[f. as prec. + -ING2.] A. adj.
† 1. Of persons, actions, language, etc.: Overstepping the limits of propriety or custom; going to extremes. Obs.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., IV. lxiii. 43. He exercisid Tyranny … in so excedynge maner, that the Countree waxed wery of hym, & conspyrid his deth.
1529. More, Dyaloge, IV. Wks. 265/1. To shew by that great exceding word [let him be anathema] the vndoubted trouth of the faith.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 315. Why was Anna so exceeding in craving children at the hands of God?
1644. Hunton, Vind. Treat. Monarchy, iv. 27. Exceeding Acts notwithstanding morall limitation are authoritative.
1742. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. & Corr. (1861), II. 191. Sir Philip Sydney’s famous Romance … is far exceeding the exceedingness of the most exceeding imagination.
2. Surpassing in amount or degree; extremely great, excessive. Now only with sbs. denoting quality, condition, or feeling, or including a notion of magnitude or multitude. Rarely used predicatively.
1547–8. Order Communion, 10. The excedyng loue of our master and onely sauior Jesus Christ.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 23. In the .vi. yere of his [William II.’s] reigne were exceedyng floodes.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. v. 10. Whose beauties beame … daz’d the eyes of all as with exceeding light.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 76. The exceeding quantity of water which at every interval he drinks.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), II. 133. It cannot but be an exceeding grief … to you that you cannot obey … him.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. Pref. p. xli. Attended with a vast concourse of people, and exceeding magnificence.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 677. The multitude had been incensed against Friend by reports touching the exceeding badness of the beer which he brewed.
1866. Neale, Sequences & Hymns, 112. The exceeding host of priests.
1875. Scrivener, Lect. Grk. Test., 19. Their exceeding value for illustrating the literary history of these … ages.
1878. G. Macdonald, Phantastes, II. xx. 132. His love for his father was so exceeding.
† 3. Of surpassing excellence. Obs.
1552. Latimer, Serm. (1571), 166 b. Christ tooke … our nature vpon him … Oh, what an exceeding thing is this?
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. ii. Wks. (Rtldg.), 43/1. How long shall I live, ere I be so happy To have a wife of this exceeding form?
B. adv. = next. Prefixed to adjs. or advbs. Very common in 17–18th c.; now somewhat arch.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Chron. xxii. [xxi.] 13. Yet wyl I rather fall in to ye hande of the Lorde, for his mercy is exceadynge greate.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. iv. 25. My heart is exceeding heauy.
1644. Milton, Educ., Wks. (1847), 99/2. We Englishmen … are observed by all other nations to speak exceeding close and inward.
1735. Wesley, Wks. (1872), I. 18. Mr. Delamotte was exceeding sick for several days.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 96. Our Papua friends … had behaved exceeding civily.
1814. Wordsw., Excursion, I. 112. A virtuous household, though exceeding poor.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, viii. 321. The controversy is one in which there is exceeding little footing for any party.
1857. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks., 17 Sept. He is of exceeding fluent talk.
