[f. BACK v. + -ING1.]
I. The action of the vb. BACK in various senses.
1. The action of supporting at the back.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 165. Call you that backing of your friends? a plague vpon such backing!
1633. Ames, Agst. Cerem., II. 281. For the backinge of the former consequence, this reason was added.
1875. Helps, Anim. & Mast., v. 133. My ready backing of my friend.
2. The mounting of a horse; the breaking in of a colt to the saddle.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 240. It is good to use your horse to backing both sadled and bare.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), The backing of a horse, equi domitura.
3. The action of putting or moving back; a throwing back in progress; retardation.
1649. Blith, Eng. Improv. Impr., ii. (1653), 10. A great part of that land lyeth as it were drowned … it overcomes not that backing many times till near Midsummer.
4. Motion in a backward direction, esp. of the wind in a direction opposed to the sun’s.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 25. Who foretold them by the Winds backing to the Sun, i. e. opposing its course.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., iv. 91. From West to South-West, South, and South-East, the change is called backing.
1884. Ingersoll, in Harper’s Mag., 876/2. Rivers would be able to dispose of their water in the full season without its backing up.
5. techn. a. Printing, ‘Perfecting’ a sheet already printed on one side, by printing it on the other. b. Bookbinding, Preparing the back of a book with glue, etc., before putting on the cover.
1846. Printing Appar. Amateurs, 42. When a second impression was added at the back, which is called backing, or working the reiteration.
6. a. Backing-down: withdrawal, shirking. b. Backing-off: unwinding silk or cotton. c. Backing-up in Cricket, etc.: see BACK v. 8.
1851. L. Gordon, Art Jrnl. Ilust. Catal., vi. **/2. This operation of undoing the coil is called the backing-off.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Aug., 465/1. There’s to be no backing down.
II. Collective appellation of that which backs, or forms a back, rear, or hinder part.
7. Support, succor; a body of supporters.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, viii. A quarter whence assuredly he expected no backing.
1880. Times, 11 Dec., 9. It is promoted by what appears to be a solid backing of landowners.
8. Anything used to form a back, or line the back.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 221. Not only flat backing, but Purbeck ashler in rough courses, from those quarries.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-Bk., Backing, the timber behind the armour-plates of a ship.
1884. F. Crawford, Rom. Singer, I. 219. A great pier-glass was cracked … and the metallic backing seemed to be scaling off.
9. = BACK sb. 16.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 225. The Backing of a Hip is the angle made on its upper edge to range with the two sides or planes of the roof between which it is placed.
10. (dial.) Bank, embankment.
1863. Lancashire Fents, 3. A pretty weaver lass … seated herself on the ‘backing.’
1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, I. 136. A younger person stands upon the garden ‘backing.’
11. Backings: refuse of wool or flax, or what is left after dressing it; in the manufacture of flax, properly, the tow that is thrown off by the second hackling. (Jamieson.)
c. 1795. Aberd. Statist. Acc., XIX. 207 (Jam.). The waft was spun by old women, and that only from backings or nails.
