[f. LICK v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. LICK; the action of passing the tongue over something, of fashioning into shape, etc.; † also, the action of daubing or smearing the face with paint.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 435. Bestes … among hem self þey useþ cusses and likkynge and strokynge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 305/1. Lykky[n]ge of howndys, or other beasts, lictus.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par., Ded. 2. What costly deckyng, lyckinge, censinge, and worshipping of ymages.
1623. Bp. Hall, Serm., v. 154. It scorneth to woo favour with farding and licking and counterfeisance.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, III. xcv. 363. By the daily licking of his rankling wounds with the tongue of lady Elenor his wife, he is said to be cured.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 27. Besides the licking of his own fingers, he [Dudley] got the King a masse of riches.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Sel. Th., § 13. Jezebel, for all her licking, is cast out of the window and trodden to dirt in the streets.
1737. Fielding, Hist. Reg., III. Wks. 1882, X. 227. Shakespeare was a pretty fellow, and said some things which only want a little of my licking to do well enough.
Mod. He is somewhat uncouth; he wants licking into shape.
b. concr. in pl. (See quot.)
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 207. Coarse broad salt; exported for the fisheries…. Pickings, or cattle lickings.
2. colloq. A beating, thrashing. lit. and fig.
1756. Toldervy, Hist. 2 Orphans, II. 151. I gave him such a licking, I question whether he didn’t carry some of the bruises with’n to the grave.
1780. in F. Moore, Songs & Ball. Amer. Rev. (1856), 307. The fray assum’d, the generals thought. The color of a lickin’.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), III. xiii. Obliged to take a severe licking from a boy twice as big … as yourself.
1818. Keats, Lett., Wks. 1889, III. 115. He praised Thomson and Cowper, but he gave Crabbe a most unmerciful licking.
1831. Palmerston, 29 May, in H. L. Bulwer, Life, II. VIII. 81. The moment they [the Belgians] stir a step to attack Holland, they will get a most exemplary licking.
1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, ix. (1889), 74. The power to take a licking is better worth having than the power to administer one.
3. attrib., as licking-bout; † licking-medicine, an electuary; licking-place U.S. = LICK sb. 2; so licking-pond.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. lxxxv. 137. This rosted … Onion … is used in a licking medicine against an old rotten cough.
1652. Culpepper, Eng. Physitian, 73. The juyce [of Liquoris] dissolved in Rose-water with some Gum-Tragacanth is a fine licking Medicine for Hoarceness, Wheesings, &c.
1751. J. Bartram, Observ. Trav. Pennsylv., etc. 27. The back parts of our country are full of these licking [printed liching] ponds; some are … of pale clay, the deer … are fond of licking this clay. Ibid., 68. We … travelled along a rich hill side,… then down to a Licking-place.
1762. P. Collinson, in W. Darlington, Mem. (1849), 238. Their bones or skeletons are now standing in a licking-place, not far from the Ohio.
1775. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, Let. to Mr. Crisp, Dec. Times are much alter’d since I gave him such a thorough licking-bout at back gammon.
