Also 5–6 bynge, 6–7 binge, byng, 7 bingg. [a. ON. bing-r masc. ‘heap’; cf. Sw. binge masc. ‘heap.’ Da. bing has the sense not of ‘heap,’ but of ‘bin’; and in Eng. bing has also been used dialectally for BIN in various senses since the 15th c. In Da. this change can only be explained by transference of the name from a ‘heap’ to the place where a heap is contained; the Eng. use of bing for bin may be partly of Danish origin, but is prob. largely due to phonetic contact of the two words.]
1. A heap or pile: formerly of stones, earth, trees, dead bodies, as well as of corn, potatoes, and the like, as still in northern dial.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. ix. 45. Of treis thow big a bing To be a fyre. Ibid., IV. vii. 80. Lyk emetis gret Quhen thai depulȝe the meikle bing of quheit.
1528. Lyndesay, Dream, ii. 173. The men of Kirk lay boundin into byngis.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. 529. Like ants when they do spoile the bing of corne.
1787. Burns, Brigs of Ayr, 27. Potato-bings are snugged up frae skaith Of coming Winter.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss. (E.D.S.), Bing … a heap of potatoes in a field covered with earth: a heap of grain in a barn.
2. spec. A heap of metallic ore, of alum; a definite quantity (8 cwt.) of lead ore.
1815. Encycl. Brit., III. 619. Bing in the alum-works denotes a heap of alum thrown together in order to drain.
1876. Mid Yorks. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Bing, a bing of ore contains eight weighs, a weigh being a hundred weight, Nidd.
1885. Trans. Cumbrld. & Westm. Archæol. Soc., VIII. 19. In one year eighty workmen raised 12,000 bings of ore in this mine.
b. Bing ore (or simply bing): the best lead ore.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 166. The best [lead-ore] being call’d Bing.
1851. Tapping, Manlove’s Chron., Gloss., Bing … ore is the Derbyshire mining term for the purer, richer, and cleaner part of the fell or boose.
3. = BIN, in various applications. Now dial.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 97. King hafs riueli gold in bing.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Bynge, theca, cumera.
1539. Indent. Berwick Castle, in Archæol., XI. 440. In the pantre, a large bynge of okyn tymbar with 3 partitions.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 28. Prety little Binges or basketts of woodde to put theyr breade in.
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 6. In … the stable shall be placed close binggs or hutches for the keeping of prouender.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss. s.v. Abunda, The Cistern into which they throw their crystallized Allom, for the water to drain from it, is call’d a Bing.
1775. E. Barry, Observ. Wines, 82. To cover the Bottles in the Bings with Saw-Dust.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk. (E. D. S.), Bing, a place railed off from the cow-house in which fodder is kept.
4. ‘The kiln of the furnace wherein they burn their Charcoal for the melting of metals.’ Kennett, Par. Antiq., 1695.
1658. Ray, Itin. (1760), 127. Then they carry it [silver ore], to each Smelter’s several Bing, where it is melted with Black and White Coal. Ibid. (1674), Prep. Tin, Coll. 123. Throwing on Charcoal, then upon that Black Tin, and so interchangeably into a very deep bing (which they call the house).
5. Comb. † Bing-ale; † bing-brine, brine of a pickling trough; bing-hole (see quot.); bing-place, bing-stead, the place to which the ‘bing’ or round lead ore is brought to be crushed; also, a place for ashes.
1735. Pegge, Kenticisms (E. D. S.), *Bing-ale, the liquour which the fermor of a parsonage gives to the fermours … when he has gathered their tythe.
1745. W. Thompson, R. N. Advoc. (1757), 9. *Bing Brine … composed of the entire Juices of the Flesh and Salt, when boiled … is of a sweet Smell, and quite transparent.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Bing-hole, a hole or shoot through which ore is thrown.
1653. Manlove, Lead Mines, 129. To fine such … as … digs or delve in any Mans *Bing-place.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., B ij b. *Bingstead, the place where the largest and best of the ore … is thrown.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., 198. Cinders are thrown … into a *Bing-stead in the court-yard.
