▪ I. stoning, vbl. n.
(ˈstəʊnɪŋ)
[f. stone v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb, in various senses.
1. Pelting with stones; esp. (in ancient times) as a form of capital punishment.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 19467 Quils þai him wit staning queld. c 1400 Sc. Trojan War ii. 1595 With mony bitter panes Of stanyng of hir moder schene. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 477/1 Stonynge, lapidacio. 1548 Elyot's Dict., Lapidatio, a stonyng, a hurlynge of stones. 1657 N. Billingsley Brachy-Martyrol. viii. 27 The Christians underwent all wrongs, As Scourgings, stonings. 1849 M. Arnold Sick King in Bokhara 112 They..sentenc'd him..To die by stoning. 1886 C. Bigg Chr. Platonists Alexandria iv. 117 He narrowly escaped stoning in the streets. |
2. Paving, building up, or repairing with stones. Also concr.
| 1797 J. Curr Coal Viewer 13 These roads..are laid..upon wood, (after..stoneing about ten or twelve inches thick for a foundation). 1819 [see garland n. 7]. 1867 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. III. ii. 664 At the entrances to large rivers it was sometimes necessary..to have careful stoning, because the work was frequently tested by heavy seas. |
3. Rubbing or scouring with a stone. Also attrib.
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 92/2 (Wool carding) Stoning of it [sc. the Card] is burnishing of it. 1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 387/1 In machine currying the tanned hides..are struck out in a ‘stoning’ machine. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Stoning Jack, a machine in which the jack is furnished with a stock stone to work the leather. |
4. Clearing (ground) of stones; taking the stones out (of fruit).
| 1628 Bp. Hall Fast Serm. 27 To what purpose is the fruitfulnesse, fencing, stoning, if the ground yeeld a plentiful Crop of..Weedes? 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 154 To preserve Gooseberries whole without stoning. |
5. Formation of the stone in fruit. Also attrib.
| 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 475 The setting and stoning of fruit... The fruit is thinned before and after the stoning season. Ibid. 484 When the stoning is completed and the fruit begins to swell. |
▪ II. ˈstoning, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That stones, in senses of the vb.; † petrifying.
| 1623 W. Lisle ælfric's O. & N. Test. To Rdrs. ¶4 To mould the dow of artificiall marble, and bake it in Killes for building..or tempered with clammy and stoning waters, to plaster and polish it with tooles appliable vnto all formes. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. xxxii, A man whose appearance breathed of offering her common ground, whereon to meet and speak together, unburdened by the hunting world, and by the stoneing world. |