[f. WISH v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb WISH; desire; sometimes spec. † (a) evil desire, concupiscence; (b) imprecation.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 179. Ne wrec þu þe mid wussinge ne mid warienge.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 334. Golsipe and ȝiscing, ȝiuernesse and wissing.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 319. He set the herte in jeupartie With wihssinge and with fantasie.
c. 1500. Melusine, 177. Our desyre and wysshyng is brought to effect.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. lxxviii. [lxxiv.] 90 b/1. Theyr horses serued them at theyr wysshyng.
1590. Stockwood, Rules Constr., 3. Some aduerbe of wishing, as vtinam.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 329. I cannot be a man with wishing, therfore I will die a woman with grieuing.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 71. Wishing, of all employments, is the worst.
1842. Newman, Par. Serm., VI. xii. 154. Wishing will not serve instead of coming.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, 11, 264. The power of obtaining anything by wishing.
b. An instance of this, a wish; formerly sometimes passing into the sense ‘a request, petition’: cf. WISH sb.1 2, v. 5.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 90. In wedes and in wisshynges and with ydel thouȝtes.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 6231. My desyr & my wysshynges Resten fully in thys thynges.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par., Pref. to Edw. VI., a ij. Our daily wysshinges and praiers.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, I. (1577), F v b. A wishing for that hee thought he had not.
1648. Fanshawe, Il Pastor Fido, II. iv. 64. They … Who not with wishings onely seek her favour.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 191. Such were these earnest Wishings.
1877. Meredith, Gen. Ople, viii. Our young barbarians … interest us in their wishings, their weepings, and that fine performance, their kissings.
† c. Wishing(s and woulding(s: see WOULDING.
d. attrib. and Comb. in many designations of objects supposed to be capable of magically conferring the fulfilment of one’s wishes, as wishing-bone (= wish-bone, WISH sb.1 4), -cap, -gate, -hat, -purse, -rod, -stone, -tree, -well.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), *Wishing-Bone.
1600. Dekker, Old Fortunatus, E 4 b. Hauing this mint [sc. the purse] about me, I shall want no *wishing Cap.
a. 1674. Traherne, Chr. Ethics (1675), 436. The fools wishing cap and the philosophers stone are but trifles.
1825. Scott, Jrnl., 27 Dec. I have worn a wishing-cap, the power of which has been to divert present griefs.
1828. Wordsw., Wishing-gate, 18. The rustic *Wishing-gate.
1600. Dekker, Old Fortunatus, H 1. Ile steale his *wishing Hat.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., VI. i. III. 396. The *wishing purse in his hand.
1890. Lettsom, Fall Nibelungers, mclx. 197.
| And there among was lying the *wishing-rod of gold, | |
| Which whoso could discover, might in subjection hold. |
1908. Daily Chron., 20 Oct., 1/3. A *wishing-stone.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1922), 22. That she might have the first possession of the *wishing tree.
1792. J. Moore, Monast. Rem., 2. The *wishing wells still remain.
1891. Atkinson, Moorland Par., 235. One of these now unsuspected … wishing-wells or hâlikelds.
