[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That trots, in various senses.
Trotting butcher, a butcher who goes his rounds on horseback. Trotting seconds hand, in a watch, a hand that registers the seconds on the minute-divisions of the dial, pausing on each.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel., 88. Vnnethe he [Henry III.] wold ryde any amblynge hors, bot myche trottynge hors, for to trauaylle hys body the more.
1480. in Cely Papers (1900), 55, I whowlde awise yow brynge hower aull yowr trottyng hors.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 77. The .ix. propertyes of a foxe,… the .vii. to be shorte-trottynge.
1579. J. Jones, Preserv. Bodie & Soule, I. xv. 28. Blinde bittels, flattering fellowes, trotting trulles, and wilful murtherers.
1660. Blount, Boscobel, 23. The valiant Earl of Cleveland (who being above 60 years of age had marched 21 dayes together upon a trotting horse).
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., I. ii. Prol. A trotting burnie wimpling through the ground.
1842. Mrs. F. Trollope, Visit to Italy, I. i. 2. Inferences … deduced by trotting travellers from the aspect of the scenes through which they passed.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 175/2. The trotting butcher is … not likely to be succeeded by any in the same line, or … ‘ride’ of business.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. 528, note. The trotting horse is driven, not ridden.
1900. Jeweller’s Catal. The Nurse’s Watch, with long trotting seconds hand for taking the beats of the pulse.
