dial. Also yearning. [f. EARN v.2 + -ING1.]
1. The curdling of milk for cheese.
1782. A. Monro, Compar. Anat. (ed. 3), 40. It is this fourth stomach with the milk curdled in it, that is commonly taken for earning of milk.
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 31. To allow the Milk to stand an Hour, in earning, or after the Runnet is put in. Ibid., 45. A very material circumstance to be attended to in Cheese-making, is the time … when the Milk is at rest, called earning time.
2. The means of curdling milk; rennet. Also attrib., as in earning-bag, -skin. Also earning-grass = BUTTERWORT.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. vi. (1668), 149. When your Runnet or Earning is fit to be used.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., I. s.v. Cheese, Go to the Pot where the Earning Bag hangs, and take so much of the Earning … as will serve for the Proportion of Milk.
1775. J. Lightfoot, Flora Scot. (1792), II. 1131 (Jam.). Pinguicula vulgaris.… Steep-grass, Earning-grass.
1778. Fam. Acc. Bk., in E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), A calf-head and a piece of earning-skin.
1808. Eliz. Hamilton, Cottagers of Glenburnie, ix. 200. Mrs. MacClarty then took down a bottle of runnet, or yearning, as she called it.
1863. Atkinson, Danby Provinc. N. Riding Yorksh.
