[f. TRAIN v.1 + -ING1.] The action of TRAIN v.1, in various senses.
† 1. Drawing, trailing; drawing out, protracting, etc. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 499/2. Tranyynge, or longe a-bydynge (S. trancyynge), dilacio, mora.
1539. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), II. 182. The coldnes on that behalf & traynyng long of the matiers might helpe to conferme the said Counsaillours advises.
2. Discipline and instruction directed to the development of powers or formation of character; education, rearing, bringing up; systematic instruction and exercise in some art, profession, or occupation, with a view to proficiency in it; also, of an animal: see quots. 1697, 1874.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke v. 61 b. In those thynges whiche concerne the bodye,… my trainyng of theim is somewhat with fauour and ientilnesse: but in such matiers as perteine to ye solle, it is a great waie streighter and sharper.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, III. 148. Schooles … freely bestowed for the training vp of youth.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 321. When once he’s broken, feed him full and high … Before his Training keep him poor and low.
1757. Foote, Author, I. Wks. 1799, I. 138. He’s now in training as a waiter at the Cocoa-tree coffee-house.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. i. § 24 (1879), 24. The process by which a Horse is taught any unusual performance—as when in ‘training’ for the Circus or the Stage.
1879. J. T. Rogers, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 53/2. It would be absurd to assign the genius of Mozart to training.
b. spec. Military drill; esp. in former use, a public meeting or muster at a stated time for drill of militia and volunteer forces; now much used for the periodical camp work of the Territorials.
1578. Nottingham Rec., IV. 179. Soldyours trayned with the Kallyver, thys Trayning beyng the 2 of October.
1581. Styward (title), The Pathwaie to Martiall Discipline, deuided into two Bookes…. The Second Booke Entreateth of sundrie proportions and training of Caleeuers.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, I. i. 5. Our countrie Gentlemen and Citizens, who haue the trayning of their shires and townes.
1616. I. T., A B C of Armes, A vj b. In time of Musters or Traynings.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. viii. 375. The training of land troops to the use of their arms.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xv. Hash,… at the Spring training, was punished … for disorderly behaviour.
c. The process of developing the bodily vigor and endurance by systematic diet and exercise, so as to fit for some athletic feat; the condition of undergoing this process, or of the resulting physical fitness.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 510/1. By what in England is called training the bulk of the body may be … rapidly diminished.
1854. Dickens, Hard T., I. ii. A professed pugilist; always in training.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur., x. (1894), 234. I was in good training.
3. Management (of a plant, etc.) esp. so as to produce the desired form or manner of a growth.
1724. (title) A Treatise concerning the Manner of Fallowing of Ground, Raising of Grass-Seeds, and Training of Lint and Hemp.
1871. (title) Figure Training.
1888. Nicholson’s Dict. Gard., Training..., as used in gardening, refers to the management of trees and plants … by regulating their branches to give all a fair amount of space and exposure to light…. Also … so as to prevent the sap flowing to any one branch or part … at the expense of another.
4. The action of directing or aiming a fire-arm, etc., esp. by horizontal movement.
1861. Times, 23 July. The horizontal motion, or training, is effected by turning the shield itself, with the gun, crew, and platform on which they stand.
1870. Daily News, 1 Feb. Where the fault lies is in bad training of the gun on to the object intended to be aimed at.
1885. Pall Mall G., 6 Jan. 2/2. Two [sights] being necessary for correct pointing at certain angles of training.
5. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 2), as training-groom, -ground, -home, -place, -stable, -time; training-bank, a bank constructed to deflect or direct a current (cf. training-wall below); training-bit, a special kind of bit used in training a vicious horse; training-college, a college for training persons for some particular profession; spec. a college for training teachers: cf. training-school below; training-day, a day devoted to training; spec. in former use, a stated or legally appointed day for the drilling of militia and volunteer forces; training-halter, a form of halter used in training horses: see quot.; training-level, a level (LEVEL sb. 1) used in training a gun; training-pendulum, a form of training-level with a pendulum; training-post, a post used in directing a current into a particular channel (cf. training-bank, -wall); training-school, a school in which pupils are trained for some special profession or occupation; spec. a school for training teachers, a normal school; training-ship, -vessel, a ship on which boys are trained for naval service; training-wall, a wall built to direct a current into the desired channel in a river, harbor, etc.
1911. United Empire, July, 489. Two moles and a *training bank are being constructed.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Training-bit, a wooden gag-bit used when training vicious horses. The cheeks are of iron, and are connected by a rod … which passes through the wooden mouth-piece, having a head upon one end and a nut on the other.
1829. [*Training College was in use in Ireland].
1882. Ogilvie, Normal school … a school in which teachers are instructed in the principles of their profession and trained in the practice of it; a training-college.
1884. S. E. Dawson, Hand-bk. Canada, 211. A theological training-college for priests.
1901. Contemp. Rev., March, 361. For years the supply of teachers exceeded the demand; now it is the other way, or soon will be, and that is one of the factors in the training college problem.
1676. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, II. i. As he passed by my window the last *training-day.
1880. Ellen H. Rollins (‘E. H. Arr’), New Eng. Bygones, iv. 56. This muster, or ‘training-day,’ as it was more often called, was their best holiday, when the militia was drilled in a vacant lot of some fortunate town.
1706. S. Sewall, Diary, 27 May. Col. Noyes invites me to his *Training Dinner.
1816. Sporting Mag., XLVIII. 172. The defendant, a *training-groom to the Duke of Dorset.
1864. Bowen, Logic, xiii. 450. To make them [the sciences] only the *training-ground, and not the field for the regular employment, of their mental powers.
1871. ‘M. Legrand,’ Camb. Freshm., xi. Newmarket Heath … is very little changed…. The features of this matchless racecourse and training-ground remain pretty much the same.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Training-halter, a halter made in the same manner as a riding-bridle, with the exception of having short instead of long cheeks, which are provided with rings into which bit-straps may be buckled.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 3 Feb., 4/1. To avoid anything approaching institution or *training-home life.
1904. Daily Chron., 9 Feb., 3/3. In 1890 the Women’s Training Home was established at Clapton and placed under the charge of Emma Booth…. She was equal to the task, and well deserved the loving name of the ‘Training Home mother.’
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Training-level, a gravitating instrument for the same purpose as the training-pendulum. Ibid., *Training-pendulum, an improved pendulum to facilitate the accurate elevation and depression of guns on board ship.
1884. J. Tait, Mind in Matter (1892), 138. A world fitted to be the temporary abode and *training-place of spirits.
1884. Pall Mall G., 9 Dec., 12/1. Opening up a deep channel by the use of *training posts and the judicious use of dredging.
[1814. Brit. & For. School Soc., Bye Laws. The school for children at the Borough Road, and the school for training of schoolmasters.]
1829. Kildare Place Soc., Rep. To draw the attention of the public to these *Training Schools.
1897. Grenfell & Hunt, New Classical Fragm., etc., lxvii. 101. Aurelius Asclepiades … agrees to hire from Aurelius Theon, the keeper of a training-school, probably at Arsinoe, the services of two dancing-girls.
1905. Daily Chron., 28 April, 7/5. In the ‘danger’ passage, between the two *training shafts of the fore barbette.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 85. These men were never on board a ship before joining the *training ship.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, xxi. 145. I would have placed him [a boy] on a training ship and looked after him there.
1894. Doyle, Mem. S. Holmes, 5. Where the Colonel’s *training stable is situated.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, II. xxviii. 349. The campaign had … only been a *training time for us.
1887. Pall Mall G., 25 March, 5/1. The French torpedo-boats fire bow torpedoes, whereas in our own boats the Whiteheads are shot from a *training-tube.
1908. Month, March, 238. Large *training-vessels.
1833. Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Railw., 43. The *training-walls are to be built of concrete, made of six parts of gravel to one of Portland cement.
