Obs. [f. SOUND v.4]
1. Swooning, fainting.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1134. Wan þe Amyral haþ iherd þe kyng, in sowenyng gan he falle; Ac wan he awok of his soȝnyng, loude he gan to calle.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 1400. Thries in sownyng fell she thare.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, ccxvi. 74. There be many sodein sickenesses, as the pestilence,… the palsey, and soundynge.
1590. Barrough, Meth. Physick, II. xiv. (1639), 94. If sounding be caused through paine, you must diligently enquire the cause.
1620. Venner, Via Recta (1650), 143. A water of singular efficacie against sowning.
2. A swoon; a fainting-fit.
1580. Frampton, Bezaar Stone, in Joyf. News (1596), 119. The bone of the hart … is of great vertue against venom and soundings of the heart.
1595. Lodge, Fig for Momus, G 4. It causeth sownings, passions of the hart.
a. 1657. Sir J. Balfour, Ann. Scot., Wks. 1825, II. 104. Falling into maney soundinges and paines, and violent fluxes of the belley.
c. 1670. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), I. 388. Yet he could hardly keep himself from a second sowning.
3. attrib., as sounding ecstasy, fit, trance.
Freq. in the 17th century.
1565[?]. Lady Hungerford, in H. Hall, Soc. in Eliz. Age (1886), 253. Your man … founde me in suche sounding fitts and wekenys.
1582. T. Watson, Centurie of Love, xi. Sone after into howe sorrowfull a dumpe, or sounden [sic] extasie he fell.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 467. I fell twice in a sounding trance.
1681. H. More, Exp. Dan., 78. A sounding fit that took him at the hearing the voice of the Angel.
1720. Mrs. Manley, Power of Love (1741), 49. An immediate Suffocation … might be improved into an appearance of sounding Fits.
