[f. STALK v.1 + -ING1.] The action of STALK v.1; † stealthy movement (obs.); pursuit of game by the method of stealthy approach.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom. (Th.), II. 138. On sumere nihte hlosnode sum oðer munuc his færeldes and mid sleaccre stalcunge his fotswaðum filiʓde.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. xix. (1495), 46. Yf the fende mnye not dysceyue wyth stalkynge he puttyth to ferfull gastness and drede.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 472/1. Stalkynge, or soft and sly goynge, serptura.
c. 1460. York Myst., xxx. 157. With no stalkyng nor no striffe be ye stressed.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VIII., c. 11. The grettest destruccion of Reed Deere and Falowe … is with Nettis … and stalking with beestis.
1533. in Archæologia, XXV. 522. Item delyvered to my hosbond … when he went a stalkynge for master tresurer.
1553. Respublica, I. iii. 160. Theare was … such herkenynge, suche stalking, suche watching, such spyinge.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exped., xii. (1856), 86. The Esquimaux … by a patient process of stalking, succeed in getting within rifle shot.
b. attrib. as stalking engine, gelding, -ground, ox, -shoe, -system. Also STALKING-HORSE.
1531. Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VIII. (1827), 112. Paied to a servant of my lorde lisles in Rewarde for bringing of the Stalking Oxe, x s. Ibid., 132. For the mete of the kingis white stalking guelding.
1621. Markham, Fowling, x. 64. The last of these stalking Engines is the dead hedge of two or three yards long.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (1902), 77/2. I resolved to try the stalking-system with these, and to hunt the troop of bulls with dogs and horses.
1860. G. H. K., in Galton, Vac. Tour. (1861), 116. When we reach the stalking-ground.
1900. Pollok & Thom, Sports Burma, 253. My stalking shoes.
