Forms: see prec. [f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To smear or anoint with tallow; to grease (formerly esp. the bottom of a ship or boat).
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4208. Quen it [a barge] was done … pickid & taloghid.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 220. To the schypmen that talluyd the shyp boot, vj. d. for wyne.
c. 1490. Promp. Parv., 486/1 (MS. A). Talwyn (Pynson talowyn), sepo.
1495. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 225. Talowe occupied abought talowying of the seid ship.
1497. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scotl., I. 378. ltem, for pyk to hir and to talloune hir.
1530. Palsgr., 752/1. Tallowe your shyppe or you go, it shall forther you moche on your waye.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng. Prose Add. (1612), 336. Commaund … that thy Shippes be secretly calked, tallowed, ballaced.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 84. There’s near as much Stuff drops from his Carcase every Day, as would tallow the Ship’s Bottom.
1806. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 89. Tallowed my boats with our candles and launched them.
1886. J. K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, vii. I … tallowed my nose, and went to bed.
† b. intr. (for refl.) Obs.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 28/3. The Forrester having washed and tallowed here, is gone to her station.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xiv. (1840), 240. The sloop washed and tallowed also.
2. a. intr. Of cattle, etc.: To form, produce, or yield tallow.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1752), 262. Old cows generally tallowed best withinside. Ibid. Very rarely [for a young cow] to tallow well on the inside.
1796. Burke, Lett. Noble Ld., Wks. VIII. 63. Their only question will be … how he [the Duke of Bedford] cuts up? how he tallows in the cawl or on the kidneys?
a. 1843. Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk. (1851), IV. 400/2. [Cattle] famous for … tallowing within in the first degree.
b. trans. To cause (cattle, etc.) to form tallow; to fatten. (Cf. TALLOWED 2.)
1765. Museum Rust., IV. xliv. 190. The largest pasture … will neither skin nor tallow, or, in other words, is fit for nothing but young stock.
1828. Webster, Tallow,… to cause to have a large quantity of tallow; as, to tallow sheep.
Hence Tallowing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1495. [see sense 1].
1828. in Webster.
