[f. WENCH v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb: also attrib.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXV. x. II. 545. Given he was exceedingly to wenching.
c. 1620. Fletcher, False One, IV. ii. You were told what this same whorson wenching long agoe would come to.
1672. Dryden, Assignation, II. i. Love alone, is either plain wenching, where every Curtizan is your Mistriss,… or else,… plain whining after one Woman.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 383, ¶ 5. [They asked] whether he was not ashamed to go a Wenching at his Years?
1775. Sheridan, St. Patrick’s Day, II. i. Between ourselves, he is most confoundedly given to wenching.
1811. Byron, Hints fr. Horace, 706. The youth who trains … Must bear privations … Be call’d to labour when he thinks to dine, And, harder still, leave wenching and his wine.
1873. L. O. Pike, Hist. Crime, I. 93. In reality the Priest took to Money-getting and Wenching.
attrib. 1590. Tarlton’s Newes Purgatorie, 5. And some I can tell you haue come thither for wenching matters.
1592. Def. Conny-catching, in Greene’s Wks. (Grosart), XI. 62. I omit Miles the Millers coossenage for wenching affaires.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Northw. Hoe, IV. i. E 3 b. I hope you thinke my wenching daies are past.
