[f. BORE v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of piercing, perforating, making a bore-hole, etc.; also concr. = BORE-HOLE.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 44. Borynge, or percynge, perforacio, cavatura.
1544. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. Payd for boryng of a ladder ijd.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 352. The Boring of holes in that kinde of wood.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 13. Do you not use Boreing sometimes in Sinking?
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 19. 328. Count Rumford boiled water by the heat developed in the boring of a cannon.
1861. W. Fairbairn, Addr. Brit. Assoc., p. lvi. In various mines, borings, and artesian wells, the temperature has been found to increase about 1° Fahr. for every 60 or 65 feet of descent.
2. Attrib. and Comb., as boring-apparatus, -bench, -block, -machinery, -mill, -room, -tool; also boring-bar, the suspended bar that carries the bit for boring cannon; boring-bit = bore-bit (see BORE sb.1); boring-gauge, an appliance for limiting the action of the boring tool to the required depth; boring-rod = bore-rod (see BORE sb.1)
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 26. You find by your Boring-rods that you have a good seam of Coles.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, II. 102. The boring-bench is composed of two stout beams of timber. Ibid. The [gun-]barrel is in the next place transferred to the boring-mill.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 174. The instrument-room, in which are arranged the various boring-bars, bits, and knives.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 9. 271. M. Agassiz had iron boring-rods carried up the glacier, with which he pierced the ice.
1884. C. Marvin, Region Eternal Fire, xii. 196. The pump draws the oil as freely and as readily to the surface as when the basin was first tapped by the boring bit years ago.
