[f. LIVE v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. LIVE in various senses; the fact of being alive; the fact of dwelling in a specified place; † the faculty or function of life; course of life; † continuance in life.
a. 1325. Prose Psalter, lxii. 4. Þy mercy is better vp lybbeinges.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr. (1866), 25. For wysely and discretely thei departed hir levynge in two. Ibid., Pr. Consc., 4130. Ful synful sal be his bygynnyng, And wonderful sal be his lyvyng. And his endying sal be sodayn.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 152. Sume of lyfinge mad na forse.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xxxix. 363 (Add. MS.). [For] the fyrste woman he gafe to the soule weyng [? read beyng] and leuyng with trees; for the second he gafe felyng with bestes [etc.].
c. 1520. Gresham, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. I. 236. God … send your Grace goode helthe and long leyffven.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 127. This long living is the true cause of their propagation.
1631. Jordan, Nat. Bathes, ii. (1669), 14. There is no living for any creature, where there is no water.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. v. (1840), 96. There would be no living for me in a cave.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. vii. (Rtldg.), 27. He was … so jealous, that there was no living for vexation at his unfounded surmises.
1861. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 20. As if living in the country would save them from attending to any of the laws of health.
1897. Daily News, 15 Nov., 5/4. This [campaigning] is ‘living,’ anyhow, in a sense in which garrison life is not.
† b. Duration of life; lifetime. Obs.
[1340. Ayenb., 73. Voryet þi body ones a day guo in-to helle ine þine libbinde þet þou ne guo ine þine steruinge.]
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 188. Sheo ne graunted him in hir lyvynge No grace.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, liii. 263. I schal preyen be my levynge [F. en mon vivant], that I … In that same Abbeye I-beryed to be.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 1076. Than war I woundir vnwis, To purchese proffit for pris, Quhare schame ay euer lyis, All my leuing.
c. 1475. Partenay, 488. That neuer, dais of your leuing,… Ye shall not enquere of me the saturday.
1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 238. She … did thence remoue, To spend her liuing in eternall loue.
c. The action of passing or conducting one’s life in a particular manner, whether with reference to moral considerations or to food and physical conditions; † manner of life. † Also, a particular (monastic) rule of life.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 205. He þat right ordir of lyfyng wil luke Suld bygyn þus.
a. 1400. Cursor M., 28943 (Cott. Galba). Þam þat has bene haueand, hend, of lifing clene.
a. 1450. Myrc, 22. For luytel ys worthy þy prechynge, Ȝef thow be of euyle lyuynge.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 3690. Demys ȝow na better in ȝour doyng Þan othir of þe same leuyng.
1485. Act 1 Hen. VII., c. 4. Priests … openly reported of incontinent living in their Bodies.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 2474. He forsoke this worlde and chaunged his lyuynge.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 53. Dissolute lyuynge, licentious talke, and such other vicious behauours.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 15. We … haue almost minde at no time to repent and amend our liuings.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. 63. Whereas all those in Egypt, though painfull in their livings, were healthfull in their lives.
1689. W. Sherlock, Death, iii. § 4 (1731), 114. There is a Living a-pace, as some call it; not to lengthen, but to shorten Life.
1743. Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 78. Our Living now is very hard.
1802. Wordsw., ‘O Friend! I know not,’ Plain living and high thinking are no more.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. i. § 36 (1875), 129. Under Socrates … Philosophy became little else than the doctrine of right living.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., ii. 23. There are huge improvements to be made … in the first requisites for decorous and beautiful living.
d. Living-in, -out: the practice of residing in or out of an employer’s premises. Also attrib., living-in or -out system.
1896. C. Booth, Life & Labour Lond., VII. 505. Index, ‘Living-in’ system.
1899. Daily News, 22 June, 9/5. The iniquities of the living-in system.
1901. Daily Chron., 15 May, 2/7. Living out … would take a great deal of responsibility from the shoulders of employers.
2. The action, process or method of gaining one’s livelihood.
1538. Starkey, England, II. i. 152. To … fynd to them some honest lyvyngs.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 55, ¶ 1. Most of the Trades, Professions, and Ways of Living among mankind.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 286. That occasional entire dependence upon personal resources which has been roughly translated as ‘living by his wits.’
1901. H. Black, Culture & Restraint, ii. 35. Men are so concerned about living that they lose sight of life.
3. The means of living; livelihood, maintenance, support; † also, an income, an endowment. Now chiefly in to earn, get, make a living.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 976 (Kölbing). A cabel … Forto drawen vp al þing, Þat nede was to her libbeing.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxi. (Clement), 122. Þat matydiane worthit ga to gat lyfing to þame twa.
1450. in Exch. Rolls Scotl., V. 425, note. We have … gevin till oure loved Patrik Lyndesay five markes till his living yerly.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VII. 897. Rycht wichtly wan his lewyng in to wer.
1495. Act 12 Hen. VII., c. 6. Woollen Cloth … by making whereof … the poor People have most universally their Living.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 250. Gawine Dounbar … biggit ane brig, ouir Dee,… and foundit ane yeirly leving, to sustene the same.
1550. Crowley, Last Trumpet, 493. If thou have any lyveyng So that thou nede not to laboure; Se thou apply the to learnynge.
1611. Bible, Mark xii. 44. She … did cast in all that she had, euen all her liuing.
1632. Quarles, Div. Fancies, III. lxxxii. (1660), 134. Instead of giving Encrease to her revenues, make a living Upon her ruins.
1724. Lond. Gaz., No. 6306/3. Sometimes plays on the Violin for a living.
1764. Burn, Poor Laws, 150. No person will have need to beg or steal; because he may gain his living better by working.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, iii. (1861), 52. Society is barbarous, until every industrious man can get his living without dishonest customs.
1868. Helps, Realmah, xvii. (1876), 472. He cannot make a living out of it, if [etc.].
1883. Sir J. Bacon, in Law Times Rep., 1 March (1884), 9/2. The son … earns his living as a licensed victualler.
b. † Also in narrower sense: Food; pl. Victuals (obs.).
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xx. (Blasius), 39. Quhare vthyre lyfynge had he nocht bot as þe foulis til hym brocht.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xlv. 620. A brid that browhte me my lyveng.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. ccii. [cxcviii.] 623. The see was closed fro them on all partes, wherby their lyuenges [F. viures] and marchaundises myght nat entre into their countreys.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 516. There is scarse any food whereof they do not eat, as also no place wherein they pick not out some living.
1863. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 20. Our living consists very mainly of wild ducks.
† 4. Property in general, esp. landed estate; pl. estates, possessions. Phr. man of living. Obs.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 2280. I haue lost my living A hundreth pound it was worth wele.
1465. in Exch. Rolls Scotl., VII. 321, note. Cuthbert Colevile … has left his leving and gudis in the said realme.
1566. Ascham, Lett. to Leicester, 14 April. My lease … the whole and only liveing that I have to leave to my wife and children.
1580. Hay, Demandes, in Cath. Tractates (1901), 61. Except onlie the pattimonie and leaving of the kirk.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., I. vi. (1588), 34. That none be now placed in the Commission, whose Leuings be not answerable to the same proportion.
1588. A. Marten, Exhort. Faithf. Subjects, D 2. There be many more great houses alredy, then there be men of liuing able to vphold.
1597. Bacon, Coulers Gd. & Evill, Ess. (Arb.), 144. Men whose liuing lieth together in one Shire.
1603. Owen, Pembrokesh. (1891), 21. Maintaineinge himselfe upon his owne lyveinges verye noblye.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., II. xi. (1810), 351. Hee presented unto him all the men of living and quality in the Province.
c. 1672. Roxb. Ballads (1886), VI. 261. My Lands and Livings are but small, For to maintain my Love withal.
1716. B. Church, Hist. Philip’s War (1867), II. 101. Not far from Penobscot, where the main body of our Enemies living was.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, I. xxi. Thy kinsman’s lands and livings fair.
† b. A holding (of land), a tenement. Obs.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 28. I would not haue them [parkes] to be made of poore mens liuings.
1605–47. Habington, Surv. Worcestersh., in Worc. Hist. Soc. Proc., I. 139. Thys lord … did fyrst sell to many of the Tenants heere the inheritance of theyre lyvinges.
1617. N. Riding Rec., II. 159. J. D. presented for refusing to pay his sessment … of that living on which he now dwelleth.
1819. Scott, Noble Moringer, iv. There’s many a valiant gentleman of me holds living fair.
5. Eccl. A benefice. More fully ecclesiastical, spiritual living.
1426. Audelay, Poems, 40. A mon to have iiij. benefyse, anoder no lyvyng, This is not Godys wyl.
c. 1550. Disc. Common Weal Eng. (1893), 138. What reason is it that one man should haue ij mens livinges and ij mens charge?
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 3/2. For the holding and reteining of all other spiritual livings whatsoever.
1577. Harrison, England, II. v. (1877), I. 110. When a man is to be preferred to an ecclesiastical living.
1650. Hubbert, Pill Formality, 28. They have two or three Livings apiece.
1680. Countess Manchester, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 217. He haveing a great many very good liveings in his gifft.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., 1 Pet. v. 3. To take a living only to get a living, is an horrid impiety.
1704. Nelson, Fest. & Fasts, x. (1739), 602. Any Person presented to any … Living Ecclesiastical.
1762. Goldsm., Cit. W., xxvii. My father … was possessed of a small living in the Church.
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., xvi. (1813), 69. The late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 532. At the time of the Restoration … he had held a living in Kent.
1884. J. Bright, in Times, 5 Aug., 10/4. The 500 peers are possessors of not less … than 4,000 livings of the Church of England.
† 6. A term in the game of Maw. Obs.
c. 1570. Groome-porters lawes at Mawe, in Coll. Black-Let. Ball. & Broadsides (1867), 124. If you turne vp the ace of hartes, and thereby make either partie aboue xxvj, the contrary part must haue liuings; but if the contrary parte bee xxv, by meanes whereof liuings sets them out, then is he who turned vp the ace of hartes to make for the set.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attributive, as (sense 1 with reference to dwelling) living-house, -place, -room, -wagon. b. objective, as (sense 3) living†-giver, † -griper; (sense 5) living-broker; living-seeking adj.; † living-days, days of life; living-wage, a wage on which it is possible for a worker to live; similarly living price.
1765. J. Clubbe, Misc. Tracts (1770), II. 44. Now is it not justly to [be] apprehended, that a certain order of men … may come over hither, and commence *living-brokers?
c. 1440. Capgrave, Life St. Kath., V. 237. Oure *leuynge dayes … arn at an ende.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., V. (Percy Soc.), 22. Whose goodly name … Was called Carmentis in her livyng dayes.
1614. R. Tailor, Hog hath lost Pearl, III. E 2. Is thy *liuing-giuer within, sir? Ser. You meane my master, sir?
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, ii. 51. A Gentle man perhaps may chaunce to meete His *Liuing-griper face to face in streete.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 624. There are near to the *living-house large, well-built houses with the proper machinery for drying the cocoa.
1889. Jessopp, Coming of Friars, iii. 124. The cloister was really the *living-place of the monks.
1892. W. J. Stillman, in Nation (N. Y.), 3 March, 168/2. Mr. Cole would be glad to be enabled to do, at a *living price, a series of prints four times the size of those in the Century.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., I. 9. No *living-room should depend for its ventilation on such of its windows as may communicate with a green-house.
1884. Illustr. Lond. News, 1 March, 209/2. From all the living-rooms glimpses were obtainable of soft green hills and white cottages.
1898. Daily News, 31 May, 6/6. The Premier had much dislike for *living-seeking parsons.
1893. Ch. Times, 6 Oct., 995/2. As firm … as are the miners in standing out for what they call a *‘living’ wage.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 24 Nov., 10/1. Sir Andrew Clarke … used for the first time the phrase ‘the living wage’ … in 1892.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 329. He termed it, as all showmen do—the *living wagon.
Hence Livingless a., without a living.
1834. New Monthly Mag., XL. 448. They had not the discrimination to find out the germ of an orator and a statesman in the landless and livingless younger brother.
1878. L. Wingfield, Lady Grizel, I. viii. 136. They were enjoined to roam … with a livingless parson as a mentor.
