[f. QUAIL v.1 + -ING2.] Diminishing, becoming weak; losing hope or courage, etc.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., IX. (1593), 215. To quicken up the quailing love.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., IV. xxi[i]. (1612), 105. Did quicken Englands quailing plowes.
1880. G. Meredith, Trag. Com. (1881), 158. Her father’s unwonted harshness suggested the question to her quailing nature.
1894. Sir E. Sullivan, Woman, 34. Shrinking, quailing, agonised victims.
