[f. TED v.1 + -ING1.] The action of spreading out or scattering (new-mown grass) to be dried by the sun and wind.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 226. Item, to Baker for iiij. dayes teddynge of gresse iiij. d.
1523. Fitzherbert, Husb., § 25. Good teddynge is the chiefe poynte to make good hey.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 72/2. Tedding is with a Pitchfork or Pikill throwing it abroad out of those rows in which the Sithe left it on the ground.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 966. The process for putting it into cocks after the tedding.
b. attrib., as tedding-machine.
[1826–44. Loudon, Encycl. Agric., 420. The hay-tedding machine, invented about 1800, by Salmon of Woburn.]
1843. Jrnl. Roy. Agric. Soc., IV. II. 462. Mr. Wedlake … produced a spreading or tedding machine.
1847–78. Halliwell, Tedding-pole, the long stick used for turning or tedding flax. West.
1906. Times, 25 June, 14/3. The old custom of tedding either by hand or by tedding machine is avoided.
Tedding, vbl. sb.2: see TED v.2
