[f. CROWN v.]
1. The action of placing a crown on the head; coronation.
a. 1240. Lofsong, in Cott. Hom., 207. Ich bide þe … bi þe þornene crununge.
c. 1300. Havelok, 2948. The feste of his coruning Laste … Fourti dawes.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5376. To come to the coronyng of þe kyde lord.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 253. With the crownynge [of Christ] and other turmentes.
a. 1667. Cowley, Elegy Anacreon, 52. The Pomp of Kings … At their Crownings.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. x. 513. The walls which beheld their crowning beheld also their burial.
† b. As a date: = Reign.
1258. Eng. Proclam. Hen. III. In þe twoandfowertiȝþe ȝeare of vre cruninge.
1297. R. Glouc. (1726), 440.
† 2. Tonsure. Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. I. 86. Maisters and doctors, Þat han cure vnder cryst and crownynge in tokne.
3. Consummation; completion, fulfilment.
1598. Chapman, Iliad, II. 304. Let two or three, that by themselves advise, Faint in their crowning.
1857. Heavysege, Saul (1869), 367. A Power that stands between My purpose and its crowning.
1890. Bp. Stubbs, Primary Charge, 55. They are the very crowning of the sin of schism, the forcible rending of the mystical body of the Lord.
4. Naut. (See quot.)
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine, Crowning, the finishing part of a knot made on the end of a rope. It is performed by interweaving the ends of the … strands … so as they may not become … untwisted.
5. A structure that forms the crown of anything.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Church.), III. 122/1. The … Row of Seats reaches, with its Crowning or Ornaments, to the … Roof.
6. The highest part of an arched or convex surface. Crowning in: subsidence of an overarching surface. Cf. CROWN v. 16.
1888. Daily News, 4 July, 5/2. The ‘crowning in’ or subsidence of the land is a common enough occurrence in the mining districts.
7. attrib.
1829. Southey, All for Love, IV. On the Crowning-day … A gay procession take their way.
1871. Freeman, Hist. Ess., Ser. I. viii. 211. He chose Soissons for his crowning-place.
