[f. VISIT v.] The action of coming or going to a person or place for some special purpose.
1. On the part of supernatural beings, esp. the Deity in order to comfort, try or punish persons.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6189. Ioseph … praid þe folk and badd Þat quen godd sent þaim visiting, Þai suld his banes þeþen bring. Ibid., 11266. Feird war þaa hirdes for þat light … For þai sagh neuer … sli visiting be-for þat night.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. li. 18. Veyne ben the werkus, and wrthi scornyng; in tyme of ther visityng thei shul pershe.
c. 1425. Audelay, XI Pains Hell, 359, in O. E. Misc., 222. God haþ me chastyst fore my leuyng, I þonke my god my grace treuly Of his gracious vesityng.
1645. Caryl, Expos. Job, I. 637. We may apply it … either to Gods visiting of us in afflictions, or in mercies.
2. On the part of persons, in various senses of the verb; esp. the action of calling upon others in a social or friendly way.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 41. Yn some lond were al the game yshent, If that men ferd with love as men do here,… In visityng, in forme, or seying here sawis.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 176. Denes and suddenes, drawe ȝow togideres,… To bere bischopes aboute, abrode in visytynge.
c. 1380. Antecrist, in Todd, Three Treat. Wyclif (1851), 140. Þei discoumforten treu men & putten hem in prison for visityng of cristen men.
1497. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 344. Item, to ane cowpar for mending and visiting of thir pipis,… viijd.
1530. Palsgr., 285/1. Vysityng, uisitance, uisitation.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Visitatio, a visitynge, or commyng to see.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 234. Our Consuls burning with desire of returning homeward, appointed the next day for the visiting of the Sepulcher.
1658. Whole Duty Man, xvi. 137. Visiting the sick and imprisoned; by which visiting is meant … so coming as to comfort and relieve them.
1727. Swift, To Very Yng. Lady, Wks. 1755, II. II. 43. I hope your husband will interpose his authority to limit you in the trade of visiting.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XIII. iv. Mrs. Fitzpatrick,… though it was a full hour earlier than the decent time of visiting, received him very civilly.
1806. H. K. White, Lett., 6 Jan. Visiting and gayety are very well by way of change, but there is no enjoyment so lasting as that of one’s own family.
1820. Byron, Blues, II. 8. What with driving and visiting, dancing and dining.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 68/2. It requires great care before any one can assert that a plant has disappeared, and some years’ visiting of the station.
1911. Act 1 & 2 Geo. V., c. 55 § 14. Every such rule relating to the visiting of insured persons by visitors appointed by the society.
b. An instance of this; a visit.
a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. XLI. iii. Their courteous visitings are courting lyes.
1628. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1909), III. 211. By often visitings, presents, and invitacions.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (1781), VII. xi. 54. We shall be favoured with the company of Lord and Lady L. as soon as her visits and visitings are over.
1770. Wilkes, Corr. (1805), IV. 36. I begin to recover the fatigue of visitings and great dinners, which I abominate.
1817. Mar. Edgeworth, Ormond, xvi. Say I’m too old and clumsy for morning visitings.
3. Of things. (Cf. VISIT v. 10 c.)
1382. Wyclif, Prov. xix. 23. In plenteuousnesse it shal abide stille, withoute visiting of the werste.
1822. Mrs. Hemans, Siege of Valencia, iv. (1823), 160. I have swept o’er the mountains of your land, Leaving my traces, as the visitings Of storms, upon them!
a. 1851. Moir, Hymn Night Wind, Poet. Wks. (1852), II. 379. But not alone to inland solitudes,… Are circumscribed thy visitings.
b. Of influences affecting the mind.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xvii. 96. Thei mowe be verrified in manye othere wisis and for manye other visitingis, than ben the visitingis and the ȝiftis of Kunnyng.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. v. 46. Stop vp th’accesse and passage to Remorse, That no compunctious visitings of Nature Shake my fell purpose.
1807. Wordsw., White Doe, I. 332. A Spirit,… In soft and breeze-like visitings, Has touched thee.
1834. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., I. ix. 141. Let not those visitings pass away. Ibid. (1836), III. i. 6. They cannot be ‘as the heathen’: they are pursued with gracious visitings, as Jonah when he fled away.
1867. Parkman, Jesuits N. Amer., vii. (1875), 81. Some of them seemed to have visitings of real compassion.
4. attrib., as visiting acquaintance, dress, relations, terms, way; † visiting-bell, ? a bell used in visiting a sick person; visiting-book, a book containing the names of persons to be visited; visiting-card, a small card bearing a person’s name, to be left or presented on paying a visit; † visiting-day, a day set apart for receiving visitors; an at-home day; visiting-list, a list of persons to be visited; visiting-society, a society formed for the purpose of visiting the poor or sick; † visiting-ticket, a visiting-card.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, IV. i. But they are the last people I should choose to have a *visiting acquaintance with.
1808. Scott, Marm., II. xix., note. His [St. Cuthbert’s] carrying on a visiting acquaintance with the Abbess of Coldingham.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods, Staffs. in Ann. Lichfield (1863), IV. 41. It[e]m a *veseting bell, and a peare of sensors of brasse.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859). 157. All my great and small names in my old French *visiting-book.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, ix. Before long Emmy had a visiting-book, and was driving about regularly in a carriage, calling upon [etc.].
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, I. iii. Why, a ticket [for an assembly] is only a *visiting card with a name upon it.
1820. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 158. The Duke of Beaufort’s pocket was picked of … his visiting-cards.
1859. All Year Round, No. 32. 79. People are photographed on their visiting cards.
1899. Daily News, 26 Jan., 5/3. The New Year’s visiting-card … is one of the survivals of old-fashioned French politeness.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 80, ¶ 3. I had the Misfortune to drop in at my Lady Haughty’s upon her *Visiting-Day.
1717. Prior, Dove, ix. With one great Peal They rap the Door, Like Footmen on a Visiting-Day.
1768. (title) The Visiting Day: a Novel.
1859. Habits Gd. Society, iv. (new ed.), 177. Shawls,… belong rather to the carriage or *visiting dress.
1825. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 368. Sitting in judgment over a *visiting list.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, II. iii. 66. Who would have been unexceptionable wives as regarded their dress and their visiting-list.
1884. Yates, Recoll., I. 279. *Visiting relations had, in the mean time, been established between us and the Dickens family.
1844. [W. Harness] (title), *Visiting Societies and Lay Readers.
1876. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. II. 301. No one had stood on these *visiting terms with heaven.
1770. Cumberland, West Indian, I. vi. Here, give me your direction; write it upon the back of this *visiting ticket—Have you a pencil?
1824. Miss L. M. Hawkins, Mem., II. 253. Finding the visiting-ticket of Mr. Harris on his return home one morning.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., lxxxiii. A gigantic footman … delivered their ladyships’ visiting tickets at our door.
1779. T. Hutchinson, Diary, 26 Feb. Called on Mrs. Burnet and Colonel Leland—which is doing a great deal for me in the *visiting way.
