vbl. sb. [f. FELT v. + -ING1.]
1. The action or process of making felt.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 109. Beside Wool, for the supply of the Cloathing trade and Felting.
1806. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., IV. 772/1. Felting is a much simpler process than weaving.
1844. J. Rennie, Bird Archit., 207. The goldfinch is more neat in the execution of its felting than the chaffinch.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 261. Felting is a process by which the different kinds of hair and wool are interlaced or intertwined.
2. concr. Felted cloth.
1849. Florist, 32. A paper-manufacturer presented us with some felting.
1891. Pall Mall G., 22 Oct., 2/2. Protected from the intense cold … by double windows and felting.
3. attrib.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 34. Such a valuable property in wool as the felting quality, must greatly have increased the value of every kind of hair which was found to possess it; and by promoting the comforts of society, it contributed to the amelioration of the fleece.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 101. The felting quality of wool is owing to the rough nature of the surface of its filaments.
1859. Sala, Gas-light & D., 98. His dressing-case (in the shape of a felting comb with all the back teeth knocked out) is in his pocket.
