?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 168 (margin) (MED) Manerez of attracting.

1563 T. Gale Certaine Wks. Chirurg. iv. ii. f. 13 A power and vertue of healing and attracting.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Attraiement, an attracting, or drawing unto.

1648 J. Sparrow tr. J. Böhme Descr. Three Princ. ix. 72 Harshnesse is a desirousnesse, an attracting; and that is the first ground of the willing [or longing] after the light.

1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces 234 The lower part also must have another hole near the grate on the other side with its register for the government of the fire, and for the attracting of wind.

1656 H. More Enthusiasmus Triumphatus 52 By Humility I understand..a perfect Privation of all desire of singularity or attracting of the eyes of men upon a man's own person.

1752 Monthly Rev. July 50 Drawing or attracting is motion, and every motion is contrary to shutting up or compressing together.

1829 Baptist Mag. Aug. 340/1 Pompous show and vain parade, and that pharisaical attracting of human observation and applause, which are the blemishes of numbers in the present day.

1845 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 19 July 37/1 The attracting of crowds to the place of execution had a decidedly immoral tendency upon those who attended them.

1877 Gentleman's Mag. Aug. 165 And for the attracting of such adherents,..he seeks to extend his reputation for power, influence, and violence.

1917 C. Garnett tr. F. Dostoevsky Eternal Husband (2008) iv There must have been in that woman something exceptional—a power of attracting, of enslaving, of dominating.

1979 G. L. Howett Some Psycho-physical Tests Conspicuities Emergency Vehicle Warning Lights 14 The visibility of the light flashes in the periphery of the eye..is the mechanism for the initial attracting of attention.

1994 G. Soucie Hook, Line, & Sinker (new ed.) viii. 251 The attracting of fish is based upon the common-sense practical application of certain well-known scientific principles.

2014 S. Moran Self-love xiv. 134 I had another recurring theme in the attracting of people and relationships.

1589 A. Munday tr. F. de Vernassal Hist. Palmendos xxvii. f. 81^v She iudged in him, more elegancie of fourme and sweetnes of complection, then in any other knight whatsoeuer, which made her so esprized with his attracting regard [Fr. son attrayant regard], as to allay the extreamitie of this heat.

1597 J. Gerard Herball i. 114 A certaine wiping, cleansing, and attracting facultie.

1646 Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer No. 163. 217 He hath by an attracting meeknesse subdued all hearts unto him.

1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick iii. 39 There must be a God, who is his attracting North, his Centre, and Sun, to which his head bends.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison I. iv. 16 The most attracting ornament in it.

?1790 J. Imison Curious & Misc. Articles (new ed.) 163 in School of Arts (ed. 2) Place the two attracting poles..on the middle of one of the bars.

1824 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 8 353 The elucidation of a sign language is peculiarly attracting to me.

1850 C. G. B. Daubeny Introd. Atomic Theory (ed. 2) iv. 117 The attracting force of the atom of a given body.

1928 F. H. Newman & V. H. L. Searle Gen. Prop. Matter iii. 75 According to Newton's Law the nature of the attracting masses is unimportant.

1999 V. B. Cass Dangerous Women vi. 108 The landscape of the mountains is for any recluse..deeply attracting.

2011 New Scientist (Nexis) 26 Feb. The repelled mobile magnet springs quickly past the coil to strike the attracting magnet.

1753 Dict. Love at Defence The weak defence of a fair-one who..coys it attractingly, is such a plain cue to a lover, that not to laugh at her resistance, would be insulting her.

1841 R. P. Ward De Clifford III. xii. 213 ‘And yet,’ observed I, ‘you say Hortense was beautiful and accomplished.’ ‘She was attractingly, nay, voluptuously so.’

1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda IV. vii. liv. 103 She had been attractingly wrought upon by the refined negations he presented to her.

1914 Fortn. Rev. Jan. 184 He found his mind using a pencil on a clean white sheet, and the lines came easily, attractingly, forcefully.

1995 Observer (Nexis) 30 July 17 Narrative skills of this kind were very nicely employed..in her recent life of Purcell. They're even more attractingly deployed here.