vbl. sb. [f. LACE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. LACE, in various senses.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1646. Gigginge of sheeldes, with layneres lacinge.
1577. Fenton, Gold. Ep., 13. To breake your fast standing and whilest your armour is in laceing.
1599. Life Sir T. More, in Wordsworth, Eccl. Biog. (1853), II. 114. What paines she took … with lacinge in of her bodie.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., II. 248/2. For cutting, edging, stiffning, and for lacing.
1821. Byron, Juan, IV. lxxxvi. (MS.). To help the ladies in their dress and lacing.
1871. Figure Training, 80. The lace … at the first lacing was moderately tight.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Mech. Engin., Lacing, the union by means of laces of the ends of leather belting used in driving machines.
1893. H. Vizetelly, Glances Back, I. ii. 41. The sound lacing which the young rascal should inevitably receive.
2. concr. or quasi-concr. a. That which laces or fastens; a fastening, tie; a shoe-string. b. Ornamental braiding for men’s clothes (cf. LACE sb. 5). c. The colored border on the petal of a flower; also, a similar marking on the feathers of birds. d. A small quantity of spirits mingled with some beverage.
a. a. 1400. Sir Perc., 744. He ne couthe never fynd righte The lacynge of his wede.
c. 1400. Apol. Lollards, 34. Neþer is no man worþi to opun þe lasing of His scho.
1591. R. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Abrochadura, lacing of a coate, strictura.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 48. Studding sails are generally brought to with a lacing.
1881. Grant, Confess. Frivolous Girl, 120. Canvas shoes with colored lacings.
b. 1593. Rotherham Feoffee’s Acc., 24. Paid … for fowertene yeardes of lacing,… [etc.] 2s. 10d.
1611. Cotgr., Passement,… a lace, or lacing.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Quality (1808), I. 27. He … began to cut, and rip, and rend away the lacings of his suit, without sparing cloth or seam.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 9 Nov., 3/2. The half-state uniforms are made of royal blue cloth, with gold lacings.
c. 1850. Beck’s Florist, 144. Pinks whose delicate lacings are spangled with the early dew.
1882. Garden, 25 March, 202/1. [The] colour and lacing [of a Gold-laced Polyanthus].
d. 1862. Athenæum, 27 Sept., 396. So long as it [water] be … united with a proper ‘lacing’ of wine or brandy.
3. In various technical uses: a. Bridge-building. (See quot. 1885.) b. Mining. (See quot. 1883.) c. Math. A complex of three or more endless cords so arranged that they cannot be separated, though no two are interlinked. d. Naut. and Ship-building. (See quots. c. 1850 and 1867.)
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 128. Lacing, one of the principal pieces that compose the knee of the head, which runs up to the top of the hair bracket, and to which the figure and rails of the head are secured.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Lacing, rope or cord used to lace a sail to a gaff, or a bonnet to a sail.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, Lacing, 1. timbers placed across the tops of bars or caps to secure the roof between the gears. 2. Strips or light bars of wrought iron bent over at the ends and wedged in tight between the bars and the roof.
1885. Waddell, Syst. Iron Railr. Bridges Japan, 246. Lacing, a system of bars, not intersecting each other at the middle, used to connect the two channels of a strut in order to make them act as one member.
4. attrib., as lacing-bar, -silk; lacing-cutter, lacing-hook (see quots.).
1558. Richmond, Wills & Invent. (Surtees), 127. iij ounce of lasing silke.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Lacing Cutter (Leather), a knife with a gage, to preserve the width of the strip. Lacing Hook (Boot), hooks on the margins of the upper, over which a lace is caught side by side alternately to close the opening of the shoe.
1885. Waddell, Syst. Iron Railr. Bridges Japan, 246. Lacing Bar, a bar belonging to a system of lacing.
