[f. THRUST v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb THRUST (in various senses).
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIII. 156. With sic thrawing and sic thristing That it wes hydwiss for till her.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 319. Þristyng of ordris in oon cloystre or in oon hous.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 297. His arm was als bla & als sare with þe thrustyng of Saynt Laurens as he had suffred it evyn on his body.
1552. Huloet, Thrustynge downe, oppressio.
a. 1584. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 291. With wristing and thristing The faster still is scho.
1642. R. Carpenter, Experience, III. iv. 17. That so many Angels may well stand together without much thrusting upon a needles point.
1794. Hope’s New Meth. Fencing, 224. Orderly and regular Parieing and Thrusting.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, i. The thrusting out of his chin and stomach, and the twirling of his thumbs.
2. concr. in pl. thrustings = thrutchings: see after THRUTCH v., and cf. quot. s.v. THRUST sb. 4.
1794. Wedge, Agric. Chester, 38. In the process of making whey butter,… the ‘thrustings,’ or white whey, is set in ‘cream mugs,’ to ‘carve,’ and acidulate for churning.
1885. Cheshire Gloss., Thrustings, white whey, the same as thrutchings.
3. attrib. and Comb. Used in or worked by thrusting, as thrusting-bridge, -pike; thrusting-screw, a screw by which a press, esp. a cheese-press, is actuated and regulated; thrusting-shaft, a thrust-shaft (THRUST sb. 7); thrusting-tub (see quot.).
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xxv. He was determined … to have one [bridge] of that particular construction which is made to draw back horizontally…; and to thrust forwards again…: but my father advising my uncle … to have nothing more to do with *thrusting bridges…, he changed his mind.
1856. Grote, Greece, II. xciv. XII. 326. Arming them with the short Macedonian *thrusting-pike.
1794. Wedge, Agric. Chester, 52. In many dairies, a lever is used to thrust or press the cheese…. In other dairies, they use *thrusting screws.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 3 Oct., 8/1. The arm was caught in the *thrusting-shaft of my machine.
1846. J. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 207. The *‘thrusting-tub,’ in which the curd has now to be pressed, is round, and is perforated with holes at the sides and bottom for the whey to escape through.
