vbl. sb. [f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of the verb THAW (lit. or fig.). Also in pl. (in quot. 1886 concr.).
c. 1325, 1387 [see THAW v. 2].
1586. Holinshed, Chron., III. 20/2. At their dissoluing or thawing, manie bridges both of wood and stone were borne downe.
1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, vii. 152. Thawings of the heart under the apprehensions of grace.
1861. Thornbury, Turner (1862), II. 135. The occasional thawings of natures, however frozen by habit.
1886. M. K. Macmillan, Dagonet, 154. The first thawings of the hard-bound road clung impedingly to our shoes.
