[f. FORM v.1 + -ING1.] The action of the vb. FORM; the fact or process of being formed.
1401. [see FORMER sb.1 2].
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), II. iv. Syth that man in hys fyrste fourmynge of God was sette in his free wyl and had free chesynge whether he wolde haue fully god or no.
1530. Palsgr., Introd. 17. At theyr fyrst formyng [they] open theyr mowth.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxviii. 165. The forming of mens wils to the observation of the Law.
a. 1856. H. Miller, Notes on Fossils, in Footpr. Creat. (1861), 326. I have to deal with the oldest of the vertebrate existences of whose mechanism we can know anything positive, our knowledge is but in the forming, and still very incomplete.
