[f. as prec.]
1. That varies, in senses of the verb; tending to vary or change. † Also const. from.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1413. Þe life of þis world es ful unstable, And ful variand and chaungeable.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xcviii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe apple tre is rounde diuers and varying fro oþer trees of wodes.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4637. Of all þe frutis on þe fold we fange at oure will, Bath venyson & volatile & variand fisches.
c. 1480. Henryson, Fables, Paddock & Mouse, x. With mynd Inconstant, fals, and wariand, Full of desait.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlviii. 1. Quhen Merche wes with variand windis past.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxvii. 48. Gif scho steidfast stand, And be not wariand, I am at hir command.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 170. He … with his varying child-nesse, cures in me Thoughts, that would thick my blood.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. agst. Woman, Wks. 1730, I. 57. I strive in vain the varying crimes to trace, Of this salacious and destructive race.
1751. Gray, Spring, 37. In fortune’s varying colours drest.
1798. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 114. With a varying complexion, and timid air, [he] enquired for her mother.
1815. Shelley, Alastor, 96. That scene of ampler majesty Than gems or gold, the varying roof of heaven.
1846. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 168. The varying amounts … excreted during equal periods by different persons.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. 509. The struggle … went on throughout his reign with varying success.
b. spec. in Path.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 476. Varying squint and ptosis are very common during the irritative and pressure stages.
† 2. Varied in color; variegated. Obs.
1488. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 85. A couering of variand purpir tartar browdin with thrissillis and a vnicorne. Ibid., 163. Thre elne and dimid. of varyande tartar.
3. Varying hare, a species of hare, inhabiting northern or elevated regions, the fur of which turns white in winter; the Alpine, blue, or mountain hare.
The American varying hare (Lepus Americanus) is a variety of the Polar hare (L. glacialis).
1781. Pennant, Hist. Quadrup., II. 370. Varying Hare.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., s.v. Hare, The varying Hare, Lepus variabilis, turns white in the Winter.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 158. The Alpine or varying hare inhabits certain districts of our island, namely, the northern parts of Scotland.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XI. 476/2. In those parts where the common hare does not occur, its place is taken by the varying or mountain hare (Lepus variabilis).
Hence Varyingly adv.
c. 1862. Gladstone, Farew. Addr., Edinb. Univ., 19. In modes, and in degrees, varyingly perceptible to us.
1882. F. T. Palgrave, in Grosart, Spenser’s Wks., IV. p. xxxv. Spenser sees life … through more than one veil, always, though varyingly, conventional in character.
