1648 R. Wilkinson Saints Trav. Canaan 113 That which makes it [sc. the manifestation of glory] the more satisfactory, is the Centring of the spirit up in it.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 109 As God in Heav'n Is Center, yet extends to all, so thou [sc. Earth] Centring receav'st from all those Orbs. View more context for this quotation

1692 W. Molyneux Dioptrica Nova ii. iv. 222 Pere Cherubin..describes an implicated Contrivance for true Centring of Glasses.

1705 F. Atterbury Serm. St. James's Chapel 19 The visible centring of all the Old Prophecies in the Person of Christ.

1768 E. Buys New & Compl. Dict. Terms Art I. 304/2 Centering of an Optick-glass, is the grinding it so that the thickest part is exactly in the Middle.

1787 R. Alderson True Alarm! 30 There is a centring of a number of votes into one hand.

1848 Evangelical Christendom 2 230/1 The centering of all interest upon political subjects.

1871 London & China Tel. 5 July 488/2 All the benefits of the centring of the embassy at Peking.

1883 Daily News 10 Sept. 2/1 When the ring rotates at high speed, any slight error of centring tends to injure the ring.

1914 Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol. 18 76 The wooden blocks and pins served merely for accurate centring of the drums.

1962 Amer. Documentation Jan. 62/1 A size of type control code can be included in control combinations that effect right justification and centering.

1980 R. Shannon Appl. Optics & Optical Engin. VIII. 42 The bell tool should contact the lens outside the clear aperture, because some scratching is likely to occur during the centering of the lens.

1999 Zest Feb. 103/1 The main principles of Pilates: alignment, breathing and centring (stabilising).

2004 C. Jones Paris (2006) viii. 284 The centring of the rail network on Paris..probably had some effect on increasing immigration into the city.

1671 J. Brown Descr. & Use Trianguler-quadrant vii. 190 Centerings for the Chimney.

a1747 C. Wren Parentalia (1750) 307 The Sharp-headed arch, which would rise with little centering, required lighter Key-stones.

1772 C. Hutton Princ. Bridges v. 91 In some bridges the centering makes a very considerable part of the expence.

1861 S. Smiles Lives Engineers II. 182 The centering upon which the arches of the bridge were built.

1885 J. Ruskin Præterita I. iii. 86 Well-made centreings..made this model..instructive.

1906 R. Sturgis Hist. Archit. I. ii. i. 65 The modern workman would provide immediately a wooden centring,..in which the shape of the vault would be built in convex form.

1961 J. Fitchen Constr. Gothic Cathedrals ii. 30 Temporary wooden centering was required only for the first ring of voussoirs.

2000 R. King Brunelleschi's Dome (2001) iv. 40 If the centring was left in place for too long the timber would warp beneath the weight of the vault it supported.

1644 R. Vines Impostures Seducing Teachers Discovered 7 It is not a swimming but an anchoring and centering knowledge.

1726 T. Pope Stamford Toasts 10 While cent'ring Joys surround us in a Wife.

1741 H. Brooke Constantia in G. Ogle Canterbury Tales of Chaucer II. 165 On her, all Looks, and cent'ring Hearts were fix'd.

1847 Botanico-med. Recorder 14 July 260/1 The writhing victim, deep amidst the fibres of whose tortured frame the barbed arrows of disease have sunk with centering force.

1864 H. Roy Theory of Exchanges: Bank Charter Act 1844 199 The opposition of London, as the centring focus of monopoly, to the establishment of authoritative tribunals.

1936 F. D. Jones Ingenious Mechanisms II. xii. 373 Any desired variation in the centering force can be obtained from the spring that presses the roller radially inward.

1995 New Scientist 23 Dec. 22/4 The inventors claim that the magnetic field produced by a flat square magnet has a ‘sweet spot’ in which the force lines exert a lifting and centring force.

2015 Leader-Post (Regina, Sask.) (Nexis) 26 Feb. c1 Sam Steel..took a centring pass from Cooper and fired a shot that hit a defender and trickled over the line.

1917 H. E. Palmer 1st Course Eng. Phonetics i. 23 English diphthongs (or double-vowels)... The last four (in view of the fact that the tongue passes from the sides to the centre of the triangle) may conveniently be termed the Centring Diphthongs.

1952 A. Cohen Phonemes of Eng. iv. 91 ‘Centring diphthongs’ (i.e. those with [ə] as second element.)

1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics iii. 98 These last three diphthongs are often called centring diphthongs, from the direction of their movement.

2003 Computers & Humanities 37 262 In Dutch dialects a long vowel in the transcription of the pronunciation of the one dialect may often correspond with a centring diphthong in another.