[f. SPOT v. + -ING1.]
1. The action or process of making spots; the fact of becoming spotted.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. lxv. (1869), 100. That keepeth him from sinne, and from spottinge of rust.
1530. Palsgr., 274. Spottyng with colour, taincture.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Espanzimiento, sprinckling or spotting.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1636), 43. To put in good store of Fullers earth, to keepe them from soile and spotting.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 81, ¶ 3. This artificial Spotting of the Face.
1838. Penny Cycl., XI. 358/1. To this disparity of temperature … may be certainly ascribed the bad setting, spotting, and shrivelling of grapes.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 381. To prevent the spotting of the fruit produced by the action of the sun.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 222/2. The defects [in varnishing coaches] … are those of ‘spotting,’ ‘blooming,’ ‘pin-holing.’
b. spec. (See quot.)
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 245. Spotting … [is] the process of finishing chronometer and occasionally watch plates by polishing thereon equidistant circular patches.
c. With out: The removal of spots.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 877. A series of colours in tubes specially prepared for painting, spotting out, &c.
2. A set or number of spots; a marking composed of spots.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. xxviii. 486. The best of all the rest, is the short shanked apple, which is marked with spottings.
1649. Ogilby, trans. Virg. Georg., III. (1684), 95, note. OF the Marks of a good Heifer … (that is, Sowrness of Look,… Spotting of the Body) [etc.].
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 57. The various Colouring and Spotting of their Eggs.
1841. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 131. The spotting is smaller, but in every other particular they are very like.
1898. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 33. Along drear leagues of crimson spotting, white With mother’s tears of France.
3. The action of placing on a spot.
1849. E. R. Mardon, Billiards (ed. 2), Pl. 74. A break would have followed the spotting of the red ball that must have yielded the number of points required.
4. U.S. (See quot.)
1904. Electr. World & Engin., 24 Sept., 506 (Cent. Suppl.). This breaking up and switching of the trains into sections, which is called ‘spotting.’
5. attrib., as spotting colo(u)r, machine, shuttle, woof.
1805. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXIII. 241. The spotting shuttles save clipping, and the waste of spotting yarn.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1233. In working spots, one thread, or shot of spotting-woof, and two of plain, are successively inserted.
1884. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Rec., Ser. III. 15/1. A mottled appearance is produced on brass by a ‘spotting’ machine.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 221. With the spotting colour we can carefully erase the other people’s hands.
