Also 4–5 sortyng, 5 Sc. -en, 6 soorting. [f. SORT v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb., in various senses; arrangement, classification.
c. 1358. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 561. Will’o Randman pro pylyng et sortyng lane.
1485. Act 1 Hen. VII., c. 10 § 7. The same Wolle shuld be … clene wounde, withoute any sortyng, barbyng or clakkyng.
1494. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 248. Giffyne for sorten of the tymmyr in the ȝard, iij s. iij d.
1554. Act 1 Mary, c. 7 § 1. The … principall grounde of Clothmaking ys the true sorting of Wolles.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. iv. It is the sorting, and the dividing,… and the decocting, that makes the fumigation.
1625. Markham, Souldier’s Accid., 1. For the Sorting of Armes, it is a good proportion to haue a Companie equally compounded of Armed men and Shot.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. iii. (1695), 230. The Essences of the sorts of Things, and consequently the sorting of Things, is the Workmanship of the Understanding.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 10, ¶ 6. The sorting of a Suit of Ribbons.
1765. Phil. Trans., LV. 205. In sorting, the skain to be examined is put upon the hook.
1856. De Quincey, in ‘H. A. Page,’ Life (1877), II. xvii. 51. The separation and sorting of such innumerable papers.
1892. Athenæum, 23 April, 530/1. We have … a little too much mere sorting of the varied intellectual material.
2. With a and pl. An instance of this.
1611. Cotgr., Assortissement,… a sorting, or suiting of things together.
1764. Museum Rust., II. 38. I divide my fruit into three several sorts…; from these three sortings I have … six several kinds of cyder.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 812. The substances … undergo another sorting, with greater or less care.
1871. Carlyle, in Mrs. C’s Lett. (1883), II. 362. He did for me all manner of … summaries, copyings, sortings.
b. Sc. An assortment, supply, stock.
a. 1779. D. Graham, Leper the Taylor, I. Writ. 1883, II. 116. Poor Sandy went home with a skinful of terror, and a sorting of sore bones.
3. With advs., as out, up.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 76. Then came a sorting out of the juniors from the seniors, of the boys from the girls.
1890. Daily News, 16 Dec., 6/4. The higher prices … have caused a little more sorting up.
4. attrib., as sorting-action; sorting-boom, † -cloth, † kersey, -machine (see quots.).
Also, in recent use, with advs., as sorting-out influence, sorting-up business, order, trade, etc.
1897. V. Cornish, in Geogr. Jrnl., IX. 278. One of the most remarkable phenomena attending the distribution of earthy materials by wind (or water) is the *sorting action exercised by the fluid.
1877. Lumberman’s Gaz., 8 Dec., 362. There is a system of *‘sorting booms’ by which the logs, each bearing a distinguishing mark, are distributed to their several ownerships.
1593. 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., 7/1. Woollen cloths … called vesses,… park cloths, or *sorting cloths made in Somersetshire.
1674. Jeake, Arith. (1696), 68. One Sack of Wooll … is accompted to make 4 Standard Clothes of clean Wooll called sorting Clothes.
1847. Halliw., Sorting-cloths, a kind of short cloths, with a blue selvage on both sides of the lists, made in the Eastern counties.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), *Sorting-Kersies, a sort of Cloth so call’d.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2246–7. *Sorting-machine.… A machine for gaging leather strips as they are cut from the hide to certain regulated sizes.
b. In the sense ‘in, at, or on which sorting is done,’ as sorting-board, house, office, siding, etc.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 191. In which is one of the sorting houses, under the comptrolment of the general penny-post.
1851. J. Milne, Autobiog., iv. 109. Aberdeen has become what is termed a sorting office.
1885. F. H. Bowman, Struct. Wool Fibre, Gloss. 358. Sorting-board. The table on which wool is sorted.
1899. Daily News, 4 March, 3/2. At Woodford there are extensive sorting sidings.
