[f. BRIM v.3 + -ING2.]
1. That rises to the brim of its vessel, basin or bed; that fills to overflowing.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 336. They in the rinde, Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream.
1857. Emerson, Poems, 42. The brimming brook invites a leap.
1864. Tennyson, Brook, 64. And out again I curve and flow, To join the brimming river.
fig. 1864. Spectator, 424. All true poetry really requires a brimming vitality of feeling and impression.
2. Of a vessel: Brim-full, full to overflowing.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 43. To store the Dairy, with a brimming Pail.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XX. 317. Wine rosy bright the brimming goblets crowned.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 48. To fill the brimming cup.
3. advb.
1848. W. E. Aytoun, Danube & Eux., 10. I am brimming full and red.