▪ I. ˈsliving, vbl. n. Now dial.
[f. slive v.1]
1. A slash; the action of cutting.
| c 1400 Anturs of Arth. xlviii. (Ireland MS.), He wend with a slyuyng, hade slayn him with slyȝt. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 459/2 Slyvynge, cuttynge a-wey, avulsio, abscisio. |
2. A slip or cutting; a scion; a shoot or branch cut off. (Cf. slaving n. and sleaving.)
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 26 Men take plantes or slyfynges þeroff and sett þam in oþer placez. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 459/2 Slyvynge, of a tre or oþer lyke, fissula. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 76 Some are also set of the slips, or sliuinges. 1580 Frampton Joyful News (1596) 134 There dooeth come from them [sc. buds] many round coddes or slyuinges. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. 390 The term sliving is more especially applied to a branch—usually of hedge-row trees—sliced off with the hatchet in ‘pleaching’ the hedge. |
3. A slice.
| 1796 Pegge Derbicisms Ser. i. 64 (E.D.S.), A great sliving of bread. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia 307 Sliving, a slice of flesh. |
▪ II. sliving, ppl. a.
(ˈslaɪvɪŋ)
[f. slive v.2 + -ing2.]
Slow-moving, dilatory; sneaking; stealing imperceptibly.
Also in dialect use as a n., explained by Thoresby (1703) as ‘a lazy fellow’ and by Hutton (1781) as ‘a slovenly clown’.
| 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac. Conceited Coxcombs (1860) 67 He would prove an unmatchable piece of sliving policy. 1710 S. Centlivre Man's Bewitched iii. i, The sliving baggage will not come to a resolution yet. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose s.v., A sliving fellow, one who loiters about with a bad intent. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 22 Ere sliving night around his journey threw Her circling curtains. c 1909 D. H. Lawrence Collier's Friday Night (1934) iii. 75 I'm not a fool, if you think so. I can pay you yet, you sliving bitch! 1913 ― Sons & Lovers iv. 66 What should go runnin' up my arm but a mouse... They'll get in your pocket an' eat your snap, if you'll let 'em..the slivin', nibblin' little nuisances. |