[f. LORD v. + -ING1.] The action of LORD v. in various senses.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Pet., 14. The office of a right bysshop is ferre of from lordinge.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xvii. (1611), 150. When they sit, they hold their heads steady and without motion: which stately action Spencer in his Shepheard’s calender calleth the lording of Frogs. [See LORD v. 1 b, 1579.]
1648. Milton, Tenure Kings (1650), 46. The censorious and supercilious lording over conscience.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, xxi. 193. To exonerate themselves they transferre this Lording … on the Bishop’s.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. iii. 112. Possibly the fifteen days’ lording it at Sluys may have broken in … on his outfit.
1890. T. Hardy, in New Rev., Jan., 20. The present lording of nonage over maturity.
attrib. 1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. ix. (1623), 607. As was the fashion of those Lording times.
1863. W. Lancaster, Præterita, 54. Zeus … metes me out a little lording nook.
