vbl. sb. also 4 abasshyng; and in Northern writers, 5– abaysing, abaisyng, abasing; not to be confounded with ABASING. [f. ABASH v. + -ING1.] The act of confounding, or putting to dismay; the state of confusion, dismay, or astonishment; abashment. Now mostly gerundial.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boethius, IV. 1. Certes, quoth she, that were a great maruayle, and an abashinge without end.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 573. Thre sper-lynth, I trow weill mycht be Betuix thame, quhen sic abasing Tuk thame.
1404. H. Sharisbrook, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 10. I. 30. A gret abayschynge to oure enmyes.
c. 1425. Wyntown, Cron., VIII. xxxvii. 77. Ðai suld noucht have had abaysyng. Ibid., IX. i. 66. Rycht airly in til þe dawing He stoutly come but abaisyng And til the Castelle set a stale, And syne gert bryn wp þe Town hale.
a. 1564. Becon, Demands of Script., in Prayers, etc. (1844), 604. The amazing, dread, and abashing of the mind that the wicked men have of the wrath of God.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. French Tong., Effray, or effroy, feare, astonying, abashing, amasing.
