[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That yields, in various senses.
† 1. Owing, indebted: cf. YIELDER 1, YIELDING vbl. sb. 1. Obs. rare.
1340. Ayenb., 169. Asemoche ase he is worþ betere þanne ich, zuo moche ich am yeldinde be riȝte riȝtuolnesse.
2. Bearing produce, productive, fertile. ? Obs.
1553. Grimalde, Cicero’s Offices, I. (1556), 59 b. Nothing is better than groundtilth and trimmyng, nothing yeeldinger, nothing sweeter, nothing meeter for a freeborne man.
1598. Yong, Diana, 441. The fertilitie of the yeelding soyle.
1777. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., Digest, 45, note. In a yielding Year, a Jag of equal size to those alluded to will afford from two Quarters to twenty Bushels of Wheat.
3. Giving in, surrendering, submitting; disposed to submit, submissive, compliant, unresisting.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 44. As the Hunter who pleasureth not to take the yelding pray, thou shunnest me.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., IV. v. I am eas’ly yeelding to any good Impressions.
1698. [Ferguson], View Ecclesiastick, 5. To become Guilty of the Little and mean Vanity of Attacking a yielding as well as a Routed Enemy.
1741–2. Gray, Agrippina, 197. With fond reluctance, yielding modesty.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XI. iii. Sophia, who was yielding to an excess,… at last gave way.
1801. Scott, Glenfinlas, xvii. Fair woman’s yielding kiss.
1811. W. R. Spencer, Poems, 75. You may press her yielding hand.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxv. There are yielding moments in the lives of the sternest and harshest men.
4. Giving way to pressure or other physical force; not stiff or rigid; taking impression, bending, collapsing, etc.
1577. T. Kendall, Flowers Epigr., 42. Can Flint or Marble harde be made, as yeldyng Butter softe?
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. xi. 25. A thunder bolt Perceth the yielding ayre.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. iii. 618. Neither can the hard-hearted Rockes breake these yeelding Vessells.
1639. T. de Grey, Compl. Horsem., 313. By some fall upon yeelding or slippery ground.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, II. 66. His forceful Spear … Pierc’d through the yielding Planks of jointed Wood.
a. 1732. T. Boston, Crook in Lot (1805), 132. The cannon ball breaks down a stone wall, while the yielding packs of wool take away its force.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., Prayers at Sea. Beneath the shadowy clouds The yielding waters darken in the breeze.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 258. The shafts of all the long bones being so soft and yielding that the mere weight of the limbs is sufficient to produce their distortion.
Hence Yieldingly adv., Yieldingness (see senses 3 and 4 above).
1560. A. L., trans. Calvin’s Four Serm. Song Ezech. (1574), Ep. You see him sometyme *yeldingly stretch out, sometyme struglingly throw his weakened legges.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VIII. xlii. 28. As Mayds that know themselues belou’d and yeeldingly resist.
1823. Moore, Loves of Angels, Introd. 53. A Spirit of light mould, that took The prints of earth most yieldingly.
1862. Lytton, Str. Story, lxxxvi. Like the clouds that are yieldingly pierced by the light of the evening star.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 282. This readinesse and *yeeldingnesse of the inward man.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Women (1767), II. xiii. 222. A degree of complacence, yieldingness, and sweetness, beyond what we look for in men.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., viii. 124. The yieldingness of the cartilaginous substance.
1838. Lytton, Alice, VIII. vi. Evelyn was gentle, even to yieldingness.
1880. J. E. Burton, Handbk. Midwives, 227. The thinness and yieldingness of the bones.
