Clothing vbl. sb.

[f. CLOTHE v.]

  1.  The action of covering or providing with clothes; dressing.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 19064. Inn etinng and inn drinnkinng ec, I claþinng and i trowwþe.

1482.  Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 100. Suche thyngys as longed to her leuyng and clothyng.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. i. 54. For cloathing me in these graue Ornaments.

1884.  Tablet, 11 Oct., 592/2. The ‘clothing’ of two postulants of the Order of Mercy.

  b.  fig. Investiture; endowment.

1876.  Digby, Real Prop., iii. 129. The clothing the donee with the actual possession of the land.

  2.  concr. Clothes collectively, apparel, dress.

c. 1275.  Lay., 3187. Ich þe wole hire bi-wete, mid seolue hire cloþing [c. 1205 claðen].

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 4655 (Cott.). And clahtyng on him lette he fall.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxiii. 97. His clothyng is white as snowe.

a. 1600.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. xx. § 3. Holiness and purity … do much more adorn a bishop, than his peculiar form of clothing.

1611.  Bible, Mark xii. 38. Beware of the Scribes, which loue to goe in long clothing.

1862.  Ruskin, Munera P. (1880), 11. Articles of bodily luxury, including clothing.

  † b.  Bed-clothes. Obs.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 8599 (Gött.). Þair clothing [Trin. beddyng, Cott. clathes] was sua nede and fa.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 35. Their skin forms excellent cloathing both for the bed and the body.

  † c.  An article of dress, a garment. Obs.

1388.  Wyclif, Matt. ix. 16. No man puttith a clout of bostous clothe into an olde clothing [1382 clothe].

  † d.  Livery, uniform; a Livery Company. Obs.

1418.  in Archives of Grocer’s Company, I. 117. And all tho that beyn in the Clothinge schulle paye ij^s. vi^d.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxlii. 276. Euery man in the clothynge of his crafte.

1529.  in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. xiv. 252. The Maysters … shall nott … Admytt any person ynto the Clothyng or lyuerye of the same Mystere, withoute [etc.].

1601.  in Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889), IV. 256. Itt ys ordered that the Aldermen, the Councell, and the Cloathinge shall wayte on Maister Maior on Blake Monday yearely to Saint Ane Well.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., I. iii. This summer, He will be of the clothing of his companie.

  e.  transf. and fig.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter x. 7. Þat comes in clathynge of meknes.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Sept., 157. They … with sheepes clothing doen hem disguise.

1710.  Swift, Tatler, No. 230, ¶ 9. Words are the Cloathing of our Thoughts.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 99. The clothing of the mammoth.

  3.  A covering or casing of cloth, or the like. b. Mech. = CLEADING 2.

a. 1789.  Burney, Hist. Mus. (ed. 2), I. ix. 150. Though the cloathing of the jacks be in close contact with all the strings.

1881.  Miss Braddon, Asphodel, ix. 110. Her boat … was drawn up under cover, and carefully protected by linen clothing.

  c.  Naut. Sails; ‘the rigging of the bowsprit.’

1798.  J. Wooldridge, in Naval Chron. (1799), I. 80. All the timbers, and part of the cloathing, all the rigging.

1882.  Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 47. The clothing of bowsprits are now all fitted with either wire or chain strops.

  † 4.  = Cloth-making. Obs.

1548.  Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI., c. 13 § 7. Every Person exercising Merchandises, Bargaining and Selling, Clothing, Handicraft or other Art or Faculty.

1641.  in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 553. Several Towns there, where cloathing was exercised.

1662.  Fuller, Worthies (1840), I. 442. Clothing is plied in this city with great industry and judgment.

  5.  attrib. a. Engaged in or concerned with the making and selling of cloth.

1594.  Norden, Spec. Brit., Essex (1840), 9. Ther are within this shire theis especiall clothing townes.

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VII. (1843), 401/1. The clothing parts of Somersetshire.

1694.  Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 159. Prejudicial to the Clothing-Trade of the Kingdom in general.

1694.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 392. The English and Dutch cloathing ships were come to that citty [Smyrna].

1759.  B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., I. 119. Exported in the Fleece to the cloathing parts of England.

1843.  Penny Cycl., XXVII. 551. The West Riding of Yorkshire, the most important clothing-district in England, exhibits an area of nearly 40 miles by 20 occupied by clothing towns and villages.

  b.  Of or for clothes.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 131. Marine clothing-room … to receive the clothing of the marines.

1853.  Stocqueler, Military Encycl., 64/2. Colonels of regiments draw off-reckonings, or clothing allowance.

Mod.  They belong to a clothing-club.