[f. WINTER v. + -ING2.] That winters, in various senses.
1. Passing the winter in a particular place: spec. of cattle, etc., that are being tended in the winter.
1803. J. C. Curwen, Feeding Stock, 55. Feeding the wintering Highland cattle with them [sc. turnips].
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Winter City, vii. The wintering-swallows had never been so fluttered.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Feb., 4/2. Competent scientific men equipped with proper instruments would be taken on board and left with the wintering party.
2. poet. used vaguely for ‘wintry.’
1855. Swinburne, Atalanta, 263. As a windy and wintering moon Seen through blown cloud. Ibid. (1876), Erechtheus, 732. Thicker set with fence of thorn-edged spears Than sands are whirled about the wintering beach.
