[f. STEAL v.1 + -ING2.] That steals or moves stealthily; that eludes observation; that glides or creeps softly along; that comes on imperceptibly. Early use chiefly in stealing step, pace (very common in the 16th c.; now rare).
1574. Higgins, Mirr. Mag., Q. Cordila, xxxv. Eke nearer still to mee with stealing steps shee drewe.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl. (Arb.), 69. Nor heare the trampling of his stealing steppes.
1617. Hieron, Penance for Sin, xxvii. Wks. 1619, II. 380. Sinne … maketh boldnesse and security in a stealing and dangerous manner to encrease.
1629. Gaule, Holy Madn., 324. With a learing Looke,… stealing Pace, squeaking Voice.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VI. lxxvii. But see, the stealing night with softly pace,… creeps up the East.
1748. Collins, Ode Death Thomson, 2. In yonder grave a Druid lies Where slowly winds the stealing wave!
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxiii. He turned to the light, and proceeded with the same stealing steps towards Emily’s apartment.
1813. Byron, Corsair, I. vii. They watch his glance with many a stealing look.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 60. His [a horse’s] easy stealing way of going, compared to the bounding elasticity of Hercules.
1892. Jane Ambrach, in Welsh Rev., I. 767. I, rising, followed her silently until we stood face to face in the stealing darkness.
1897. W. J. Courthope, Longest Reign, iii. Not … for Thee hath stealing Age, Sovereign Lady,… Dimmed the glory of Thy golden prime.
b. Comb., as stealing-wise adv.; stealing-strake Naut. = STEALER2.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 2. Seeing the fierce beast make stealing-wise towards him.
1830. Hedderwick, Mar. Archit., 120. Steeling-strake or plank, one that does not run all the way to the stem or stern post.
Hence Stealingly adv., stealthily, furtively, so as to elude observation. (Very common in the 16th and 17th c.; now rare.)
13[?]. K. Alis., 5080. Many of his men … Agein kyng Alisaunder hestes, Stelendelich dronken of this lake.
c. 1400. Ragman Roll, 62, in Hazl., E. P. P. (1864), I. 72. And now cometh age, foo to your beauté, And stelyngly it wastyth stownde-mele.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 473/2. Stelyngly, or theefly, furtive, latrocinaliter.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), IV. ix. 191. Whan ony clerke receyueth holy ordres stelyngely.
1596. R. L[inche], Diella (1877), 81. And stealingly there glides with heauy pace A Riuolet of Pearle along her face.
1603. Dekker, etc., Patient Grissill, IV. i. 1719. Enter Grissill, stealingly.
1630. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd., III. iii. § 7. (1670), 360. And in this case likewise he must proceed as it were stealingly, sweetly and slowly, by little and little, and almost insensibly.
1693. W. Bates, Serm., viii. 278. A Disease neglected at first, that stealingly slips into the Habit of the Body,… becomes at last uncontroulable and incurable.
1839. Biblical Recorder, 20 April, 1/2. If you cling, even stealingly, to the loathsome worm-leaf [sc. tobacco] yourself, they will fit it out.
a. 1843. Southey, in Fraser’s Mag. (1868), LXXVII. 731. The means wherewith he would stealingly attempt this change.
