vbl. sb. [f. TRYST v.]
1. The action of the verb TRYST, q.v.; a tryst. Under trysting = under tryst or agreement.
1633. W. Struther, True Happiness, 79. Since he keepeth both time and place of trysting, let us not be so ingrate as not to meet with him.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), 514. After some trysting, and intermediat parleying.
1640. R. Baillie, Lett. (1841), I. 276. A declaration … that our trysting there [in London] was no submission to the Inglish Parliament.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1851), II. 337. The committee of Estates … directit him … to hold the Marques wnder trysting whill thay sould raiss wp forces to go vpone him.
1832. Mrs. Carlyle, in Lett. & Mem. (1903), I. 42. I was fatigued enough by the journey home; still more by the trysting that awaited me here.
2. attrib., as trysting day, ground, place, stile, thorn, tree, etc.
1842. Macaulay, Horatius, i. By the Nine Gods he swore it, And named a *trysting day.
1838. J. P. Kennedy, Rob of Bowl, xx. The customary … *trysting ground for personal combats.
1898. Max Müller, Auld Lang Syne, 195. [In] the Thirty Years’ War we find Anhalt the constant trysting ground of the two parties.
1633. W. Struther, True Happiness, 115. Wee come to the Sanctuarie … the Lords *trysting place.
a. 1665. W. Guthrie, Chr. Gt. Interest, II. viii. (1724), 223. A fit Trysting-place for God and Men to meet into.
1805. Scott, Eve St. John, xliii. At our trysting place, for a certain space, I must wander to and fro.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. v. 426. Those who had horses seem to have reached the same trysting-place by land.
1858. Capern, Ball. & Songs (1859), 100. Meet me … by the *trysting stile.
1793. Burns, Soldier’s Return, iii. I pass’d the mill and *trysting thorn, Where Nancy aft I courted.
1802. Scott, Reiver’s Wedding, 50. When he came to Falsehope glen, Beneath the *trysting-tree.
1806. Chron., in Ann. Reg. (1808), 385/2. A hurricane … destroyed the famous elm tree, which had existed for ages, on the banks of the Teviot, and was known by the name of the Trysting Tree.
1872. Holland, Marb. Proph., 45. I await her in the dewy gloom or the old trysting tree.
