[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That travels, or goes from place to place; journeying, itinerant; moving; also fig.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VII. 241. ‘A travalland man, dame,’ said he, ‘Þat traualys heir throu þe cuntre.’
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., li. These ij traueling men truly vppe thay take.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 2 § 2. None other calling himself a Souldeour Shipman or travelyngman.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iv. 7. By th’ Clock ’tis Day, And yet darke Night strangles the trauailing Lampe.
1619–20. Archdeaconry of Essex Minutes, lf. 241 (MS.). A travelinge or Wayfaringe woman.
1715. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), V. 80. The two travelling Physitians, that are to be Dr. Radcliffe’s Fellows of University College.
1827. Mackenzie, Hist. Newcastle, II. 723, note. Fire-engines,… there is a travelling tank attached.
1837. H. Earle, in Rep. Sel. Comm. Railw. Commun., 60. For the purpose of having a travelling post-office, that they could sort the letters as they went on.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. (1883), 12. Stream fishing … with a travelling or tripping bait, with or without a float.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 254. Great hordes of travelling sheep laid waste a portion of the run.
b. spec. of a Methodist preacher: see TRAVEL v. 2 c.
1789. Wesley, Wks. (1872), IV. 464. I had much satisfaction in this Conference;… conversing with between forty and fifty travelling Preachers.
1825. Mem. Isab. Wilson, 169. She came to reside … under the same roof as the Travelling Preachers near Wetherby.
c. Of plants: Creeping, or spreading by horizontal growth of the rootstock.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 569. A new plantation may be made every six or seven years, or oftener,… if their travelling roots should grow out of bounds.
1885. Pall Mall G., 11 Feb., 5/1. To the number of curious plants,… a new specimen has lately been added which is described as the travelling plant. It is said to be of the lily of the valley species … and has a root formed of knots, by which it annually advances about an inch … from the place where the plant was first rooted.
d. Mech. Constructed to ‘travel’ or move in a fixed course, either in a circuit or to and fro, as a crane, a platform or side-walk, etc.
1834–47. J. S. Macaulay, Field Fortif. (1851), 70. To permit of a gun on a travelling carriage … being fired over the parapet.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 216. A novel mechanism adapted to the travelling-comb called the gill.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. X. 21. Travelling Crane, the traversing motion being worked from the crab.
1873. Iron, 5 July, 23/3. Spier’s Travelling Sidewalk.
1900. Engineering Mag., XIX. 70. At the Paris Exposition.… The traveling sidewalk … is here carried out on a far larger scale than ever before attempted…. It forms a continuous connection between the main portions of the exposition.
