[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To apply a towel to; to rub or dry with a towel.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Ladies’ Societies. The children were yellow-soaped and flannelled, and towelled, till their faces shone again.
1886. D. C. Murray, 1st Pers. Singular, xix. Zeno … was towelling himself before the mirror.
1894. A. Morrison, Mean Streets, 15. Solemn little faces towelled to a polish.
b. intr. (with at).
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxvi. Letting his head drop into a festoon of towel, and towelling away at his two ears. Ibid. (1865), Mut. Fr., I. vi. His head was soon in a basin of water, and out of it again, and staring at her through a storm of towelling.
2. slang. To beat, cudgel, thrash. (Cf. prec. 3.)
1705. J. Dunton, Life & Errors (1818), I. ix. 356. I would towel him myself … if I did not think him an honest man.
1824. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1825), 164. I shouldn’t have towelled her if she hadn’t tempted me to it!
1903. Sir M. G. Gerard, Leaves fr. Diaries, vi. 182. He caught him by the collar and towelled him down with a cutting whip.
3. To cover with a towel or towels.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. iv. I mean to apron it and towel it all over the front.
