Forcing vbl. sb.

[see -ING¹.]

  1.  The action of the vb. FORCE.

1382.  Wyclif, 2 Kings v. 16. And whanne forsynge he made, vtturly he assentyde not.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xv. (1495), 234. Leest there be grete dyssolucion of the brayne by a forsynge of voyce.

14[?].  Tretyce, in Walter of Henley’s Husb. (1890), 50. Se welle þ^t yo^z mowere hold not his ryght honde afore to hyghe be hynde hym so þat he kyt a sonder þe grasse in þe mydis and þis defaute is callid forsyng.

1514.  Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 27.

1634.  J. B[ate], Myst. Nat., I. 15 The forcing of water by pressure, that is the naturall course of water in regard of its heavinesse and thinnesse, artificially contrived to break out of what image you please.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4047/4. A black Mare, with some white Hairs in her forehead by forcing.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 306. The forcing of his [Hough’s] door was everywhere mentioned with abhorrence.

  † 2.  concr. A material used in ‘forcing’ wine.

1731–3.  P. Shaw, Chem. Lect. (1755), 209. Skimmed Milk likewise is a proper Forcing for all white Wines, Arracks, and small Spirits.

1743.  Lond. & Country Brew., IV. (ed. 2), 331. The Victualler puts four Gallons of Molosses into one Butt, and with it the usual Forcing or Fining, which he stirs all soundly about with a Hand-staff.

  3.  attrib. and Comb. a. attributive, as forcing-apparatus, -furnace, -pipe. Also forcing-engine, a fire-engine; forcing-hazard (Billiards), a stroke requiring more than the usual amount of force; forcing-yard (Austral.), a yard into which cattle are forced or driven, in order to keep each sort by itself.

1875.  J. H. Collins, Metal Mining, 123. The *forcing apparatus is a kind of clockwork, which is wound up each morning by one man in less than an hour, and the light is said to be quite equal to coal, gas, or even superior to it.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Forcing-engine. A fire-engine.

1652.  French, Yorksh. Spa, vi. 62. Being distilled in a *forceing furnace, yield oyle, and spirit.

1731.  Beighton, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 8. *Forcing Pipes.

1890.  Boldrewood, Colonial Reformer (1891), 217. With these merely suggestive scourges they did not find it difficult to urge the indifferent animals into the smaller *forcing-yards.

  b.  esp. in combs. relating to the forcing of flowers, etc., as forcing-bed, -field, -frame, -glass, -ground, -house, -pit, -wall; and quasi-adj. with the sense ‘suitable for forcing,’ as in forcing rose, variety.

1877.  Mar. M. Grant, Sun-Maid, iii. Large *forcing-beds of lilies of the valley and of violets, white, purple, or rich and sweet-scented Parma, were being nurtured under a south wall with infinite care, all destined to bloom forth with luxury and abundance at the earliest breath of spring.

1865.  Spectator, 14 Jan., 44. The turnips in his *forcing field.

1737.  Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 352. If you would have forward Fruits in *forcing Frames, mind to keep up your Heat to the same Temperament, whether it be done by Dung or Fire.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., *Forcing-ground, the space or portion of ground in a garden that is destined to the purpose of forcing or raising vegetable productions by means of artificial heat.

1806–7.  J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), XXI. xi. Attending an Amateur-gardener, in the Dog-days, through all his *Forcing-houses, where he detains you among his pines and melons, till you are in danger of being forced, too!

1870.  Lowell, Study Wind., Swinburne’s Tragedies, 210. There is hardly enough fervor of political life there at present to ripen anything but the fruits of the literary forcing-house, so fair outwardly and so flavor less compared with those which grow in the hardier open air of a vigorous popular sentiment.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., *Forcing-wall, a wall constructed with flues for the purpose of conveying and communicating fire-heat, in order to ripen, at an earlier period than usual, various kinds of tree-fruits that are planted and trained against it.