vbl. sb. [f. LEAVE v. + -ING2.]
1. The action of the vb. LEAVE in various senses. Also in Comb. with advs, as leaving-off.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 350. For leevyng of dedis of charite shulde he noþing be blamed.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, 38. And yet yf he lefte yt vnsayde he shulde synne more greuosly, what shall he then do syth he synneth bothe in the doyng & in the leueynge.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 27 b. Not carnally vnderstandynge this rewarde, for than, for the leuyng of one wyfe thou sholdest haue an hondred wyues.
1539. Tonstall, Serm. Palm Sund. (1823), 97. To the Thessalonicense he writeth … Pray without any day leauynge of.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 27. Never … suffer them to begin their Scaffings in the morning, but before their leaving of their work.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. iv. (1840), 85. They … went in by ways of their own leaving.
1834. Sir W. Napier, Penins. War, XIV. iv. (Rtldg.), II. 250. His leaving of Mr. Stuart without instructions.
1861. Trench, 7 Ch. Asia, 77. The suggestion that this leaving of the first love can refer to the abating of any other love.
2. concr. † a. sing. What is left; remainder, residue, remains.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Cant. 496. I soght þe lefynge of my ȝeris.
c. 1425. Crafte of Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.), 18. Medye þat þe quych leues after þe takyinge away of þat þat is odde, þe quych leuynge schalle be 3.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xlviii. 468. To aleyn token they Ageyn the leveng Of that fisch In Certeyn.
1596. B. Griffin, Fidessa (1876), 35. I am no leauing of al-withering age.
b. pl. in the same sense (Cf. L. reliquiæ, which the Eng. word often translates in early examples.)
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xvi. 16. Þai left þaire leuyngis till þaire smale.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 97. Off the levenges of whiche cite, after the seyenge of Seynte Ierom, ij. cities were made in Persida.
1526. Tindale, Mark viii. 20. Howe many baskettes of the leavinges of broken meate toke ye up.
1552. Huloet, Leuynges or thinges left, reliquiæ.
1555–8. Phaër, Æneid, II. F iv. The leauinges of Achilles wyld.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Fanfreluches, riffe raffe, the leauings or shreds of any thing.
1611. Middleton & Dekker, Roaring Girl, III. ii. To dine on my scraps, my leavings.
1646. Jenkyn, Remora, 28. Shall God have Satans leavings?
1672. Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. i. Dram. Wks. (1725), 34. Now you have but the Leavings of my Will.
1686. Horneck, Crucif. Jesus, v. 72. The poorer sort … carried the leavings or fragments home.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 215. Truly, she’d have none of Polly’s Leavings; no, not she!
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Art, II. 74. The student should make it a rule to save the leavings of his colours.
1834. Macaulay, Biog., Pitt (1866), 178. He gave only the leavings of his time and the dregs of his fine intellect.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., 5. His master let him have a pull at the leavings of his beer.
1867. M. Arnold, Sonn. Immortality, Poems 1877, I. 262. And will not, then, the immortal armies scorn The world’s poor routed leavings?
1884. Graphic, 23 Aug., 207/2. Their leavings—what they did not touch—made a luxurious supper for all my waiters.
† c. Leaving out: what has been left out, omitted matter. Obs.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxii. ¶ 8. He may perhaps get a small word … into the foregoing Line; and … another … in the following Line, which if his Leaving out is not much, may Get it in.
3. attrib., esp. in the sense of leaving school or college, as in leaving certificate, examination; leaving-book, (at Eton) a book presented by friends on the occasion of one’s ‘leaving.’ Also leaving-shop (slang), an unlicensed pawnshop.
1878. Symonds, Shelley, 15. Hogg says that his Oxford rooms were full of handsome *leaving books, and that he was frequently visited by old Etonian acquaintances.
1879. Mem. Cath. & Crauford Tait, 483. His popularity at Eton was attested by the exceptionally large number of leaving-books he got from his friends.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 26 Sept., 4/1. No German or Saxon can enter the mining School at Freiberg … unless he have obtained a *leaving certificate at a gymnasium or a first-class Real School.
1892. Daily News, 30 June, 5/3. The Leaving Certificate Examination.
1893. Athenæum, 21 Oct., 555/2. For all schools a common *leaving examination.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. xii. Upon the smallest of small scales, she was an unlicensed pawnbroker, keeping what was popularly called a *Leaving Shop, by lending insignificant sums on insignificant articles of property deposited with her as security.
1888. Spectator, 7 July, 942. The ‘leaving-shop,’ or illicit pawnbroker, almost frustrates attempts at protective legislation for the poor.
