vbl. sb. [-ING1.] The action of the verb STAR; spec. the acting or touring of a ‘star’ performer (in quots. attrib.).

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1859.  F. Fowler, Southern Lights, 36. I heard that Mr. Brooke had netted upwards of 30,000l. during his ‘starring’ career in the colony.

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1864.  Dasent, Jest & Earnest (1873), I. 180. In London, where the starring system prevails to a stifling extent, we have sometimes one good actor, supported, like a sweet pea, by sticks.

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1868.  Miss Braddon, Dead-sea Fruit, xxvi. II. 287. He was the enchantress’s alter ego,… arranging her starring engagements.

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1882–3.  Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 1358. He made a second starring-tour as rhetorician.

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