vbl. sb. [f. SUPPER v. + -ING1.] The providing or eating of supper; the entertainment of guests at supper.
1740. Richardson, Pamela, II. 62. The Breakfasting-time, the Preparations for Dinner,… and the Supperings, will fill up a great Part of the Day.
1784. R. Bage, Barham Downs, I. 173. Such visiting and dressing, and dinnering, and suppering.
1827. Hood, Lycus, 25. Once, at my suppering, I pluck’d in the dusk An apple.
b. The evening feeding of cattle, etc.; also with up. Also concr. the food given.
c. 1818. Clare, Summer Evening, 86. Far and near, the motley group Anxious claim their suppering-up.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants (1836), 683. In Scotland … before the introduction of naked fallows and turnips, it [Cnicus arvensis] formed the suppering of housed cattle, during five or six weeks of every summer.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, 243. Kit must be back at Loch Spellanderie for the suppering of the horses.
