[f. prec. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. CHURN; esp. the agitating of milk or cream to produce butter.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 76. Chyrnynge, cumbiacio.
1611. Bible, Prov. xxx. 33. Surely the churning of milke bringeth forth butter.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 992. The Comming of Butter after the Cherming.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 69. Hetty’s in the middle o’ making the butter, for the churning was thrown late.
1883. Black, Shandon Bells, III. vi. 146. The throbbing and puffing and churning came to a sudden end.
2. The quantity of butter produced at a churning.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Sept., 2/1. Salt is added in a haphazard fashion. The churnings are then mixed together and sent to the market.
3. attrib., as churning-staff, -stick, -tub.
1767. Percival, Peruvian Bark, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 229. A vessel, to which a churning staff is fitted.
1840. H. H. Wilson, trans. Vishṅu-puráṅa (1864), I. 142. Taking the Mountain Mandara for the churning-stick … churn the ocean together for ambrosia.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong. Baratte, a charning tub, or charne.
