[f. SPEW v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb in various senses; vomiting; an instance or occasion of this.
a. 1000. in Wr.-Wülcker, 230. Euomatio, speowung.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., Ibid. 162. Euomitio, spiwingc.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 393. Also he usede ofte clistories and spuynge. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XIII. xxi. (Bodl. MS.). Þe see … bredeþ drede and feere & heedeache and spuying.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471/1. Spwynge, or brakynge (or parbrakynge), vomitus.
1500. Ortus Vocab., Ructus i. vomitus, angl’. a spwynge.
1535. Coverdale, Hab. ii. 16. For the cuppe of the Lordes righte honde shall compasse the aboute, and shamefull spewinge in steade of thy worshipe.
1657. H. Crowch, Welsh Traveller, 4. Then to spewing did her [= she] fall.
1686. J. Dunton, Lett. fr. New-Eng. (1867), 22–3. As often as I view’d the Ocean, or durst peep out of my Cabin, to order Palmer to assist me in my Spewing.
1842. Burn, Naval & Mil. Techn. Dict., I. Egueulement, elliptical enlargement of the bore, called running or spewing at the muzzle, of a gun, occasioned by quick and long continued firing.
1883. Athenæum, 4 Aug., 146/3. The ‘spueing’ of the sloppy ink over the edges of the letters.
b. attrib., as spewing-fit, † -nut (see quot.).
1586. Lupton, 1000 Notable Things (1675), 121. The pouder of Nux Vomica called the Spuing Nut.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Walk round Lond., Quaker’s Meet., Wks. 1709, III. III. 21. When the Spewing-fit is over, he’ll sit down to take a Nod.
2. Matter spewed out or vomited; spew.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 330. Houndis … þat after þe tyme þat þei have spued þei turnen aȝen and eeten þe spuynge. Ibid. (1388), Isaiah xxviii. 8. Alle bordis weren fillid with spuyng and filthis.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 226. If a man by any chaunce of glotony, do spue out ye sacrement, the same spuyng must be brent.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., 98. Spuans, what is vomited.
