[f. prec. vb. + -ING1.] The action of the verb WHIMPER.
1522. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 89. Yf we … liue in puling & whimpering & heuines of hert.
1621. T. Granger, Eccles. xii. 4. 320. The noise of little birds, the whimpering of mice, euery small stirrage waketh them.
1627. Markham, Hungers Prevention, 274. A kinde of whimpering and whining in his [sc. the dog’s] voice.
1660. H. More, Myst. Godl., X. vii. 509. He will not … be put off with solemn whimperings, Hypocritical Confessions, ruful faces.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 225. The … Hound … Bounds o’er the Lawn to seize his panting Prey And in imperfect Whimp’rings speaks his Joy.
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, II. 102. His wife received him … with whimperings and repinings.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, viii. 78. There was no sham whimpering … but the boy’s heart seemed touched.
1902. L. Stephen, Stud. Biogr., IV. v. 188. Many men of business … enjoy in strict privacy a little whimpering over a novel.
