down-lyingn.
/ˈdaʊnˌlʌɪɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈdaʊnˌlaɪɪŋ/, Scottish English /ˈdʌʊnˌlaɪɪŋ/, Irish English /ˈdaʊnˌlaɪɪŋ/ Now rare.
1. The action of lying down or going to bed; the taking of permanent quarters.Frequently paired or contrasted with uprising, with allusion to Deuteronomy 6:7 and Psalm 139:2 (see e.g. quots. 1534, 1535). Cf. down-lying and uprising at down-lie v.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sleeping and waking > sleep > bed related to sleep or rest > [noun] > action of going to bed or lying down
lying?c1225
bed-ganga1300
bed-gatec1440
down-lying1534
recourse1590
retirement1679
society > armed hostility > military organization > logistics > quartering > [noun] > taking of permanent quarters
down-lying1637
1534 J. Fewterer tr. U. Pinder Myrrour Christes Passion iii. ii. f. vv Thou shalt..remembre them (that is the commaundmentes and benefytes of god)..slepynge and rysyng, or at thy downe lyenge and vp risynge [L. dormiens, atque consurgens].
1535 Goodly Prymer in Eng. sig. R.iijv My ingoinge and downe lyenge to slepe.
1637 R. Monro Exped. Scots Regim. ii. 16 What hurt the enemy was able to have done us, before our down-lying.
1660 S. Lynch 3 Serm. 169 Thou art about their beds,..that seek unto thee for succour: thou knowest their down-lying, and uprising.
a1706 E. Stirredge Strength in Weakness Manifest (1711) 110 The God of Heaven and Earth was with us at our down-lying, and up-rising; and whilst we slept, he kept us.
1783 Hist. Miss Baltimores II. xxxii. 137 From uprising to down lying, the mind is perpetually agitated with trifles.
1847 Southern & Western Lit. Messenger & Rev. Sept. 569/2 Prying Yankee pedagogues, with their spies and domiciliary visits, and their petty regulations extending to the down-lying and the uprising.
1861 Weekly Mississippian 4 Sept. In the hour of your downlying and uprising remember the poor soldier.
1965 Salt Lake Tribune 11 Apr. w21/6 Single is all up-rising and down-lying;..Each is alone in living, and in dying.
2. The action of a woman taking to bed for the birth of a child; confinement. Frequently in at (the) downlying: on the verge of going into labour. Cf. lying-in n. In later use chiefly Scottish, Irish English (northern), and English regional (northern).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > confinement > [noun]
childbeda1200
bend1297
gesinea1400
lying-inc1440
labour1472
down-lying1561
groaning1579
groaning-time1579
partion1656
crying out1692
accouchement1730
inlying1734
confinement1774
accubation1853
1561 H. Machyn Diary (1848) 253 A wyff..toke a woman into her howse at the done-lyhyng, and the sam nyght she was delevered with chyld.
1600 Heroicall Aduentures Knight of Sea iii. 13 As the time almost expired of womans expectation, her wombe (impleat with an happy burden) beganne so extreamely to giue euidence of her downe-lying.
1686 N. Tate et al. tr. Heliodorus Æthiopian Hist. iv. 142 From a certain hour, I found my self with Child; all the time till my down-lying, there were Publick Feasts.
1763 G. A. Stevens Dramatic Hist. Master Edward i. ii. 6 I would not have Mrs. Llwhyddwhuydd vexed now she is so near her down-lying.
1793 Louisa Mathews I. xii. 110 We were walking round the Square, when a girl of eighteen, just at down-lying, solicited us to get her into the Lying-in Hospital.
1848 E. C. Gaskell Mary Barton I. ix. 160 She expected her down-lying every day.
1883 Manch. Weekly Times 23 June (Suppl.) 1/1 None o' th' childer is owd enough to go to th' factory, and th' wife is near her downlying; they're fair clemming.
1927 G. R. Harvey Shepherds 9 The puir 'umman body jist at the doonlyin'.
1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. 105/1 Down-lying, the confinement of a woman having a baby.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1534