[f. TOWER v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb TOWER in various senses: spec. † a. The building of a tower. Obs. rare–0. b. Rising, soaring; raising. c. See quot. 1887 and TOWER sb.1 8 b, v. 3 c. d. Photog. See quot. 1891.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 498/2. Towrynge, turrificacio.
1646. J. Hall, Poems (1906), 224. Ambition’s towerings do some gallants keep From calmer sleep.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 72, ¶ 5. The hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy and despair.
1887. Coues, in Science, X. 322. The convulsive muscular action which … results in the well-known ‘towering’ of hard-bit birds.
1891. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., IV. 38. How often is it that an otherwise good picture is spoiled by what we might call towering. The top of the building being much narrower than the bottom [etc.].
1894. Yellow Bk., I. 66. Women … gave the best hours of the day to the towering of their coiffures.
