Now dial. and U.S. [F. TOLL v.1 + -ING1.] The action of enticing, allurement; † incitement, instigation (obs.).
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 116. Þis is wowunge efter Godes grome, & tollunge of his vuel.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl. (Kölbing), 5304. Bot Wawain, þat bi him cam, & he him of his tolling nam.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 496/1. Tollynge, styrynge, or mevynge to good or badde, instigacio, excitacio.
1496. Dives & Paup., I. x. 41/2. Suche richesses of clothynge of the ymages is but a tollynge of more offrynge.
b. spec. The luring or decoying of wild animals, as ducks or fish (see TOLL v.1 2); also attrib. U.S.
1858. Lewis, in Youatt, Dog, iii. 90. The toling season continues about three weeks from the first appearance of the ducks.
18[?]. Atwood, in Goode, Amer. Fishes (1888), 180. The present mode of catching mackerel by drifting and tolling with bait did not come into general use until 1812.
1879. Dogs Gt. Brit. & Amer., 271. The system pursued on the Chesapeake Bay and the North Carolina Sounds, and known as ‘toling,’ is the most successful…. A small dog … is trained to run up and down on the shore in the sight of the ducks.
1901. Blackw. Mag., Nov., 692/2. The judicious ‘hough,’ ‘hough’ or tolling-call of the hunter.
