[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The process of making fat or becoming fat. Also the action of thickening (a type).
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., VII. xxi. (1668), 124. Peacocks … being … seldome or never eaten, it mattereth not much for their fatting.
1623–6. Cockeram, II. A Fattening … sagination.
1676. Moxon, Print. Lett., 32. The outer bounds of O is an exact Circle. The Fatning is made by setting off 5 on either side the Centre in the same Parallel.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Tract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 114. Nothing contributes more to expedite the fattening of cattle, than moderate warmth.
