[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That turns, in various senses of the verb.
1. That moves round, or so as to face another way; rotating, revolving, etc. (See also 7.)
1558. Knox, First Blast (Arb.), 19. The turning wether cocke.
1629. Milton, Ode Nativity, Hymn, iii. Peace … came softly sliding Down through the turning sphear.
1700. Prior, Carmen Seculare, xxxiii. Practise them now to curb the turning Steed.
2. Changing direction of movement or course; winding, sinuous; branching off, as a rond or path.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxxiii. (W. de W.), 715. Of Thus set a fyr comyth a good smellynge smoke:… full meuable and tornynge and crokyd wyth many bendynges and wrynklynges.
1552. Huloet, Turnyng or wyndyng manye wayes lyke an eale, or snake, tortuosus.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 439. A little lane, or turning path going out of the great or high waie, diuerticulum.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur., Wks. (Rtldg.), 96/2. And Rhodanus … flew with calm alongst his turning bounds.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. liii. 98. Near a corner, where a turning path made an angle in the iron rails.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes (1892), 163. A deep turning gully in the hills.
3. Mil. That turns an enemy’s position.
1877. Daily News, 30 Nov., 5/7. The cavalry of the turning column had captured their whole camp.
1912. Col. H. S. Massy, in Standard, 20 Sept., 7/2. Direct general attacks are not anticipated, but wide turning movements … will be the chief aim.
4. Reversing its course; beginning to go back.
In quot. 1601 as rendering of Gr. τροπικός (see TROPIC).
1601. Dolman, La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618), III. 686. These circles are nominated Tropickes, that is, turning or conuertiue.
1857. W. A. Butler, Serm., iv. 98. Turning with the turning tide.
5. Changing, changeful, variable. Obs. or arch.
c. 1450. Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 78/202. Love … vertu,… Which dowble Fortune may neuer tak þe fro: Than mayst þou boldly desire her tornyng chance.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. vi. 35. Fortune … is painted … with a Wheele, to signifie … that she is turning and inconstant.
8. With adverb (cf. TURN v. VIII), as turning-up.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Tornatiles, turning vp, aduncus.
1841. Mrs. Grey, Lit. Wife, xxix. I won’t let them come into this room, with all their sneers, and turning-up noses.
7. In combinations or special collocations: turning-beam, an axle-tree (cf. turn-beam, TURN-); turning-box, a kind of turn-table; turning bridge, = turn-bridge (see TURN-); † turning platform, = TURN-TABLE 1; turning plough, = turn-plough (see TURN-); † turning-stile = TURNSTILE; turning-table = TURN-TABLE; † turning-wheel, (a) a turnstile or similar device; (b) an apparatus consisting of a rapidly revolving wheel (see quot.).
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Madder, Another axle-tree, or *turning-beam,… ten inches square near the trundle-head, and fourteen inches diameter in its octogonal part.
1611. Cotgr., Tour,… the open *turning box in the wall of a Nunnerie, whereby the sisters … receiue in, and deliuer out, commodities.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, I. xiv. ¶ 2. I besought the attendant at the turning-box to tell the lady.
1840. Evid. Hull Docks Comm., 39. Q. Are those bridges all drawbridges? A. Yes, draw or *turning bridges.
1825. Tredgold, Railroads & Carriages, 121. *Turning platforms for changing the direction of a carriage.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 414. The field was plowed with a *turning plow, followed in the same furrow with a long bull-tongue plow.
1611. Cotgr., Tour,… a Turnepike, or *Turning stile.
1839. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 202/2. Some method of turning … trains more efficiently than the common *turning-table.
1843. Borrow, Bible in Spain, vi. 39. A kind of window occupied by a turning table, at which articles were received into the convent, and delivered out.
1671. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. 274. [Knocks] given by some Body at the *turning-wheel of the Vestry.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), VI. XV. vi. 91. They warded off … the darts … by the assistance of turning-wheels.
Hence Turningness, rare (in quot. fig. tortuous character, as opp. to ‘straightforwardness’).
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1622), 135. So had nature formed him, and the exercise of craft conformed him to all turningnesse of sleights.
