[-ING1.]
I. The action of the verb SURROUND.
† 1. Overflowing, inundation. Obs.
1449. in Fulman, Rerum Anglic. Script. Vett. (1684), I. 524. Because of surundyng of waters.
1572. Huloet, Surrunding, or ouerflowing of water.
2. The fact of being around or encompassing. rare–0.
1775. in Ash.
II. That which surrounds.
3. pl. Those things which surround a person or thing, or in the midst of which he or it (habitually) is; things around (collectively); environment.
1861. Q. Rev., Oct., 471. We know more about Plutarch’s personal history and surroundings [etc.].
1861. Smiles, Engineers, VI. i. 11. 6. The place remained comparatively rural in point of size and surroundings.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, XII. i. (1876), 431. That which we are, is due to the accidents of our surroundings.
1884. F. Temple, Relat. Relig. & Sci., iii. (1885), 81. My character … has not come out of the antecedents and surroundings according to any fixed law.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, lxii. We cannot blame him too severely if, in such an age and such surroundings, he had been stained by the vices in the midst of which he lived.
4. A number of persons standing around; a body of attendants; entourage.
1877. Froude, Short Stud. (1883), IV. I. ii. 22. The wealthiest peer in England did not … appear in public with a more princely surrounding.
1891. Daily News, 22 Jan., 3/4. A curling set, mostly Scotch, had another space, and their games were watched with much interest by a surrounding of Southerns.
b. pl. Persons surrounding or attending upon a person.
1894. Daily News, 31 Dec., 5/4 I have now received particulars of the death from the immediate surroundings of the King.
1907. Verney Mem., I. 118. They lived on their estates and did their duty by their surroundings.
