Lying vbl. sb.¹

Forms: see LIE v.¹ [f. LIE v.¹ + -ING¹.]

  1.  The action of LIE v.¹ in various senses; resting, reclining, remaining in deposit, † being sick, etc.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 8. Fleschs forgon oþer visch, & alle oþer swuche þinges, of weriunge, of liggunge, of vres, of beoden.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6686. Þe smiter sal quite his lechyng, And þe scath of his liging.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 141. For boþe Cristis liynge in þe sepulcre and his dwellinge here in erþe was litil tyme.

a. 1400.  Cursor M., 29091 (Cott. Galba). Þe first [discipline es] … sighing, wepeing, and ill liging.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 137. Solt lyenge, soft weryng, or moche fedyng of delycate meates.

1602.  Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 167. ’Tis a commodity will lose the glosse with lying; The longer kept, the lesse worth.

1634.  Lease by R. Kenward to W. Deane, verso (MS.). I … would never have bought it but for the convenient lying of it to my other ground.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, vii. Sugar-Chest … Stuff being commonly well-season’d, by the long lying of the Sugar in it.

1726.  Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 34/1. Liquify’d by long lying in the Water.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 574. This situation [of a bed sore] is determined … by the lying of the paralytic on that side.

  † b.  spec. The state of being buried; concr. place of sepulture. Obs.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxx. 244. Kyng Edward chese his sepulture and his lyggyng at Westmynster.

a. 1676.  Gunton, Hist. Ch. Peterburgh (1686), 77. The Heralds … appointed … the place for the body to be Interred, which was devised over against the lying of Queen Katherine.

  c.  with adv. or advb. phr. (see LIE v.¹ IV). Also LYING-IN.

1382.  Wyclif, Rom. ix. 10. Rebecca, of o liggynge by hauynge tweye sones of Ysaac, our fadir.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 93. Bote wiþ som manere rouschelynge þat he made in ligynge adoun his felowe awook.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 333/2. He hadde Subtylytee for teschewe the lyggynge in a wayte of his enemyes.

1530.  Palsgr., 239/2. Lying in wayte, aguaytance. Ibid., 423. I am upon my lieng downe, as a woman that is nere her tyme.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 87. From thence to the lying out of the mountaine Pyrenæus, Aquitania.

1611.  Bible, Ps. cxxxix. 3. Thou compassest my path, and my lying downe. Ibid. (1611), Acts xx. 19. Many teares, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait [Tindale layinges awayte] of the Iewes.

1623.  Massinger, Bondman, II. i. There’s a sport too Nam’d lying Perdieu … Which you must learne to play at.

1647.  Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T. (1841), 81. This lying along is an improper posture for piety.

1711.  W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 115. B. is the Fore-top-sail braced back, which is done … to stop her way, term’d Lying-by.

1711.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4910/2. The Admiral thought it proper … to make the Signal for lying by.

1792.  Charlotte Smith, Desmond, II. 121. You have accused me of lying by in Company.

  attrib.  c. 1834.  N. P. Willis, in G. Paston, Little Mem. 19th C. (1902), 176. His [Disraeli’s] eye … has the most mocking lying-in-wait expression conceivable.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 460. If a change from the lying-down to the sitting-up position is rapidly made.

  2.  concr. With qualification (as dry, soft, warm, etc., lying): Accommodation for repose.

1853.  De Quincey, Autobiog. Sk., Wks. I. 295. It was a subject of gratitude … to dwell upon the soft lying which was to be found in that … morass.

1868.  Nettleship, Browning, vii. 262. A poet from his birth, nursed in Nature’s softest lying.

1886.  Weekly Times, 6 Aug., 13/3. There is no finer feeding or warmer lying in Scotland.

1898.  Westm. Gaz., 20 May, 10/2. Dry lying—a dry bed at night—is … essential to the welfare of deer.

  3.  attrib., as lying-ground, -place; † lying-house (see quot. 1593); lying-press (Printing) = laying-press (see LAYING vbl. sb. 3).

1895.  Cornish, Wild Eng., 122. The paddock is a favourite *lying ground for hares.

1423–4.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 271. Pro ligatur pro hostio vocato trapdoure supra *lyng house, iiijd.; et pro seris et clavibus pro lyng house, xxd.

1593.  Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (Surtees), 75. A strong prysonne call the Lynghouse [MS. Cos., Lyinge house].

1382.  Wyclif, Prov. vii. 17. I ha sprengd my *ligging place with myrre, and aloes.

1580.  Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Desbauger vn sanglier, to raise a wilde Bore from his lying place.

1876.  Encycl. Brit., IV. 43/1. By screwing the volume up in the *lying-press.