[f. as prec. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FASHION; an instance of this.
1580. Baret, Alv., F 161. A fashioning of a thing, formatura.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 399. If the worke and prouidence of God be wonderfull in the conception and fashioning of man, and in the life and preseruation he affordeth him in his Mothers belly, as we haue shewed heretofore, sure it is no lesse admirable in his natiuity & birth as we may now vnderstand.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol. (1617), 673. Earnest exhortations … for my better fashioning unto good correspondence and agreement.
a. 1628. J. Preston, New Covt. (1634), 337. It is that, which is the inward fashioning of euery mans apprehension, that makes him happy, that brings comfort to him.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia (Arb.), 35. Art and Nature had spent their excellencies in his fashioning.
1861. W. F. Collier, Hist. Eng, Lit., 141. Adding to his [John Shakspere’s] other occupations the occasional dressing of leather and fashioning of gloves.
1884. Littell’s Living Age, CLXI. 67. A mind that ruled the fingers’ fashionings.
attrib. 1847. Emerson, Poems, Monadnoc, Wks. (Bohn), I. 435.
| And the country’s flinty face, | |
| Like wax their fashioning skill betrays. |
b. spec. (See quot.) Also attrib., as fashioning-needle, -point.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Fashioning-needle. (Knitting-machine.) One of the pins or fingers employed to take loops from certain of the bearded needles and transfer them to others for widening or narrowing the work.
1892. Labour Commission, Gloss., Fashioning, the process of shaping the stocking-leg and foot, also the shirt-sleeve and pant-leg, and back. This is done by hand by means of small points with which some of the loops are removed to narrow the stocking or pant at the ankle…. In the steam-work these fashioning points are forced through the material by pressure.
2. Style in which a thing is fashioned. Also concr.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 81. Course above course of stones of Norman fashioning.
1885. S. O. Jewett, A Marsh Island, xiv. A fair young girl of out-door growth and flower-like fashioning.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xl. 261. Beehives of a rude fashioning.
1890. Miss S. J. Duncan, Social Departure, 412. Rich fashionings in wood and precious metals.
† 3. The action or habit of following fashions (of dress). Obs. rare–1.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 173. As much Pride might be in affected Gravity, as in changeable fashioning.
