[f. SWITCH v. + -ING1.]
1. A beating with a switch; a flogging; the striking of an object with a switch.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Fair Maid Inn, I. iii. The switching him duld him [sc. a horse].
1658. Osborn, Jas. I., Index, Wks. (1673), 23. A Character of Philip Earl of Mongomery; How patiently he took his Switching by Ramsey at Croydon.
1866. Morn. Star, 20 Aug., 5/2. If he chooses to profit by the switching which he has received he will make for himself a deservedly great reputation.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, II. xii. 377. The signal … being the switching of his bedroom window-pane with a long wand.
1904. S. E. White, Forest, xiv. You stumble, you break through the bush, you shut your eyes to avoid sharp switchings.
2. Angling. (See SWITCH v. 3.)
1867. F. Francis, Angling, ix. 285. Switching … is a species of cast that is made when there are high banks or rocks at the angler’s back, so that he cannot send his line behind him.
1893. J. Grant, in Westm. Gaz., 25 Feb., 8/1. I can cast a long line overhead, yet by switching I can cast farther.
3. The trimming of a hedge, etc., by cutting off projecting branches or twigs.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 44. Hedges … ought to be cut into the shape of what is called a hog-main, i. e. brought to a point along the top, and preserved in that form by yearly switching.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 563. Switching consists of lopping off straggling branches that grow more prominently from a hedge than the rest.
4. Shunting of railway trains, etc.; connection or disconnection (switching on or off) of electric circuits; also fig.: see SWITCH v. 6–8.
1889. [see SWITCH sb. 3 b].
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 146. This switching off of the skin from its connection with the respiratory and placing it in relation with the portal system.
1898. Hamblen, Gen. Manager’s Story, xii. 175. When I got there, I found four hours’ switching … to get my train together.
5. attrib. and Comb.: spec. (a) used in switching hedges, etc., as switching-bill, -knife; (b) used in or for shunting on a railway, as switching-engine or -locomotive, -eye (see quot. 1884), -ground; (c) used for connecting electric circuits, as switching-plug. Also switching angle Gunnery, the angle between the lines of fire of the directing gun when the latter is brought to bear on the left of the new target.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 224. He handles the small cutting-axe and switching-knife with the force and neatness with which a dragoon wields his sabre. Ibid., II. 563. This operation is performed with the switching-bill.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xiii. 64. The Scolopax Wilsonii of the United States makes a switching noise whilst descending rapidly to the earth.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Switching-engine, a yard-engine, or donkey-engine, used about a station or depot for making up trains or moving engines which have not steam up.
1882. Sun, 14 May, 6/6. A large freight-engine with tender … had been at switching work.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Switching Eye (Railway), a cast-iron socket on the corner of a freight-car, to which a chain or push-bar may be applied by an engine on an adjoining track. Switching-in Plug (Electricity), a plug having its two brass sides insulated from each other by a strip of hard rubber [etc.].
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, viii. 179. The familiar noise of a switching-engine coughing to herself in a freight-yard.
1907. Bethell, Mod. Guns & Gunnery, 173. For large angles … the switching angle must be calculated or measured … with the field plotter.
