[f. SOW v.1]
1. The action of scattering seed.
13[?]. Cursor M., 6378 (Gött.). Moyses … fand þaim fode in þair nede, widuten sauing of ani sede.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 102. ‘I schal sese of my sowynge,’ quod pers, ‘and swynke not so harde.’
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 466. Sowynge, of corne and oþer sedys, sacio,… seminacio.
1473. Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879), I. 164. In sauyng of quhet, pess, ry and benys.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 14. Whether it be for the vnseasonablenes of the wether, or for thyn sowynge.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xxxii. 154 b. The sowing of corne was brought in … by Triptolemus.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 183. The Ananas … growes nor from Tree nor sowing, but of a root.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 319. Nor cease your sowing till Mid-winter ends.
1767. A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. to People, 310. He should attend the culture of the lands, the sowing and harvest.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, Poems (1905), 185. June reared that bunch of flowers you carry, From seeds of April’s sowing.
1896. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, viii. 203. The rebels … are getting tired of war, as it prevents the sowing of next year’s crop.
b. In figurative or transf. use.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxii. (Justin), 337. Woman … suld man haf hyre make to be, for þe sawyng of þare sede.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 83. Jn þis cornere of wose in þe mowth is sowyng of dyscorde.
1529. More, Dyalogue, Pref. A j b. The soweynge & settyng forth of Luthers pestilent heresies in this realme.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 538. By sowing of strange doctrine.
2. An instance or occasion of this.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 42. The grounde must out of hand be plowed … to make it the meeter for the next sowyng.
1719. London & Wise, Compl. Gard., 201. The Seeds of the first sowing are generally three Weeks coming up.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., II. 251. On the eleventh of August I suspended the sowings.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 521. By successive sowings in the open air and on heat.
1899. Speaker, 25 Nov., 191/2. There can be no cold weather sowings.
fig. and transf. 1643. J. Caryl, Expos. Job, I. 287. There is a sowing, which is the work of charity.
1844. Thirlwall, Greece, lxiv. VIII. 320. So ended the Macedonian war; with a plentiful sowing of the dragon’s teeth.
3. That which is sown; the quantity of seed sown at one time.
Not always clearly distinct from sense 2.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 257. The Salts of the first … are most agreeable to such late Sowings.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 334. The earlier sowings are cut off by the frost.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 656. These sowings will come into use in November.
1888. R. Jefferies, in Century Mag., Oct., 815/1. You could not keep the birds out of the garden, try how you would. They had most of the sowings up.
4. attrib. and Comb., as sowing-harvest, -season, -time, etc.
1382. Wyclif, Lev. xxvi. 5. The vyndage shal occupie the sowynge tyme.
1532. Hervet, Xenoph. Househ., 50 b. Whanne … a man hath chosen his sowynge tyme.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 23 b. To … prepare it for the sowing season.
c. 1613. Social Cond. People Anglesey (1860), 17. The men go in sowing harvest abroad to begg graine and seed.
1681. Rector’s Bk., Clayworth (1910), 52. Barley found dry in 3 Fields, having lain so, ever since sowing time.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 154. They used not generally to buy their seed-barley, nor seed-oats, but just before sowing-time.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 639. March or April is the sowing season.
b. With the names of seed, in the sense ‘suitable or used for sowing,’ as sowing mustard, seed, peas. Hence Comm. in sowing orders, requirements.
1604–5. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 160. Towe mettes of sowinge pesen iiijs xd.
1611. Bible, Lev. xi. 37. And if any part of their carkasse fall vpon any sowing seed which is to be sowen, it shalbe cleane.
1648. Hexham, II. Zaet-goedt, Sowing Seed.
1883. Daily News, 6 Sept., 2/7. There is a good inquiry for sowing mustard. Ibid. (1893), 4 May, 7/2. Numerous sowing orders still come to hand.
c. With the names of implements, etc., used in sowing, as sowing-gear, -machine, -plough, -sheet.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 78. A wheat two-wheeled sowing-plough.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 323. The seed to be deposited by a sowing-machine.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXII. 278. The idea … was followed up … in the sowing-barrow, an instrument still extensively used for sowing grass-seeds.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 507. The most convenient form of sowing-sheet. Ibid., 535. The sowing-geer of the machine.
