[f. WONDER v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb WONDER.
a. 900. Cynewulf, Crist, 89. Hwæt is þeos wundrung þe ʓe wafiað?
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxiii. 627. Þa þa he on þære micclan his modes wundrunge þær ʓestod.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11453. Þan þai gedir þam to-gedir, And spak hir-of wit gret wondring.
1382. Wyclif, Acts iii. 10. And thei weren fulfillid with wondryng, and exstasie.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 300. Swich wondryng was ther on this hors of bras.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. lix. 139. He desiriþ … to do suche þinges wherof preisinge & wondring miȝt arise.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 44. Whan he had herd their reasons & had seen their wondringes.
a. 1500. in Kingsford, Chron. Lond. (1905), 221. Perkyn was conueyd ayen thorwth Candylwyke strete … with many a curse and wonderyng Inowth.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 181. But didst thou heare without wondering, how thy name should be hang’d and carued vpon these trees?
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, IV. 145. It may save the wondring why in this age many are so opposite both to human and to Christian liberty.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxiii. Into her mind … there had stolen solemn wonderings and hopes.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Christ., 291. The infinite wonderings of the religious life.
† 2. An object of wonder; a wonder, marvel, prodigy. Obs. rare.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., I. 4370 (Napier 114/2). Spectaculi, wundrunge, wæfersyne.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. iv. 92. Witles Discord, that woundring maist crewell.
3. attrib., as wondering food, stock (STOCK sb.1 59)
c. 1550. G. Walker, Dice-Play (Percy Soc., 1850), 36. The poor boy … continued … a wondering-stock to all the house.
1570. Foxe, A. & M., 72/2. Thus were the bodies of the Martyrs made a wondering stocke.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxxi. 7. He had … bin … counted as a wonderingstocke by reason of his miserable affliction.
1819. Keats, Otho, I. ii. 111. Let me no longer be the wondering food Of all these eyes.
