[f. WOO v. + -ING2.] That woos. a. That solicits in love; courting, as a lover; † wanton.
1382. Wyclif, Prov. vii. 13. The caȝte ȝunge man she kisseth; and with wowende [1388 wowynge] chere she flatereth.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 409. [He] ordeyned wommen to serven hem … þat semede wowynge gigelottes in cloþing, face, and semblant.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 163. Whan þou, wyth wowyng woordys, styrest oþere to þi lust, it is dedly synne.
1746. Dunkin, in Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., II. v. 11. The wooing Tribe, in Revellings employ’d, My Stores have lavish’d.
b. fig. Alluring, enticing.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. James iv. 1–6. He maye not abyde the wowynge worlde to bee loued.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 73. They … step back, or forward, in their wooeing wise.
1838. Lytton, Alice, XI. iv. The letter was most courteous, most complimentary, most wooing.
1838. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1903), 204. Each wooing Zephyr that goes, At will from flower to flower a-maying.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, II. iv. Be thou a wooing breeze.
Comb. a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 95. No Hæmus or soft Carpophorus appears More wooing-voic’d.
