vbl. sb. [from assumed vb. to COLONEL: see -ING1.] A Hudibrastic expression for: Acting or playing the colonel; in later times, sometimes taken humorously as ‘trying to raise a regiment, beating about for soldiers.’
In Hudibras, probably traceable to that early stage of the Civil War when it was carried on with little general plan, and the doings of Colonel This and Colonel That (notably Colonel Cromwell) were conspicuous,—being independent manifestations of warlike energy, not parts of a strategic whole. (Edith Thompson.)
1663. Butler, Hud., I. i. 14. Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a Colonelling.
1691. Southerne, Sir A. Love, I. i. I robb’d my keeper … and under thy discretion, came a Collonelling after him here into France.
a. 1745. Swift, Songs & Ball. (1807), 106. No subject fit to try your wit When you went colonelling.
1836. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), IV. 72. A man is not to go out ‘colonelling’ … in search of remote wrongs and dubious grievances.
1853. Stocqueler, Mil. Encycl., Colonelling, beating about for soldiers. A familiar phrase.
1859. F. Mahoney, Rel. Father Prout, 480. A truce to war! a long release From ‘colonelling!’
1881. Stevenson, Virg. Puerisque, 89.
