▪ I. thirling, vbl. n.1
(ˈθɜːlɪŋ)
Forms: see thirl v.1
[f. thirl v.1 + -ing1.]
1. The action of thirl v.1; piercing, boring.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 166 Þet, ȝif ȝe weren iðe worldes þrunge, mid a lutel hurlunge [MS. T. hurtlinge; MS. C. þurlunge] ȝe muhten al uor leosen. 1443 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 713 Cum thirlyng unius shafte, ut patet per bill. 10li. |
2. Coal Mining. See quots. and cf. thirl1 4.
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 148 Between the wallings there were ribbs left, and passages through them called thurlings. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 101/1 The workings called rooms, turned off at right angles from the others,..the workings called throughers or thirlings, 9 feet wide, wrought through at right angles from one room to another. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 976 Let fig. 840 be a small portion of the pillars, rooms, and thirlings formed in a coal-field. |
▪ II. thirling, vbl. n.2
(ˈθɜːlɪŋ)
[f. thirl v.2 + -ing1.]
A bringing into subjection or bondage.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) II. 444 Rycht hevelie he buir into his hart The grit ouirthraw and thirling of his ring [= realm]. 1871 A. S. Harvey in Gd. Words 615 As in the hosiery trade, so in the fishery, the ‘thirling’ begins with the boy, and is never subsequently thrown off. |
b. thirling mill, a mill to which certain lands, etc. are astricted in thirlage.
| 1773 Fergusson Farmer's Ingle xi, How big a birn maun lie on bassie's back, For meal and multure to the thirling mill. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. s.v. Thirlage, All [mills] erected by such compactions are thirling mills. |
▪ III. thirling, ppl. a.1
(ˈθɜːlɪŋ)
[f. thirl v.1 + -ing2.]
That thirls; piercing.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 27 Þoru liȝt of þin arrowis, þat is, of þi þurlinge wordis. 1398 [see thirl v.1 5]. a 1547 Surrey æneid iv. 91 [The hind which] the Shepheard smiteth at unwares And leaves unwist in her the thirling head. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. iii. F vij, What thirlinge thrawes doth twitche thy harte? a 1618 Davies Eglogues Poems (1772) 116 To let in thirling notes of noted laies. 1801 W. Beattie Parings (1873) 28 Really this night's thirlin'; I never maist fan sic a frost. |
▪ IV. † ˈthirling, ppl. a.2 Obs.
[f. thirl v.3 2 + -ing2.]
Flying like something hurled; darting; whirling.
| 1567 Turberv. Ovid's Epist. 22 Where thou with thy nymble arme a thyrling launce doth cast. 1579 Remedy agst. Love B iij b, To hunt, to hawke, to throwe the thyrling darte. a 1593 Marlowe Hero & Leander i. 108 Nor that night-wandering, pale, and watery star (When yawning dragons draw her [Diana's] thirling car From Latmus' mount up to the gloomy sky). |