[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That fattens, a. That makes fat. b. That grows fat.

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  a.  1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 119.

        Yet sprinkle sordid Ashes all around,
And load with fat’ning Dung thy fallow Ground.

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1866.  B. Taylor, Poems, Mon-da-Min, xliii. 255.

        That in a little while a folded plume
Pushed timidly the covering soil aside,
And, fed by fattening rains, took broader room,
Until it grew a stalk, and rustled wide
Its leafy garments, lifting in the air
Its tasselled top, and knots of silky hair.

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1876.  Foster, Phys., II. v. (1879), 395. Sugar or starch … is always a large constituent of ordinary fattening foods.

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  b.  1697.  Dryden, Virg. Pastorals, VI. 5.

        Apollo check’d my Pride, and bad me feed
My fatning Flocks, nor dare beyond the Reed.

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1790–1811.  Coombe, Devil upon Two Sticks (1817), VI. 185. An occasional sermon for the service of fattening ignorance, or idle opulence.

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1804.  Earl Lauderd., Publ. Wealth (1819), 178. Cattle and sheep of a peculiar fattening kind.

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