[f. SPORT v.]
1. The action of the verb; engagement or participation in sport.
1483. Vulgaria, 4. Thoos chylder … which are gouen so muche to play & sportyng.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, II. 41. His mates … in diuers mirth the shore in sporting fil.
1582. T. Watson, Centurie of Love, xcii. Hebe,… Goddesse of youth, and youthlie sporting.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 159. The higher roomes are garnisht with variety of landskips, and represents their way of sporting, hawking,… and other fancies.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 95. Let us feign by sporting, and grant a heat to be actually under the Earth and Water.
1796. Windham, Speeches (1812), I. 286. Dogs kept for sporting, were peculiar to the rich, and though he did not mean to arraign sporting, he thought it not the highest sort of amusement.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 178. From this time their sporting was conducted on a much more grand and formidable scale.
1838. Lytton, Alice, II. v. Maltravers … had neither outshone the establishment, nor interfered with the sporting of his fellow-squires.
b. An instance or occasion of this; † a sport.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xv. 59. Passynge the tyme in grete playsaunces, festes, playes & sportynges.
1598. Marston, Pygmal. Sat., xxxv. Could he abstaine mid’st such a wanton sporting From doing that, which is not fit reporting?
1614. Gorges, Lucan, III. 86. The common sort to sportings bent.
1687. Ayres, The Swallow, Wks. (1906), 322. Dear Bird thy tunes and sportings here, Delight us all the day.
transf. 1666. Bp. S. Parker, Free & Impart. Censure (1667), 76. The Quaintest plays and sportings of wit. Ibid., 79. Metaphors being only the sportings of Fancy.
2. † a. The action on the part of Nature of producing an abnormal form or variety; an instance or occasion of this. Obs. Cf. SPORT sb.1 6.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, I. (1723), 40. They are no Shells, but meer Sportings of active Nature.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth, III. iv. 201. [To] ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature,… as some persons are inclinable to do.
1746. Phil. Trans., XLIV. 317. The Lusis Naturæ or sportings of Nature is a general solution too often brought in.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 119. The infinite diversity … may be looked upon as so many sportings of nature.
† b. Irregular diffusion or deposition of pollen.
1763. Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist., VI. 73. Thus … amongst apple-trees, a mixture of fruit hath been observed on the same tree, supposed by the sporting of the farina.
c. The action on the part of plants, etc., of deviating or varying from the parent stock or type by spontaneous mutation; an abnormal form or variation so produced; a sport.
1841. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 176. It is doubtful whether any of these sportings will produce a permanent variety. Ibid. (1842), III. 84. This is remarkably the case in the natural ‘sporting of varieties,’ as it is called.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 371. That ferns are more liable to what is technically called ‘sporting,’ than other plants.
1882. Garden, 14 Jan., 32/3. The lecturer then alluded to sporting from seed as another method of raising new forms.
3. attrib. and Comb. a. In older usage, as sporting device, game, matter, place, time, etc.
1480. Coventry Leet-bk., 458. Þe people maken þe same seuerall grounde a sportyng place with shotyng & other games.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Ludicrum certamen, a sportyng game.
1579. L. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 310/1. It is no sporting matter when the Lorde calleth vs to serue him in this office.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xiv. (1592), 220. So the Soule which is in the Jaile of his souereine Lord God, hath no respit or sporting time to come tell vs what is done there.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 105. Like a Schoole broke vp, Each hurryes towards his home, and sporting place.
b. In later and mod. use, as sporting celebrity, party, purpose; freq. in senses ‘formed or undertaken for sport,’ ‘concerned with or interested in sport,’ as sporting association, magazine, newspaper, tour, and ‘used in or for sport,’ as sporting bullet, cartridge, dog, gear, gun.
1728. Ramsay, Anacreontic on Love, 25. If that the rain Has wrang’d aught of my sporting-gear.
1789. White, Selborne, cii. No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent and trained to the sport.
1793–. (title), The Sporting Magazine; or Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf.
1815. Ann. Reg., Chron., 110. Several persons of fashion as well as sporting celebrity.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, v. The uniform of a sporting association.
1820. W. Tooke, Lucian, I. 109. My little sporting-dog … began to bark.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn), 87. Dyson could always make up a little sporting party.
1860. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., x. If I cherished betting propensities, I should probably be found registered in sporting newspapers [etc.].
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 271/1. The stout pasteboard sporting cartridges.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, ii. A little further conversation on financial and sporting topics.
c. Special Combs., as sporting-box, a small residence for use during the sporting season (see BOX sb.2 14); sporting door Univ. slang (see quot. and SPORT v. 11 b); sporting-house, a house, hotel or inn frequented by sportsmen; U.S. a betting or gambling house; a brothel or disorderly house; † sporting-piece, a plaything; † sporting stock, a laughing-stock; a butt.
1840. Howitt, Visits Remark. Places, 1st Ser. 210. The Duke of Devonshire’s house … serves for a *sporting-box, when his Grace comes hither in autumn to the moors.
1852. Bristed, Five Yrs. in Eng. Univ. (ed. 2), 58. Be it premised, for the benefit of the uninitiated, that Oxonians call the *sporting door ‘the oak.’
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iv. It is a well-known *sporting-house, and the breakfasts are famous.
1894. Stead, If Christ Came to Chicago, 5. The novice in the sporting house, as well as the hardened old harridan who drives the trade in human flesh, are herded together.
1740–1. Richardson, Pamela, II. 36. Here I am again! a pure *Sporting-piece for the Great! a mere Tennis-ball of Fortune.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., III. iii. We do hym loute and flocke, And make him among vs, our common *sporting stocke.
