[-ING1.]
1. The action of the verb TARRY, q.v.; delaying, delay, waiting, loitering, etc.
1340–70. Alex. & Dind., 818. Wiþ-oute tariynge tid þis tiþingus come.
c. 1350. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 357. Þey sholde, at here aȝe-comynge, ȝelde trewe a-counte … by-þowte taryȝynge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 489/2. Teryynge, or longe a-bydynge, mora, pigricia.
a. 1450. Myrc, Festial, 18. This þe taryng of Thomas byleue broght vs yn full byleue.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xxxix. 17. Make no longe tarienge, o my God.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., x. (S. T. S.), 395. Tha wald tyne waichtie materis,… throuch thair Absense, or lang tarieng.
1865. W. G. Palgrave, Arabia, I. 86. We determined to march on without further tarrying.
2. Abiding, sojourning: see TARRY v. 4 b.
1445. in Anglia, XXVIII. 271. In the she had a restyng place or tarying ony while.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 826/2. If he or his noble courage would giue him tarieng and abode.
1607. R. Johnson, Pleas. Conceites Old Hobson (Percy Soc.), 14. During the time of his taring there.
† 3. (See quots., and cf. BUNDLE v. 5.) U. S.
1775. A. Burnaby, Trav., 83. A very extraordinary method of courtship, which is sometimes practised amongst the lower people of this province, and is called Tarrying.
1778. Anburey, Trav. Amer., xlix. (1791), II. 87. That custom [bundling] … is in some measure abolished; but they still retain one something similar, which is termed tarrying.
