The action of wishing well to another; also, an expression of good wishes.
1569. Elviden, Closet of Counsels (1573), Ep. Ded. Wherefore … I haue beene bolde to offer you this same, as a token of my well wishing.
1586. A. Day, Engl. Secretorie, I. (1625), 14. Not forgetting our accustomed greetings and interchangeable wel-wishings.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 29. Hee who knowes so to live with Italians … as he can gain their well-wishing.
a. 1672. Wilkins, Nat. Relig., 326. Religion … will teach them … to be generous and large in their well-wishing and their well-doing.
1909. J. R. Harris, Side-Lights N. T. Research, ii. 78. There is much hand-shaking and well-wishing.
1911. Craik, Clarendon, xxi. II. 190. Some one, ‘who was believed to wish well to the King’—with that sort of well-wishing which characterized the time-serving of Bennet and his confederates—moved that the grant should be much smaller.
