▪ I. † nutting, n. Obs. rare—1.
(See quot.)
| 1606 Wily Beguiled C iv b, Sweet Pegge.., comely Pegge, my nutting, my sweeting, my Love, my Doue. |
▪ II. ˈnutting, vbl. n.
[f. nut v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of gathering nuts.
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 50 Manage it how you may, nutting is scrambling work. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. i. 2 Who would often leave off their nutting or bird's-nesting to peep in at the window of the stone cottage. 1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 615/2 Ozias found Prudy doing anything but nutting. |
2. slang. See nut v. 3 b.
3. attrib., as nutting-crook, nutting-stick, nutting-time, etc.
| 1723 Case of Edw. Collins 8 In nutting-time..he spent the Sundays..in his woods. 1799 Wordsw. Nutting 7 A nutting-crook in hand. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 350 Let no one make his nutting-stick like a pastoral staff. 1867 Englishwom. Dom. Mag. Sept. 475 Nutting day is still kept up as a rural holiday in September. 1873 ‘Susan Coolidge’ What Katy Did at Sch. x. 174 The other day we had a nutting picnic. |
▪ III. ˈnutting, ppl. a.
[Cf. prec.]
Nut-gathering.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 88 Now a scene of rural glee, With many a nutting swain and maid. |