[f. KNEEL v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. KNEEL; a falling down, or remaining, on the knees in worship, submission, etc.; in quot. 1631, advancing on the knees; formerly often with pl., a genuflexion.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 127. Oððer mid cnewlinge, oððer mid swinke.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 122. Þai do grete wirschepe also to þe sonne, and mase many knelinges þerto.
1509. Fisher, Fun. Serm. C’tess Richmond, Wks. (1876), 294. The blessyd Martha is commended, in orderynge of her soule to god, by often knelynges.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 202. There was … such creeping and kneeling to his Tombe.
1769. Junius Lett., xv. (1835), 72. A Court, in which prayers are morality and kneeling is religion.
1881. Miss Yonge, Lads Langley, ii. 69. The next time there was a kneeling; that is to say, when the children and Miss Dora went down on their knees, as Frank had never seen any one … except perhaps the clergyman, kneel before.
2. transf. A place or space for kneeling in a place of worship.
1587. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 105. Highest place in that form where they have been and are accustomed to be and have their kneeling.
1645. Habington, Surv. Worc., in Worc. Hist. Soc. Proc., III. 507. In the … highest windowe, under which Habington’s auncesters haue formerly had theyre kneelinge.
1852. Ecclesiologist, XIII. 309. The Chapel of the Holy Trinity, which … is also furnished with similar kneelings.
1861. Beresf. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th C., 116. Space beyond that which is required for the sittings or kneelings of the average place of worship.
3. Comb., as kneeling-cushion, -desk, -place, -stool, -support; † kneeling-rail, a rail of triangular section, to the vertical face of which the pales or boards of a fence are nailed; kneeling-sap, a mode of sapping in military engineering (see quot.).
1876. T. Hardy, Ethelberta (1890), 368. Chickerel turned towards the chancel, his eye being attracted by a red *kneeling-cushion.
1853. Dale, trans. Baldeschi’s Ceremonial, 200, note. An uncovered *kneeling-desk before the Altar.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, Thanksgiving, ii. My temple dome is Thy broad sky, my *kneeling-place Thy sod.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 217. Making and setting up of Palisado-pales (if the Heads are handsomely cut,… and the Rails, *Kneeling-rails) is worth 14s. per Rod.
1884. Mil. Engineering, I. II. 72. The mode of executing the sap … is done in two ways, called, *kneeling sap, and standing sap, from the attitude in which the leading sappers work…. In the kneeling sap it is imperative to use shields for the protection of the sappers.
1881. Young, Every Man his own Mechanic (ed. 8), 798. Carpeting of a sober pattern … for *kneeling stools in a church.
