[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of THROW v.1
I. 1. (In form thrawing.) Twisting, wringing; turning or bending to one side; also fig. crossing, thwarting; quarrelling. Sc.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 376. They deemde, what death it sould die … ‘be throwing [v.r.thrawing] of the throate, Like a tyke ouer a tree.’
1785. Burns, Halloween, xxiii. It chanc’d the stack … Was timmer-propt for thrawin’.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, viii. Speak him fair, Hobbie; the like o’ him will no bear thrawing.
1897. Daily Rec. & Mail, 17 Sept., 4. The present unsatisfactory condition of affairs is … due in great part to personal feeling and ‘thrawing.’
2. a. The turning of objects from wood; the shaping of round pottery on a potter’s wheel.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/1. Throwynge, or turnynge of vesselle, tornacio.
1483. Cath. Angl., 385/1. A Thrawynge, to[r]natura.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 811/1 (Stoneware). The mixture … is beat … and then is in order for throwing.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 45. The operation of throwing consists in shaping such vessels as have a circular form, and is performed upon a machine called a potter’s lathe.
a. 1882. Sir H. Cole, 50 Yrs. Public Wk. (1884), I. 105. Superintending the throwing, turning, modelling, and moulding of a tea service.
b. The twisting of raw silk into thread.
1621–. [see SILK-THROWING].
1662. Act 14 Chas. II., c. 15 § 9. The said Corporation of Silk throwers shall not … make any Orders Ordinances or By-Lawes to sett any Rates or Prices whatsoever upon the Throwing of Silk.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., vi. 192. The next process, called throwing, by which the two, three, five or a dozen threads are twisted firmly one round another.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric., 288. The twisting or ‘throwing’ process is done by passing the thread of raw silk from an upright bottom through the eye of a craned wire flyer, which rapidly spins with the top of the bobbin revolving above.
II. 3. Projecting, casting, flinging, hurling (lit. or fig.). Throwing at cocks: = COCK-THROWING.
13[?]. Cursor M., 22683 (Edin. MS.). Þe stanis … Wit þrawing [Cott. thrauing, Fairf. casting, Gött. wid strenth] sal tai samin þrist, Þat al to pecis sal tai brist.
13[?]. K. Alis., 1614. With launceynge and with rydyng With throwyng [Bodley MS. þraweynge], and with nymyng.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 156. Thar wes … sic thrawing and sic thristing,… That it wes hydwiss for till her.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/1. Throwynge, or castynge, jactura, jactus.
1639. Drumm. of Hawth., Answ. to Objections, Wks. (1711), 214. By throwing of oat-meal in the people’s eyes.
c. 1770. (title) A friendly admonition against throwing at Cocks and of Cockfighting.
1833. Nyren, Yng. Cricketer’s Tutor, 90. Walker … began the system of throwing instead of bowling, now so much the fashion. At that time, it was esteemed foul play.
1897. Daily News, 1 Nov., 5/2. The throwing nuisance, which has for years been the scandal of English cricket.
4. With adverbs, as throwing about, back, down, in, off, out, up: see THROW v.1 VI.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/1. Throwynge downe, fro hey place…, precipicium.
1518. Sel. Pl. Star Chamb. (Selden), II. 131. Yf they had known the throwyng downe of the seyd iij gappes.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. ix. § 4. The watchmen of the Town … heard … the fallings and throwings of things about.
1772. Wollaston, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 68. I have set down the throwing-out of the pendulum,… on a scale behind it.
1785. M. Garthshore, in Med. Commun., II. 39. It terminated by the throwing off of sloughs.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. I. 88. These straining efforts are sometimes so energetic as to cause ‘throwing down’ of the uterus.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 331. Throwing back the head (ἀνανεύειν) is still … a negative answer.
III. 5. attrib. and Comb. a. for throwing pottery or silk: as throwing-clay, -house, -machine, -room; throwing-engine, applied by Nicholson to the driving-wheel of a potter’s wheel; throwing-mill, (a) a building in which silk-throwing is carried on; (b) a machine for twisting raw silk into thread; throwing-table, a descriptive name for a potter’s wheel: see quot.; throwing-wheel, a potter’s wheel; sometimes, as in quot. 1825, applied to the driving-wheel. b. for casting, hurling, etc.: as throwing-bat, -club, -hatchet, -knife, -net, -spear; throwing-balls, the South American BOLAS; throwing-board, a spear-thrower, = THROWING-STICK a.; throwing-iron, a knife-like missile used by some African savages.
a. 1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 122. All which they call *throwing clays, because they … will work on the wheel.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 462. A strap is attached from the driven cone to the spindle of the *throwing-engine.
1733. P. Lindsay, Interest Scotl., 136. Throwing Mills, after the Manner of that One at Darby.
1831. G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 201. Spinning or twisting the thread … wound upon the bobbins, is performed with the throwing mill.
1851. L. D. B. Gordon, in Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal., p. ii. **/2. The factories in which raw silk is spun into silk-thread for weaving are called throwing mills.
1881. Guide Worcester Porcel. Wks., 11. The *Throwing Room.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Throwing-table, a revolving, horizontal table on which earthen vessels are shaped by the potter.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 461. The *throwing-wheel, or, with greater propriety, the throwing-engine, consists of a large vertical wheel; having a winch or handle affixed to it, and a groove on the rim for the introduction of a cord [etc.].
b. 1891. Cent. Dict., *Throwing-balls.
1845. C. H. Smith, in Kitto’s Cycl. Bibl. Lit., s.v. Arms, Among these [instruments at first employed in the chase] were the club and the *throwing-bat.
1909. Cent. Dict., Suppl., *Throwing-board.
1895. Cornh. Mag., Dec., 634. The soldiers … had brought him down with *throwing-clubs.
1903. Kipling, in Windsor Mag., Sept., 370/1. Tegumai … was holding his stone *throwing-hatchet in one hand.
1898. trans. Ratzel’s Hist. Mankind, III. 7. The indispensable weapon was the *throwing-iron, of which many carried several specimens,… in sheaths of hide. Ibid., 72. *Throwing-knives are among the notable properties of the races of the Monbuttu type north of the Congo.
1902. L. Loat, in Boulenger, Zool. Egypt, Fishes Nile, Introd. (1907), 21. At Cairo … the commonest net of all is a circular *throwing-net,… with an average circumference of about 50 feet and a half-inch mesh.
1900. A. B. Lloyd, in Daily News, 18 July, 6/2. Each carried either bow and quiver of arrows, or short *throwing-spears.
Throwing vbl. sb.2, suffering: see THROW v.2
