[f. FILL v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. in various senses. Also with advbs., as filling in, out, up: cf. FILL v. V. Only gerundial.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 160/2. Fyllynge, implecio.
1486. Nottingham Rec., III. 253. Fullyng vp of þe dyke.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Remplissement, a filling.
a. 1610. Healey, Cebes (1636), 147. For like vnto beasts, they are all for the belly, and imagine the filling of that the full fruite of all their expected good.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 209. This Wall being made all round, you begin the Filling in of the Bottom.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 38 b. One thing is proper … for the outward Face of the Wall, another for the cramming and filling up the middle Parts.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 114. The interior filling of the walls was with rough Rubble.
1816. Chalmers, Lett., in Life (1851), II. 31. Do study such a filling up of the time as will keep you away from the evil communications of a world in wickedness.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind. (1886), 190. He [Carlyle] seems a little wearied, here and there, in his Friedrich, with the multiplicity of detail, and does his filling-in rather shabbily; but he still remains in his own way, like his hero, the Only, and such episodes as that of Voltaire would make the fortune of any other writer.
1884. Birm. Daily Post, 23 Feb., 3/4. Wanted, several Boys, used to Filling-in and Finishing.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., Box Filling, the filling up of a moulding box with its body of sand enclosing a pattern.
2. concr. Also pl. That which fills or is used to fill a cavity or vacant space, to stop a hole, to make up a bank or road, the interior of a wall, etc. Also, † a full supply or ‘fill’ (of food, etc.).
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4265. Þat is þe filling of fode þat ilk flesch askis.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. xix. (1869), 185. We hadden many goode vesselles in whiche we hadden put fillinge [emplage] of the grete tresores of Paradys.
1596–7. S. Finche, in Hist. Croydon, App. (1783), 153. Great flinte and chalke for the buildinge, and small for fillinge.
1611. Bible, Ex. xxviii. 17. Thou shalt set in it settings [marg. fill in it fillings] of stones.
1640. Sanderson, Serm., II. 174. Binding them [the stones] with fillings and cement.
1641. H. Best, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641 (Surtees), 59. The foreman to lye the courses [of hay]; another to lye the fillinge and to fill after him.
1776. G. Semple, A Treatise on Building in Water, 119. The Bank of any common filling.
1830. J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1858), II. 174. Dalley Castle is of strong masonry, as far as it remains, which I apprehend is nothing more than a few feet of the fillings of its foundation walls.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. xviii. § 1. The fillings of the aperture are unimportant.
1878. L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 74. Occasionally, through indiscreet use of the mallet, the enamel at the margin of the filling is fractured and subsequently disintegrates.
1892. Daily News, 17 Nov., 3/3. The excavated material will form good ‘filling.’
b. Something of inferior quality put in to occupy space.
1640. Fuller, Joseph’s Party-coloured Coat, vii. (1867) 176. Heralds account the plainest coats the most ancient, better than those of a later edition, which are so full of filling that they are empty of honour.
1733. Swift, On Poetry.
| Read all the prefaces of Dryden, | |
| For these our critics much confide in; | |
| Though meerly writ at first for filling, | |
| To raise the volume’s price a shilling. |
1737. Bentley, Remarks Disc. Free-thinking, III. 6. § 54. Why that spiteful Character given to all Crowds? meer Fillings of his own, without warrant from his Original.
1860. Wornum, Anal. Ornament, 19. All such superficial decoration is very simple: it is, in fact, as the paper-stainers expressively term it, mere filling, as it involves no scheming.
1887. Pall Mall G., 25 June, 12/1. The practice of putting into higher class goods … even the smallest quantity of filling.
3. Similarly in various technical uses (see quots.).
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Fillings, a brewer’s term for prepared wort, added in small quantities to casks of ale to cleanse it.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 844/1. Filling. (Railroading.) An embankment of stone, gravel, earth, etc., to make a raised bed for a road, railroad track, or canal. An artificial, elevated way. Ibid., I. 844/2. Filling. (Weaving.) The weft-thread which fills up the warp, being introduced by the shuttle and beaten up by the batten or lathe.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Receipts, Ser. II. 439/1. For this coat, which is called filling, use one half ground lead and any good mineral which experience has shown can be relied on.
b. Naut. (See quots.)
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 24. Fillings are pieces fayed to the side of the mast, edges of the front-fish, and cheeks.
1857. P. Colquhoun, Comp. Oarsman’s Guide, 30. The oar or scull is ‘filled’ with harder wood between the shank and loom, called the upper and under fillings.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 67. What is termed the ‘filling’? From the keel to the light waterline, the intervals between the frame timbers are filled up solid, with well seasoned wood, which is brought nearly flush with the timbers, and caulked, so that if the outside planks be injured a watertight surface would remain.
4. attrib. and Comb., as filling-earth, -machine, -room, -stones. Also filling-nail (see quot. 1850 and quot. 1867 s.v. FILL v. 1 d); filling-thread, one of the threads for the woof or tram; filling-timber (see quot.); filling-transom (see quot.).
1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Chirurg., 1165. When they were seen to bee so hurt that there was no hope of curing, their fellowes stript them and put them yet alive, in the Mines, which served them for so much *filling earth.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal. 110/2. Meat Cutting and Sausage-Making Machines … *Filling Machines.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), VI. 1945. Some expert swimmers were one day detected under the ships, drawing out the *filling nails from the sheathing.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 134. Filling nails are generally of cast iron, and driven very thick in the bottom planks instead of copper sheathing.
1799. Capt. Watkins, in Naval Chron., I. 206. It was impossible to fill cartridges as fast as they wanted them, though the *filling rooms were crouded.
1585. Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 202. The *filling stones, rubbish conueyed betwene the two outsides of a wall, inn the middest thereof.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, I. xiii. (1647), 20. Hungary might bring filling-stones to this building. Ibid. (1642), Holy & Prof. St., II. xviii. 116. Their walls though high, must needs be hollow, wanting filling-stones.
1886. Pop. Sc. Monthly, XXVIII. 483. To make one yard of cloth, a shuttle carrying the *filling-thread is thrown across the web perhaps 1,500 times.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 118. *Filling-timbers. The intermediate timbers between the frames that are got up into their places singly after the frames are ribanded and shored.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Filling-transom, is just above the deck transoms, securing the ends of the gun-deck plank and lower-transoms.
