Obs. [app. f. ME. wurþ WORTH a. Cf. GOODING vbl. sb.] Dung; manure. Also fig., moral corruption or filth.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 85. Þet smal chef þet flid ford mid þe winde bicumeð wurþinge.
a. 1200. St. Marher., 3. Ne lettu neauer þe unhwiht warpen hire i wurðinge.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 13. Þe ilke sari wrecches þe i þe fule wurðinge vnwedde waleweð … þeos walewið i wurðinge, & forrotieð þrin.
c. 1582. in T. West, Antiq. Furness (1774), App. VIII. 3 D 4. Five hundred fudder, or wayne load, alias coupe load, of wurthinge or dung.
1591. Broomfleet Manor Roll (MS.), Item, that Thomas Waile remove his swynestye … that the worthing or fylth theirof do not corrupt the water.
1592. in Lancs. Q. Sess. Rec. (Chetham Soc.), I. 54. Eighte wayne lodes of worthinge or dounge.
1605. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 161. xxj lood of worthing for barlye…; xv loodes of worthinge, with good store of lyme in yt.
attrib. 1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 337/1. A Worthing Forke, or a Dung Fork.
1876. E. Leigh, Cheshire Gloss., Wording hook, dungfork.
