[f. TITHE v.2 + -ING1.] The action of TITHE v.2
a. Payment of tithes.
c. 1305. St. Swithin, 40, in E. E. P. (1862), 44. Ech man wolde þurf þe lond his teoþing wel do.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke, xix. 149. Their colde & feble doctryne … concernyng the true tithyng of myntes & rue.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 25. Though some in their tithing be slack or too bold.
1682. Burnet, Rights Princes, i. 20. That the tything of Mint and Anise should not be left undone.
b. Exaction of tithes. Also transf.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 513. The tithing of Springals is made every third yeare.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 89. If the defendant pleads any custom … or other matter whereby the right of tithing is called in question.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 289. Taxing and tything.
1843. Marryat, M. Violet, xxxix. 327. He [Capt. Henry Bennet] is receiving regular pay, derived from the tithing of this warlike people [Mormons].
† c. The killing of every tenth; decimation; sometimes, the killing of all but the tenth. Obs.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1589), 716. The tithing of armies … when every tenth man throughout a whole hoste was by lot put to death.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 24. In that same terrible tithing of the Danes … all the monks were slaine, except onely fower.
d. attrib., as tithing-time, port, etc.
1548. Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI., c. 13 § 2. As often as the saide predyall Tythes shalbe due, and at the tythinge tyme of the same.
a. 1786. Cowper, Yearly Distress, 8. But oh! it cuts him like a scythe, When tithing time draws near.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxiii. (1862), V. 462. This place he … erected into a regular tithing port for levying toll on all vessels coming out of the Euxine.
1853. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, III. II. 65. These days [Lent] are the tithing-days of the year.
