afforestingn.
/əˈfɒrᵻstɪŋ/, U.S. /əˈfɔrəstɪŋ/ Chiefly British.
The action or process of afforesting land (in either sense of the verb); afforestation; (also) an instance of this.
ΚΠ
1647 N. Bacon Hist. Disc. Govt. lvi. 163 Unlawful Taxes, afforstinges, and other such oppressions.
1657 W. Prynne Exact Abridgem. Rec. Tower of London Table Matters sig. H2 Afforesting of what was disafforested.
a1797 E. Burke Ess. Abridgm. Eng. Hist. (rev. ed.) in Wks. (1812) V. 704 The Charter of the Forests had for its object..the prevention of future afforestings.
1837 T. Bell Hist. Brit. Quadrupeds 399 The afforesting of vast tracts of country..was the fertile source of misery to the poorer inhabitants.
1875 Farmer's Mag. Jan. 72/1 The barbarous and uncivilised tendencies towards afforesting of the country for the breeding, rearing, and preserving of deer.
1907 H. T. Burgess Cycl. S. Austral. I. 429/1 Together with fencing-in the work of afforesting was taken in hand.
1972 Effects Intensive Fertilizer Use on Human Environment 270 Afforesting of all steep and easily erodable areas, particularly in the Alps.
2007 M. R. Dove in R. A. Cramb Land & Longhouse p. xiv Some changes—like the populating and de-populating, and deforesting and afforesting, of hinterlands—seem to be cyclic in character.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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