[f. WEAVE v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. WEAVE; esp. the operation of forming cloth or other stuff by the interlacing of yarn or other filaments in a loom.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 444. Cloth þat cometh fro þe weuyng is nouȝt comly to were.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xi. (Bodl. MS.). Þe female [spider] is more of bodie þan þe male and haþ lengre feete and more pliaunte and more able to meuynge and to weuynge.
c. 1475. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 284. As myche for gardyng, spynnyng, and wevyng.
1511–2. Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 1. The Wever whiche shall have the wevyng of eny wollen yerne to be webbed into cloth.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VII. lvi. I. 188. Weaving was the invention of the Ægyptians.
1774. Bryant, Mythol. (1775), II. 525. Erech; in which place likewise the weaving of linen, and making of nets was first found out.
1843. J. S. Knowles, Secretary, III. i. 25. His grace the duke Is in a net of his own weaving caught.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 45. Weaving was an art in which the Egyptians excelled.
† b. concr. A tissue, plexus. Obs.
1758. J. S., trans. Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), Dict. Dd 3. Varicosum Corpus, that Weaving of Blood-Vessels, which enters into the Testicles.
2. slang. (See quot. 1865.)
1803. Sporting Mag., XXI. 326. Weaving—Is securing one or more cards upon the knee, under the table played at.
1865. Hotten’s Slang Dict., Weaving, a notorious card-sharping trick, done by keeping certain cards on the knee, or between the knee and the underside of the table, and using them when required by changing them for the cards held in the hand.
3. attrib., as weaving-factory, -frame, † -house, -loom, -mill, -room, -shed, † -shop, † -work.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., Ser. IV. 95. Some being ‘spinning-factories,’ some ‘weaving-factories,’ and some both conjoined.
1530. Palsgr., 288/1. *Wevyng frame, mestier.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 523/2. *Wevynge howse, textrinum.
1772. [see SPINNING-HOUSE 1].
1496. in Weaver, Somerset Med. Wills (1901), 343. A *weving lome wt his apparell and portenances.
1675. in Jeaffreson, Midsx. County Rec. (1892), IV. 63. Wooden frames of weaveing Loomes.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 380. A *weaving-mill near Manchester.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. ii. Nor should the *weaving-room be forgotten.
1867. Morris, Jason, II. 455. Whom soon they found, within the weaving-room, Bent earnestly above the rattling loom.
1844. Penny Mag., Jan. Suppl. 38. We next descend to the *‘weaving-shed,’… Here we find eight hundred and forty power-looms in one room.
1897. Q. Rev., Oct., 432. The men from the … imperial weaving-sheds.
1564. Inv., in Noakes, Worcs. Relics (1877), 13. In the *weaving shoppe ij loomes, v geares [etc.].
? 14[?]. in Hampole’s Wks. (1895), I. 159. Fro vndern to none sche ocupied hir in *weving werke.
1535. Coverdale, Tobit ii. 11. Anna … wente daylie to the weeuynge worke.
