c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4062. With that the cherl his clubbe gan shake, Frouning his eyen gan to make, And hidous chere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 181/1. Frownynge.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke iii. 9 E vj. For bittur frounyng, godly ioye and lightenesse of herte.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 145. With frownings dume, downe are his smilings cast.
1616. J. Lane, Cont. Sqr’s. T., x. 477.
| Whome when the kinge saw, said, ‘Hence naughtie knave!’ | |
| so, turnes him fro, and nought but frowninges gave. |
1713. Swift, Frenzy of J. Dennis, Wks. 1755, III. I. 146. He read a page or two with much frowning.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, I. 16. xxvi.
| When he a ploughboy in the fields did maul, | |
| And drudg’d with toil through almost every scene; | |
| How pinch’d with winter’s frownings he has been. |
1872. Darwin, Emotions, ix. 224. We may conclude that frowning is not the expression of simple reflection, however profound, or of attention, however close, but of something difficult or displeasing encountered in a train of thought or in action.
