▪ I. weaving, vbl. n.1
(ˈwiːvɪŋ)
[f. weave v.1 + -ing1.]
1. The action of the v. weave; esp. the operation of forming cloth or other stuff by the interlacing of yarn or other filaments in a loom.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 444 Cloth þat cometh fro þe weuyng is nouȝt comly to were. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xi. (Bodl. MS.), Þe female [spider] is more of bodie þan þe male and haþ lengre feete and more pliaunte and more able to meuynge and to weuynge. c 1475 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 284 As myche for gardyng, spynnyng, and wevyng. 1511–12 Act 3 Hen. VIII, c. 6 §1 The Wever whiche shall have the wevyng of eny wollen yerne to be webbed into cloth. 1601 Holland Pliny vii. lvi. I. 188 Weaving was the invention of the ægyptians. 1774 Bryant Mythol. (1775) II. 525 Erech; in which place likewise the weaving of linen, and making of nets was first found out. 1843 J. S. Knowles Secretary iii. i. 25 His grace the duke Is in a net of his own weaving caught. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 45 Weaving was an art in which the Egyptians excelled. |
† b. concr. A tissue, plexus.
Obs.| 1758 J. S. tr. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) Dict. Dd 3, Varicosum Corpus, that Weaving of Blood-Vessels, which enters into the Testicles. |
2. slang. (See
quot. 1865.)
| 1803 Sporting Mag. XXI. 326 Weaving—Is securing one or more cards upon the knee, under the table played at. 1865 Hotten's Slang Dict., Weaving, a notorious card⁓sharping trick, done by keeping certain cards on the knee, or between the knee and the underside of the table, and using them when required by changing them for the cards held in the hand. |
3. attrib., as
weaving-factory,
weaving-frame,
† weaving-house,
weaving-loom,
weaving-mill,
weaving-room,
weaving-shed,
† weaving-shop,
† weaving-work.
| 1845 G. Dodd Brit. Manuf. Ser. iv. 95 Some being ‘spinning-factories’, some ‘*weaving-factories’, and some both conjoined. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 288/1 *Wevyng frame, mestier. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 523/2 *Wevynge howse, textrinum. 1772 [see spinning-house 1]. |
| 1496 in Weaver Somerset Med. Wills (1901) 343 A *weving lome w{supt} his apparell and portenances. 1675 in Jeaffreson Midsx. County Rec. (1892) IV. 63 Wooden frames of weaveing Loomes. |
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 380 A *weaving-mill near Manchester. |
| 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iv. ii, Nor should the *weaving-room be forgotten. 1867 Morris Jason ii. 455 Whom soon they found, within the weaving-room, Bent earnestly above the rattling loom. |
| 1844 Penny Mag. Jan. Suppl. 38 We next descend to the ‘*weaving-shed’,..Here we find eight hundred and forty power-looms in one room. 1897 Q. Rev. Oct. 432 The men from the..imperial weaving-sheds. |
| 1564 Inv. in Noakes Worcs. Relics (1877) 13 In the *weaving shoppe ij loomes, v geares [etc.]. |
| ? 14.. in Hampole's Wks. (1895) I. 159 Fro vndern to none sche ocupied hir in *weving werke. 1535 Coverdale Tobit ii. 11 Anna..wente daylie to the weeuynge worke. |
▪ II. ˈweaving, vbl. n.2 [f. weave v.2 + -ing1.] 1. Pugilism. (See
weave v.
2 4.)
| 1820 P. Egan's Boxiana (1829) III. 465 In closing, after a struggle, they broke away from each other. Neither of them seemed to have any idea of the weaving system. 1827 De Quincey Murder i. in Blackw. Mag. Feb. 210/2 In the course of this round we tried the weaving system, in which I had greatly the advantage, and hit him repeatedly on the conk. 1897 R. G. A. Allanson-Winn Boxing 261, I was obliged to retreat, and did so, as slowly as possible, using the weaving guards with both arms and completely escaping punishment. |
2. The side-to-side movement by an animal of its head and neck.
| 1934 Miller & Robertson Pract. Animal Husbandry 59 Weaving is a nervous habit acquired by many wild animals in captivity (especially bears), and occasionally by horses. 1973 G. Durrell Beasts in my Belfry iv. 70 Sam had a habit—not uncommon in bears—which is called weaving. |
▪ III. weaving, ppl. a. (
ˈwiːvɪŋ)
[f. weave v.1 + -ing2.] That weaves, in senses of the verb. Hence
ˈweavingly adv.| c 1000 Song Hezekiah in Lambeth Ps. (Lindelöf) 236 Forcorfen is swylce fram wefendum wife [L. uelut a texente] lif min. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 20 Weauing Spiders come not heere. 1809 Shaw Gen. Zool. VII. 429 Weaving Oriole. 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xiii. (1818) I. 411 The weaving spider..presses her spinners against one of the walls, and thus glues to it one end of her thread. 1945 L. MacNeice in Horizon Nov. 295 Loom of wind Weavingly laughingly leavingly weepingly. 1959 C. Ogburn Marauders (1960) vi. 183 Overby ran erect, like a halfback,..carrying his rifle weavingly before him as if it were a football. |