[f. FORGET v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FORGET; also, † the state of being unconscious, oblivion.
1340. Ayenb., 18. Ingratitude, þet is uoryeti[n]ge of god and of his guodes.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxxxiv. (1495), 724. Wyne bredyth in the soule foryetynge of anguyssh.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well (E.E.T.S.), 109. Fforȝetyng makyth a man in his schryfte to forȝete boþe smale synnes & grete.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Prætermissio, forgetynge, or leuinge out of a thynge.
1614. W. Barclay, Nepenthes, in Jas. I., Counterbl. (Arb.), 116. It maketh and induceth κακῶν ἐπιζηθον ἁ πάντων the forgetting of all sorrowes and miseries.
1643. Milton, Divorce, II. xxii. (1851), 128. I am not willing to discover the forgettings of reverend men, yet here I must.
1803–6. Wordsw. Intim. Immort., v.
| Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: | |
| The soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, | |
| Hath had elsewhere its setting, | |
| And cometh from afar. |
† 2. The state of being forgotten, oblivion. Obs.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., lvi. (1889), 174. Heo na byð on forgytincge [oblivione].
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Cant. 498. Þou gafe til forgetynge, all my synnys.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xv. 236. That thilk mynde die not and falle not into forȝeting.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. i. 4. God had prouided to preserue it from forgetting.
