[f. as prec. + -ING2.]

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  1.  That fawns or shows pleasure or fondness as a dog does; caressing, fondling. Said also of the arm, tail, or tongue.

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c. 1340.  Cursor M., 12354 (Trin.).

        Þese oþere leouns …
honoured him wiþ faunnyng tail.

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1509.  Hawes, The Pastime of Pleasure, I. xvi.

        When that these grayhoundes had me so espied,
With faunyng chere of great humilitie
In goodly haste they fast unto me hyed.

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a. 1569.  Kingsmill, Godly Advise (1580), 1. The subtile fanyng spaniell.

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1621.  G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., I. (1626), 13. She … Hung on his necke with fawning armes.

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1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 740.

        Trees bent their heads to hear him sing his Wrongs,
Fierce Tygers couch’d around, and loll’d their fawning Tongues.

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c. 1750.  Shenstone, Colemira, 7.

        The fawning cats compassionate his case,
And purr around, and gentle lick his face.

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1842.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 2), V. viii. 120. As a king giving names to fawning brutes.

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  fig.  1635.  Quarles, Embl., I. vi. (1718), 25.

        Let wit or fawning fortune vie their best;
        He may be blest
With all that earth can give: but earth can give no rest.

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  b.  quasi-adv.

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1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 237.

        Þe nyȝtyngale in his note
Twytereþ wel fawnyng
Wiþ full swete song in þe dawenyng.
    Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R. XII. xxiii. (1495), 428. The byrde Kaladrius settyth his syghte on hym and beholdyth hym as it were faunynge and playsynge.

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  2.  Showing servile deference, cringing, flattering.

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1585.  Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 137. Drunkenness is a fawning devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin: which whosoever hath, wanteth himself; and whosoever committeth, doth not commit sin, but is altogether very sin itself.

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1650.  Hubbert, A Pill to Purge Formality, 81. The dearest and highest Saint in heaven cannot so soon procure thy access unto, and acceptance with Jesus Christ in heaven, as the fauning Parasite, and Saint-seeming Devil can with man on earth.

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1701.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3708/1. Edward Troupe … with a fawning Scotch-like Tone.

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1769.  Junius, Lett. xxxv. 164. A fawning treachery against which no prudence can guard.

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1838.  Lytton, Leila, I. v. The voice … smoothed into fawning accents of base fear.

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1857.  Buckle, Civiliz., I. xi. 652. A fawning and hypocritical race.

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