vbl. sb. [f. STOOL v. and sb. + -ING1.]
1. The action or process of evacuating the bowels; also, concr. the matter evacuated.
1599. Minsheu, Span. Gram., 81. Rézias camaras. Strong stoolings.
a. 1610. Healey, Epictetus (1636), 82. To bee alway conversant in corporall matters:… in much eating, drinking, stooling.
1695. New Light Chirurg. put out, 38. The Stooling of bloody Excrement.
1895. Elworthy, Evil Eye, 74. ’Tis a very bad thing to throw a child’s stooling in the fire.
2. The action of throwing up young shoots or stems; of corn, etc., the forming of a thick head from lateral shoots.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Stooling, the second germination of corn.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 254. Trimming does thicken the surface of the hedge by causing a stubbed, stooling form of growth.
1901. Dundee Advertiser, 15 Jan., 4. The ‘stooling’ or tillering habits of these varieties [of oat] being weak.
3. concr. The framework supporting a mill (cf. STOOL sb. 10).
1558. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1565, 441/1. Sustentarent dicta molendina in omnibus necessariis, nisi tantum in ly stuling quod [etc.]. Ibid. (1606), 616/1. Lie stuilling cum mylnedame et mylneleid sustentando.
