[f. EAT v. + -ING1.]
1. The action or habit of taking food.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 19. Þe licome luuað muchele slauðe and muchele etinge and drunkunge.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 37. Sume men ladeð here lif on etinge and on drinkinge alse swin.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 66. Hous of etynge. Ibid., III. 410. Ffor gostily eetynge of Cristis owne body.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, 22. Ther was gret noyse betwene the man and hys wiff for etinge of the ele.
1528. Paynell, Salerne Regim., E. They that haue a putrified feuer, are forbyden eatynge of mylke.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 296. If I be aliue, and your minde hold, and your Dinner worth the eating.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xli. 264. By eating at Christs table, is meant the eating of the Tree of Life.
1755. Smollett, Quix., I. 288. The proof of the pudding, is in the eating of it.
1884. Ruskin, in Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Oct., 6/1. You have … kickshaws instead of beef for your eating.
b. An act of taking food; a meal. Also a way or manner of feeding. arch.
1483. Cath. Angl., 118. An Etynge, commestio, edilis.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxxvii. 29. Be not gredy in euery eatynge.
1608. Hieron, Wks., I. 691. Taking heed to our selues in our eatings, in our apparrell, in our companie, in our recreations.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., I. iv. 77. Marvelling at their eatings, their faces, and at the prodigious jumps they took.
1873. Lytton, K. Chillingly, III. v. (1878), 188. Epochs are signalised by their eatings.
c. Good, etc., eating: said of an article of food.
1763. Mrs. Harris, in Priv. Lett. 1st Ld. Malmesbury, I. 93. Whitebait … are really very good eating.
1781. Phil. Trans., LXXI. 169, note. White Ants … are most delicious and delicate eating.
1871. Gd. Words, 720. A … fish, weighing from half-a-pound to two pounds, and excellent eating.
2. Corrosion; disintegration by a chemical agent.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 1. The extraordinary Eating and Corroding of their Rudder-Irons and Bolts.
3. attrib. and Comb., as eating-apple, -parlour, etc. Also EATING-HOUSE, -ROOM.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 143. Etynge appulle tre, esculus.
1483. Cath. Angl., 118. An Etynge place, pransorium.
1509. Fisher, Fun. Serm. Marg. C’tesse Richmonde (1708), 12. The hour of dyner … of the Etynge day was ten of the Cloke, and upon the fastynge day, Eleven.
1535. Coverdale, Ruth ii. 12. Whan it is eatinge tyme, come hither, and eate of the bred.
1622. Massinger, etc. Old Law, III. i. I shall have but six weeks of Lent … & then comes eating-tide.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 12. Nothing comes amisse. Let any come in the shape of fodder or eating-stuffe, it is welcome.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (ed. 3), I. 254. The said Man-eating Occasions.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneers, vii. 108. The remainder of the party withdrew to an eating parlour.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., viii. (1876), 172. The elevatory movement, and the eating-back power of the sea.
1853. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, III. II. 86. They went in procession to the eating-hall.
