1. intr. To put forth leaves or foliage. Also to leaf out (U.S.).
1611. Cotgr., Fueiller, to leafe; or leaue; to beare, or bring forth leaues.
1695. Evelyn, Diary, 21 April. The Spring begins to appeare, yet the trees hardly leaf’d.
1759. B. Stillingfl., Cal. Flora, Pref., Misc. Tracts (1762), 233. I marked the day of the month on which certain trees leafed.
1837. Lowell, Lett. (1894), I. i. 19. The gooseberry bushes are beginning to leaf out.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 19. Now leaf the woods.
1861. Delamer, Fl. Gard., 24. By making the bulbs leaf in a reserved ground.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., xi. (1885), 286. There it stood … leafing out hopefully in April.
2. trans. To cover with foliage. poet. rare.
1849. W. C. Bennett, in Tait’s Mag., XVI. 670/1. Up the wood that leafs the hill-side.
b. To shade (a plant) with leafage.
1846. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VII. II. 592. The requisites [of the pea] are early ripening, short and delicate bine, which will not leaf or house the turnips too much.
3. a. To turn or turn over (the leaves of a book). Now U.S. b. To number (a leaf of a book).
1663. Sir G. Mackenzie, Relig. Stoic, xvi. (1685), 147. Children who love to leaf over talidouce pictures.
1875. F. J. Furnivall, in Thynne’s Animadv., p. xlii. Q q iii is leaft or folio’d Fo. CC. xix.
1888. Advance (Chicago), 9 Aug. This man in front of me who is leafing the hymn-book.
Hence Leafing vbl. sb., a. the putting forth of leaves; b. leaf-painting, leafage (rare); Leafing ppl. a., that puts forth leaves.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. vii. (1611), 104. A liuely power of growing, budding, leafing, blossoming and fructifying.
1759. B. Stillingfl., Cal. Flora, Pref., Misc. Tracts (1762), 233. The leafing, flowering, &c. of … plants.
1815. L. Simond, Tour Gt. Brit. (1817), II. 190. Glover is a very good paysagiste, but his leafing is too spotty.
a. 1851. Moir, Child’s Burial in Spring, ii. Poet. Wks. 1852, I. 117. The birds sang forth from many a leafing tree.
1868. Darwin, Anim. & Pl., I. x. 354. The periods of leafing and flowering differ.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 412. Carex aquatilis … sheaths all leafing, not filamentous.
