vbl. sb. [f. LICENSE v. + -ING1.] The action of LICENSE v. in its various senses.
1588. J. Udall, Demonstr. Discip. (Arb.), 25. Licencing of wandring preachers, is contrary to the word of God.
1761. Mem. to Ld. Mayor, in Entick, London (1766), IV. 369. The licencing public-houses by the county magistrates.
1777. Parsons, Lett., in 15th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. (1896), 232. The inhabitants … dread the licensing of a theatre as an evil which they would wish to prevent.
1827. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 317. Regulations for the licensing of Alehouses.
attrib. 1825. Macaulay, Ess., Milton (1887), 28. With a view to the same great object, he attacked the licensing system.
1870. Daily News, 5 Dec., 5/3. Reformatories, and licensing bills, and trades unions, and municipal reforms.
1880. Athenæum, 18 Sept., 372/1. The multiplicity of universities and licensing boards is the greatest evil in British and Irish medicine.
