acorningn.
/ˈeɪkɔːnɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈeɪˌkɔrnɪŋ/ The action of looking for, feeding on, or gathering acorns.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > picking or gathering > [noun] > picking or gathering other things
wool-gathering1581
mossing1700
acorning1818
cocksfooting1896
turpentining1910
wildcraft1924
1818 W. Hazlitt Lect. Eng. Poets v. 188 The description of lambs racing, of the pigs going out an acorning, of the boy sent to feed his sheep before the break of day in winter.
1821 R. Wilbraham Cheshire Gloss. in Archaeologia 19 18 To go aitchorning is to go gathering Acorns. The pigs are gone o' aitchorning.
1899 M. B. Betham-Edwards Lord of Harvest xxii. 279 Then there was the ‘acorning’ of the pigs, and weed-burning, both features of this season in the good old farming times.
1913 W. B. Maxwell Devil's Garden (1914) 261 He had said..that he knew of as many other red-cheeked maids as there were morris-apples at akering-time.
1914 Living Age 13 June 694/1 Citizens, their women and children, could enjoy quiet country life, could play or go Maying, nutting, or acorning in the woods.
1932 Times Educ. Suppl. 29 Oct. (Home & Classroom section) p. iv/1 At this time of the year many children have a half-day off from school..to ‘go acorning’, and sell what they collect to pig keepers.
1998 Field & Stream Dec. 118/3 After five minutes he [sc. a deer] had only managed to break one twig.., but this seemed to satisfy him, and he returned to the serious business of acorning.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1818