[f. FILE v.2] The action of the vb. FILE; † concr. excrement.

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c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 2344.

        And now er þai made foule and ugly
Thurgh fylyng of þair syn anly.

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c. 1460.  Vrbanitatis, 52, in Babees Bk. (1868), 14.

        Also epe by hondys fayre & welle
Fro fylynge of the towelle.

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16[?].  Childe Waters, in Evans, O. B. (1784), II. xxxv. 213.

        And take her up in thine armes twaine,
  For filing of her feete.

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a. 1622.  R. Hawkins, in Hawkins’s Voy. (1878), 196. In all this hill, nor in any of their nestes, was to be found a blade of grasse, a straw, a sticke, a feather, a moate, no, nor the filing of any fowle.

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