Felling

vbl. sb. [f. FELL v. + -ING¹.]

  1.  The action or an act of cutting down (timber); concr. the quantity cut down. In quot. 1654 gerundially with omission of in.

1543.  Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 17 § 1. Such Standils … as have been left there standing at any the felling of the same Coppice Woods.

1624.  Capt. Smith, Virginia, v. 194. Against the felling of marked trees appointed for bounds.

1651.  R. Child, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 47. They every felling cut down the standers, which they left the felling before.

1654.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 302. Saw my Lord Craven’s house … now in ruins, his goodly woods felling by the rebels.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 109. Large Timber, eighty foot high, streight, without a knot, and at no other cost but felling and lading.

1884.  Sir E. Fry, in Law Reports, 28 Ch. Div. 231. They have treated the … fellings of larch trees as income to be paid to the tenant.

  † b.  ? concr. A clearing. Obs. (If this be the sense, the word in quot. is due to misinterpretation of fell = mountain, in an earlier text.)

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2831 (Gött.).

  † 2.  Sc. ‘Lowering, down-bringing; abatement, deduction’ (Jam., Supp.). Obs. Cf. FELL v. 5.

c. 1300.  Stat. Gilde, xxviii., in Anc. Laws Burghs Scot., 77. Pacabit mercatori a quo predicta emerat secundum forum prius factum sine felling uel herlebreking.

  3.  (See FELL v. 6.)

1875.  Plain Needlework, 11. Here are taught hemming, seaming (or sewing), felling, and fixing.

  4.  attrib. and Comb., as felling-axe, -machine, -saw, -time; felling-bird, the Wryneck (Yunx torquilla).

1486.  Nottingham Rec., III. 244. For a grete fellyng axe.

1549.  Privy Council Acts (1890), II. 350. Felling axes, l; hatchetes, l. Ibid., 349. Felling axes, iiij dousen; hand basketes, c dousen.

1669.  J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 109. The best way is at felling-time to new cut them.

1691.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2675/3, 20. Men with Felling Axes.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Felling-saw. This has a taper blade about 6¹/₂ feet long, with gullet-teeth, and operated like the cross-cut saw by a man or men at each end.

1877.  N. W. Linc. Gloss., Felling axe, an axe with a long and narrow head used for felling timber.

1883.  Hampsh. Gloss., Felling-bird … its note being first heard about the time … when oaks are felled.