[f. WALL v.2 + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb; the making of walls, furnishing or fortifying with a wall.
1480. Cov. Leet Bk., 463. Yf part of eny olde wall or yate sodenly fall, hit of reason owe first to be made and to be preferred a-fore oþer wallying.
1531. Maldon (Essex) Liber B., fol. 108 b. iio rodds wallynge marisci vocati pontmermershe.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 194. He gaue fiue hundred pounds to the walling of that towne.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 66. The same method for walling of Towns will not serve in all places.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 547. In walling,… when the work is required to be firm, the best mortar must be used.
1909. Daily Chron., 20 Sept., 1/3. When a suitable building plot had been prepared the walling of a structure was a very simple process.
b. with advs. in, out, up.
1450. Rolls of Parlt., V. 199/1. The somme of xx li., which we have graunte yerely unto the wallyng oute of oure foreseide Towne.
1732. Sir W. Fownes in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 169. The walling-in of the piece of ground … may go on as the fund will bear.
1913. M. Barrett, Scott. Monasteries, IV. i. 203. They manage to convert it into an inhuman walling-up alive of the wretched monk.
2. concr. Wall-work; also, walls collectively; also, the materials of which a wall is made.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxxvi. 4. These thingis saith the Lord God … to desert wallingus [Vulg. parietinis], and to forsaken citees.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VIII. 234. So shalt þow come to a court as cleer so þe sonne,… Al þe wallynge ys of wit.
1518. Cov. Leet Bk., 664. He & his assignes schall kepe the seid yate-house clene, & with ffloryng & wallyng.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 343/1. The Plumb Rule sheweth him whether his Walling doth both range straight, and stand upright.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L. (1793), § 212. I found the mortar joints of the brick walling very compleat.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 352. This plaster … having straw well chopped up amongst it … makes a hard and cheap walling for light buildings.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 119. A length of walling, four feet thick, was discovered.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 70. Walling, the built sides of a shaft.
transf. 1880. Geo. Eliot, in Cross, Life (1885), III. 416. Not to the exclusion of old things, which we must carry and stow, especially wallings of books.
3. attrib. and Comb., as walling material, stone.
1796. W. H. Marshall, W. Eng., II. 130. Beside being burnt into Lime, it is used as a walling material.
1840. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., III. 2/1. The remaining fronts are to be faced with neat hammer dressed walling stones.
1846. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VII. I. 40. The rest of this district consists of … some very thin-skinned, hungry gravel, and sand, on a dry, thirsty, walling-stone.
