[f. YOKE v. + -ING1.]
I. The action of YOKE v. in various senses.
1. The action of coupling draught-animals together with a yoke, or of attaching a draught-animal to a vehicle, etc.; also with up. Also attrib., as yoking-gear.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Accouplement de bœufs, a yoking of oxen.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1176. The yoking-geer of the shafts.
1881. A. C. Grant, Bush Life in Queensland, I. iv. 39. They passed camp after camp of bullock-drags, the drivers and assistants all busy in yoking up for the day.
b. concr. Harness. U.S.
1873. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 579. ‘Do your horses bear yokings?’ asked Trick…. ‘We have often used them for driving, but we have no harness,’ was the answer.
† 2. Subduing, subjugation. Obs. rare.
1604. Hieron, Wks. (1634), I. 548. The yoking and hampering, and restraining of mans naturall disposition.
3. The action of engaging in a contest; attack, onset; contest; a spell, turn, or bout of any occupation. Sc.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 177. Seuerus at the first ȝoking [orig. congressu] slewe of Albion xx thousand.
1637. Rutherford, Lett. (1862), I. cxvii. 294. Three yokings laid him by.
1785. Burns, Ep. to J. L—k, ii. At length we had a hearty yokin, At sang about.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., viii. Sitting amang the wat moss-hags for four hours at a yoking.
1882. Cupples, Mem. Mrs. Valentine, vi. 88. ‘A double yoking,’ as was the phrase for a service when two successive sermons were preached without any mid-day interval.
1883. J. Martin, Remin. Old Haddington, 203. One ‘yoking’ [of Sunday School attendance] might have been sufficient for young folk.
4. A spell of work at the plow, or with a cart, etc., done at a stretch, between the times of yoking and unyoking the beasts; locally, a day’s plowing, carting, etc.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 127. An acre was plowed at one yoking.
1787. Burns, Answ. to Gudewife, i. When I … first could thresh the barn; Or haud a yokin at the pleugh.
1811. Keith, Agric. Aberd., 500. A pair of horses can plough an English acre in three journies, or yokings, of four hours each.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., II. 124. The work horses also go two journeys or yokings in the day.
1832. Scoreby Farm Rep., 4, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. It is very general to average full two acres per day,… with a pair of light horses in two yokings of five hours each.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 691. Colts … will soon submit to work, and become harmless in the course of a few short yokings.
II. † 5. A measure of land (see quot. 1888). Obs.
1587. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc., 1893), 147. In plowyng of syx and twentye yockynge of land.
1888. Sheffield Gloss., s.v. Broad ‘lands’ in a ploughed field sixteen yards in width are called yockings. They are only made in dry flat fields. The word yoking is also applied to two ‘lands’ or ‘roods’ lying side by side in a ploughed field, the united breadth of the two ‘lands’ being from sixteen to seventeen yards.
6. Mining. (pl.) Pieces of wood joined together in a ‘grove’ or pit to prevent the earth from falling; also used in conjunction with ‘stows’ or ‘stowces’ for marking out a claim.
1653. Manlove, Lead-Mines, 14. If that the Stowes be pinned and well wrought With yokings, sole-trees.
1664. [see STOWCE].
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., T j b. In Sinking with Square Wood or Yokings.
1802. Mawe, Min. Derbysh., Gloss., Yokings, pieces of wood ascertaining possession.
