[f. SUM v.1 or sb.1 + -ING1.]
1. The calculation of a total amount; computation. (occas. summing up.)
1367. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 91. Eyþer manere summynge is as vnredy as oþer.
c. 1537. De Benese, Meas. Lande, A iiij b. Diuerse rules of summynge of measures.
1611. Cotgr., Sommation, a summe, or, the summing, of money.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 164/2. (Book-keeping) At the annual summing up it is of great importance to distinguish them in the accounts.
1863. Trevelyan, Compet. Wallah (1866), 132. Will you ne’er have ceased apocalyptic summing, And left the number of the beast to puzzle Dr. Cumming?
1880. Plain Hints Needlework, 10. The judges have nothing to do with the … ‘summing up’ of the marks given.
2. With (rarely without) up. The stating of the sum and substance of a matter; summarizing; a summary account or statement.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 26. I pray you paciently here the hole som. In fayth (quoth he) without any more summyng, I know to beg of me is thy commyng.
1800. Gilpin, Serm. (1803), II. xlii. 270. This is … the conclusion—the summing up of the whole work of redemption.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks., I. 215. Michael Angelo’s summing up of the world’s history and destinies in his ‘Last Judgment.’
1883. Athenæum, 15 Dec., 771/3. The author’s summing-up on the subject.
1889. Jessopp, Coming of Friars, iv. 168. If any of us were to … attempt to discover … the intensity of any great plague … what would his summing-up amount to?
1898. Daily News, 10 March, 6/1. An unreclaimed savage, with the flimsiest ‘Christian’ veneer, such is Mr. Decle’s summing of [King] Khama.
3. With (rarely without) up. A judge’s address to a jury, in which he reviews and comments upon the evidence adduced in the case before him: see SOM v.1 5.
1790. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, June. The Queen sent me … to hear the summing up of Mr. Fox.
1814. J. Boswell, Justic. Opera, 71. The proof is strong, a verdict bring,… And so I end my summing.
1822. Shelley, Chas. I., ii. 391. A jury of children, who found him guilty without waiting for the summing-up.
1883. Manch. Exam., 22 Dec., 5/3. A luminous and unimpeachably fair summing up by Lord Justice Clerk Moncrieff.
4. Doing ‘sums’ or arithmetical problems; the act of performing arithmetical operations.
1825. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., Summin, arithmetic.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. (1863), 11. Miss Mowbray, who was … too particular about summing.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Fl., II. vii. There were no maps, and not enough ‘summing.’
attrib. a. 1825. Forby, Vocab. E. Anglia, 333. We have summing-schools, summing-books, and summing-masters.
