1. The action or practice of doing good; virtuous life and behavior.
1414. Brampton, Penit. Ps. (Percy Soc.), 62. Slownes is a cursid thing: For it is evere weri of weel doyng.
c. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, 3. Ladies … that … were … honoured … for her wel-doinge and goodnes.
1526. Tindale, 2 Thess. iii. 13. Brethren be not weary in well doynge.
1574. Hake, Touchstone, E 1 b. Of sinne commeth death: Of wel doing commeth life.
1663. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xv. (1687), 128. He suffered for well doing, and we for ill.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iii. Wks. 1874, I. 59. We are so made, that well-doing as such gives us satisfaction.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xiv. Laugh at your ain toom pouches—it will be lang or your weel-doing fill them.
1883. Whitelaw, Sophocles, Antigone, 703. Welldoing and fair fame of sire to son, Of son to sire, is noblest ornament.
† b. Valor, martial prowess. Obs.
c. 1450. Merlin, xxvii. 550. But the cristin ne myght but litill space endure, ne hadde be the well doinge of the v knyghtes of the reame of logres.
c. pl. Good deeds or actions.
1552. Latimer, Serm., 1st Sund. Epiph. (1584), 300 b. Seeing wee shall haue no rewarde for our well doynges.
2. Thriving condition; health, prosperity, welfare, success.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. x. 120. In hope of weldoing, and of getting agayn the double of thy lesing.
1557. Q. Mary, in Mary A. E. Wood, Lett. Roy. Ladies (1846), III. 313. The lady Latimer, who, of a natural and motherly affection, doth tender the well-doing of her said daughter, hath been of late an humble suitor unto us for our letter, desiring [etc.].
1579. Manutius’ Phrases Lat. (1595), 154. Your welfare and weldoing reioyceth me as much as mine owne.
1625. Ld. Mountagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 262. We are glad to hear of your well doing.
1659. B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 215. He began to make head again, and was in a way of well-doing, when he received the Kings command to disband.
1763. Mills, Syst. Pract. Husb., II. 415. For … the increase and well-doing of the plants.
1800. Wordsw., Michael, 432. A good report did from their Kinsman come, Of Luke and his well-doing.
1854. Poultry Chron., II. 338. Houses … for fatting wild fowl,… whose well-doing was so considered, that [etc.].
1924. Rose Macaulay, Orphan Island, ix. 93. ‘Two hundred and sixty-two. Our ten [children] have done well.’… ‘They certainly … seem to have had a fairly large allowance of descendants apiece, if that is well-doing.’
