▪ I. ˈventing, vbl. n.1
[f. vent v.2 + -ing1.]
I. 1. a. The free emission or passing of air, etc., from some confined space; spec. the emission into the atmosphere of radioactive dust and debris from an underground nuclear explosion.
| 1382 Wyclif Job xxxii. 19 My wombe as must withoute venting, that breketh newe litle win vesselys. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xi. i. (Tollem. MS.), And so eyer is element of bodies and spirites, for ventynge of eyer comynge to spirites is cause of..clensynge and of purgacion. Ibid. xvii. clxxxvii. (Bodl. MS.), Bi ventinge fome & oþer vnclennes of wine is brouȝth vp to þe mouþe of þe vessel. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme vi. xiv. 754 The vessels to auoid the venting which commonly hapneth vnto wine, must haue the bunghole very well stopt. 1611 Cotgr., Halenée, a breathing, venting, winding, exhaling. |
| 1963 Wall St. Jrnl. 27 Sept. 1/1 More unsettling, however, is the possibility that ventings of underground blasts have been adding undetected amounts of radioactive iodine to milk. 1971 Nature 30 July 291/3 One fear..is that if massive venting does occur..radioactive fallout could be carried outside United States territory. 1980 New Scientist 3 July 4/1 The venting of radioactive krypton-85 from the crippled reactor at Three Mile Island..began at 8 am last Saturday. |
b. venting-hole, a vent-hole. rare—1.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 409 If pits be subject to the rising of such vapours, cunning and expert workemen make..tunnels, or venting-holes. |
2. The action or fact of giving utterance, expression, or publicity to an opinion, etc.
| 1654 D. Dickson Expos. Ps. lxix. 26 The very talking and venting of ill speeches..is a high provocation of God's wrath. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xi. (1848) 174 He..was wont..as much to aim at the exciting others thoughts, as the venting of his own. 1825 Coleridge Aids Refl. xxii. 12 The venting of that knowledge in speech. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets (1857) 403 They seem to be rather the relief of a heavy heart than the ventings of a light one. |
II. † 3. The action of snuffing or smelling. Obs.—0
| 1611 Cotgr., Flairement, a senting, smelling, sauoring, venting, winding. |
4. The rising of an otter to the surface of water in order to breathe.
| 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 305 When he lifts up his Nose above Water for Air, it is termed Venting. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rur. Sports 144/1 The remainder [of the otter-hunters] must watch every intervening yard for his ‘ventings’. |
▪ II. † ˈventing, vbl. n.2 Obs.
[f. vent v.3 + -ing1.]
The action of selling; = vending vbl. n.
Frequent from c 1600 to c 1645.
| 1532–3 Act 24 Hen. VIII, c. 4, Straunge countreis..by the..makyng and ventyng therof are greately enriched. 1548 Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) II. 144 Vnder the payne of..spayning fra the venting of wyne be the space of ane yeir thairafter. 1605 Breton Old Man's Lesson Wks. (Grosart) II. 6/2 The Vinter, the Grocer,..and the Butcher, doe by the venting of their wares, the better maintaine their trades. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 139 How they may suppresse the venting of such rarities and such a cheapnes as would undoe them. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. x. (1674) 12 A very spruce Polititian who looked to the venting of Wares. |
▪ III. ˈventing, ppl. a.
[f. vent v.2 + -ing2.]
† 1. That snuffs or smells. Obs.—1
| 1637 B. Jonson Sad Shepherd ii. i, As doth the vauting Hart his venting Hind. |
2. Of gas: that finds escape by the action of venting.
| 1974 Physics Bull. June 253/1 An air filter cartridge for dehydration of the venting gas. |