[f. BREAK v. + -ING1.] The action of the vb. BREAK.
1. in transitive senses.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., Luke xxiv. 35. On brecunge breodes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8044 (Gött.). Widuten breking of any bow. Ibid. (1382), Sel. Wks., III. 521. Cristis disciplis knewen him in brekynge of þe breed.
1514. in Glasscock, Rec. St. Michael’s Bp. Stortford (1882), 33. For brekyng of Ground in the cherche at the buryyng of her husband.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., xviii. § 1. Spinninge, cardinge, breakinge, and sorting of wolles.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 258. Euery poore scholler … cals it the breaking of Priscians head.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. i. 74. Breake any breaking here, and Ile breake your knaues pate.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. 202. Burnings, crucifixions, breakings upon the wheel.
1813. Examiner, 18 Jan., 42/2. A breaking of windows on the ground-floor.
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, I. I. iv. 37. ‘Much blood, little breaking,’ is a maxim with which every sportsman is familiar.
b. with an adverb: see the vb.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 270. No breaking off of olde sinnes.
1610. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. For breacking owt of a tre.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxiii. 226. Dodo … was now getting his breaking in, at the hands of his young master.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., II. i. 77. A general breaking-open of the prisons.
1868. W. Collins, Moonst. (1871), 234. The breaking-off of the engagement.
2. in intransitive senses.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 74. Pref. The difference betwixt downright breaking and craving time of their creditors.
1662. Gerbier, Princ., 39. A noise of breaking of their Waves on the Shoar.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), xiii. The breaking of the sea upon their ship. Ibid. (1727), Eng. Tradesm., vii. (1841), I. 47. Breaking is the death of a tradesman.
1874. Black, Pr. Thule, 8. The breaking of the waves along the hard coast.
b. with an adverb.
1535. Coverdale, Job xxx. 14. Ye breakynge in of waters.
1563. Homilies, II. Disobedience, I. (1859), 551. The breach of obedience and breaking in of rebellion.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 39, ¶ 5. Abrupt Pauses and Breakings-off in the middle of a Verse.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), iii. My breaking away from my parents.
3. Breaking of the day: daybreak, dawn.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xviii. 25. In the brekyng of the daye ii. trompettis of Scotland mette with the Englisshe scout-watche.
1611. Bible, Gen. xxxii. 24. There wrestled a man with him, vntill the breaking of the day.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Würtz’ Surg., II. xviii. 128. At mornings near the breaking of the day they are most pained.
† 4. A breach or gap. Obs.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cv[i]. 23. He suld am have for-lorn; If noght Moises … Had standen in brekinge in his sight.
1676. Moxon, Print Letters, 24. The Breakings and Wants in the Arches you must work in by hand.
5. A piece of land newly broken up. (U.S.)
1883. Pamphlet Jamestown (Dakota) Board of Tr. He earned enough besides, with what he raised on his breaking, to keep himself.
6. Breaking-out: an eruption; an outburst.
1552. Huloet, Breakyng out of chyldrens mouths called exulceration.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. III., Wks. 44. The authors of every breaking-out and sedition.
1652. French, Yorksh. Spa, xv. 115. The Scab, the Itch, the Scurff … and all such breakings out.
1783. F. Michaelis, in Med. Commun., I. 356. There appeared a breaking-out on the forehead.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxv. (1857), 544. On the breaking out of the controversy.
7. Breaking up, = BREAK-UP.
1463. Bury Wills (1850), 34. I wil that my houshold be kept hool to gedyr … vj hool wykkes aftir my dissees and at the brekyng vp I wil myn executours and they haue a good dyner to gedyr.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 195. To giue them Theams before their breaking vp at noone.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xlii. 222. Many a school-boy has done more than this for his breaking-up task.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 625. It is presumed the boy will come home at breakings-up.
1832. Nat. Philos. (U. K. S.), II. Preum. Introd. 70. The breaking-up of the monsoons is the name given by sailors to the shifting of the periodical winds.
8. attrib. as in breaking-weight; breaking-crop, the first crop on newly broken ground; breaking-frame, a machine for drawing out the slivers in spinning wool.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 181. It has occurred … for lay oats to have been made the breaking-crop.
1851. Illust. Lond. News, 4 Jan., 10. The breaking weight being 30 tons.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 1163. The slivers … are drawn out and extended by the rollers of the breaking-frame.
