vbl. sb. [f. SPIRIT sb. or v.]
1. The action or work of a spirit or sprite; the ministering of spirits. Also fig.
In mod. use only in echoes of the Shakespearean passage.
1768. Shakspere’s Temp., I. ii. 298 (Capell). I will be correspondent to command, And do my, spiriting [fol. spryting] gently.
1841. Moore, Lalla Rookh, Poet. Wks. VI. Pref. p. xvii. Quick as Fancy required the aid of fact, in her spiritings.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., cvi. III. 16. Like lawyers, they are ready to do their spiritings with as little of personal bitterness as human nature will admit.
1880. Browning, Dram. Idyls, Ser. II. 120. As I am free to do my spiriting.
2. Inspiration.
1845. Mrs. Browning, in Lett. Browning & E. B. Barrett (1899), I. 37. We turn to you … for comfort and gentle spiriting.
3. techn. A solution of spirits with which carpets, lace, etc., are treated in their manufacture.
1883. Haldane, Workshop Rec., Ser. II. 146. When it [sc. a curtain] has been well worked in this [soap liquor], handle it directly out of the soap into the spiriting.
