot, a vessel containing clay paste which the workman ‘throws’ on pottery by blowing; blowing-room, a room in which the cleansing or separating of materials is done, esp. in a cotton factory; also attrib., as (card and) blowing-room hand, blowing-room machinery, blowing-room operative.
| 1895 Dana Man. Geol. (ed. 4) 279 In cases, outside of the lava-lakes, where the bubbles are bursting beneath an opening in the bottom of the crater, the vapors and lava driblets escape from the aperture with a rush and a roar. The driblet-cone, thus made, is sometimes called a blowing-cone. |
| 1845 Dodd Brit. Manuf. V. 159 Blowing-Engine. |
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 654 A blowing furnace for blowing the pear-shaped balls..into large globes. |
| 1674 Ray Prepar. Tin Coll. 120 The black Tin is smelted at the blowing house with Charcoal. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 1005 Formerly in Cornwall nearly all the tin was smelted in blast-furnaces; these works were called blowing-houses. |
| 1855 tr. Labarte's Arts Mid. Ages ix. 352 Gathers with the blowing-iron a small quantity of white glass. |
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. ii. ii. 111 The blowing machine for thoroughly opening out the cotton into clean individual fibres. 1839 ― Dict. Arts I. 345 Batting (beating), scutching, and blowing machines. 1845 Dodd Brit. Manuf. V. 158 The ‘blowing-machines’..act as follows. 1868 F. H. Joynson Metals i. 18 The blast from the blowing machine is conducted into the furnace by means of the tuyers. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 99/1 Blowing machines, machines for forming molten glass into articles by the use of air under pressure. |
| 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts III. 622 Common earthenware is coloured by means of..the blowing-pot. |
| 1845 Dodd Brit. Manuf. V. 158 The fur..is conveyed to the blowing-room, finally to effect the separation [of the coarse from the fine fur]. 1887 J. E. Holme Cotton Spinning Introd., The blowing-room machinery should be kept well oiled. 1892 Daily News 14 Apr. 3/4 The card and blowing-room hands. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 23 Dec. 7/3 The Card and Blowing-room Operatives Society. |
b. With advs.: blowing-in, -out: the action or process of putting a blast furnace into or out of action (see blow v. 19); blowing-off, -through = blow-off, -through (see blow-).
| 1925 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXII. 409 The methods pursued..in the blowing in, damping down, and blowing out of blast furnaces. 1944 Ibid. CL. 378P From blowing-in to blowing-out furnace operation is handicapped, because we do not know what is going on inside the furnace. |
| 1863 Atkinson tr. Ganot's Physics vi. 328 Blowing off taps, for use when the pistons are in motion. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Blowing-off... Blowing-through. |
▪ II. ˈblowing, vbl. n.2
[f. blow v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of blossoming or blooming. † b. A bloom or blossom: also fig. (obs.).
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 220 Þe blowinge of þes fruitys must faile. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 692 Clustering togither lyke the cattes tayles or blowinges of the Nut tree. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. (1634) 58 At the blewing of Palm..they [wasps] fly abroad for food. 1660 E. Waterhouse Arms & Arm. 184 These budds and blowings of Nobility and Gentry. 1797 Holcroft Stolberg's Trav. (ed. 2) III. lxix. 58 Flowers..whose periodical blowing is advertised in our newspapers. |
▪ III. ˈblowing, ppl. a.1
[f. blow v.1 + -ing2.]
That blows (see the vb.); esp. windy. blowing adder, snake, a snake of Virginia, remarkable for inflating and extending the surface of its head before it bites.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 87 Eislic swei . and blawende beman. 1604 Friar Bacon's Proph. 290 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 278 No butcher now can keepe His flesh from blowing flies. 1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1365/1 His Majesties Ships..are kept in this Harbor by the blowing weather. 1688 J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 134 The Blowing-Snake, an absolute Species of a Viper. 1794 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1845) I. 411 It had the appearance of blowing weather. 1845 Gard. Chron. 107 Blowing-Sands..or hills of moveable sand which are accumulated by the winds. 1870 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 347 With rounded mouth and blowing hair. 1884 Public Opinion 5 Sept. 305/1 The blowing adder was formerly common in..Orange County, New York. |
▪ IV. ˈblowing, ppl. a.2
[f. blow v.2 + -ing2.]
Blossoming, in bloom.
| 917 Blickl. Hom. 57 Fæᵹerness..swylc þes blowenda wudu. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 629 One small Thicket..Of blowing Myrrh and Balme. 1835 Wordsw. Death C. Lamb, Green, untrodden turf, and blowing flowers. |
▪ V. blowing
variant of blowen n.