[f. LIMP v.2 + -ING2.] That limps.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. ii. 28. Well apparreld April on the heele Of limping Winter treads. Ibid. (1607), Timon, IV. i. 14. Sonne [printed Some] of sixteen, Plucke the lyn’d Crutch from thy old limping Sire.
1724. Ramsay, Vision, xix. Limpand Vulcan.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., VIII. 430. The limping smith far-famed replied.
1891. A. Welcker, Wild West, 18. They … were followed by limping,… mangy Indian dogs.
b. fig. (Cf. halting, lame.)
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 164/1. The Danes had … a lame and limping rule in this land.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. v. 195. Rude limping lines fits this lewd halting age.
1602. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 490. Nothing wrested, nothing limping: all marcheth with like tenour.
1703. Dennis, Monument, xxv. She to new Slaughter lash’d on limping Fate.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 146. To give … the vigor of an athlete to our limping wills.
1876. Spurgeon, Commenting, 113. His prophetic work has been reprinted, but not this limping poetry.
Comb. 1577. Gosson, in Kirton, Mirr. Mans Life, K vij b. A lame and lothsome lymping legged wight.
Hence Limpingly adv., Limpingness.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 826/1. Though wee goe limpingly, yet … we striue with our selues to go forward.
1611. Cotgr., Boistément, limpingly.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (1781), VI. liii. 345. Both were applauded; the time of life of the Lady, the limpingness of my Lord, considered.
1787. Beckford, Italy (1834), II. 38. Our conversation was limpingly carried on in a great variety of broken languages.
