c1475 (c1445) R. Pecock Donet (1921) 3 (MED) Þei ben dressid into þe seid vij maters from her oute of reule abrood raging [read ranging], with certein defensis aȝens hem whiche wolen inpugne þe conceit and þe deuise of þis book.

1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare iv. 299 O what ranginge, and huntinge here is, to beate vp that thinge, that wil not be founde.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xi. 135 This alteration is sometimes..by wrong ranging of the accent.

c1610–15 Hist. St. Vrsula in C. Horstmann Lives Women Saints (1886) 38 After many perills and long ranging..they arriued at Colen.

1622 F. Markham Five Decades Epist. of Warre iv. ix. 155 These Corporals haue the raunging of Battels.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. iii. 9 This wild ranging of the mind.

1710 J. Addison Whig Examiner No. 4 When an author..imposes upon us by the sound and ranging of his words.

1720 in T. D'Urfey Wit & Mirth VI. 44 Cupid it is my Name, I live by ranging.

1846 R. C. Trench Notes Miracles xviii. 307 A ranging of men in their true ranks.

1862 Internat. Exhib.: Illustr. Catal. Industr. Dept. II. xxviii. 23/1 Their inequality of size and consequent irregularity of ranging.

1890 H. H. Dogs for Gun iii. i. 80 I have seen four months' old pups go in for ranging.

1934 M. McLuhan Let. 6 Dec. (1987) 43 Moreover his poems, like B's, use the method of dramatic monologue with its swift ranging over every sort of experience.

1984 A. Livingstone Lou Andreas-Salomé xiii. 191 The book is a last ranging over all her most held-to and beloved ideas.

2002 Nature Conservancy Winter 27/1 Two teams of resident trackers are just beginning to decipher the rangings of the swamp's biggest creatures.

1919 Sci. Amer. 17 May 511/3 Sound-ranging is a vast improvement [for]..locating hostile points of fire.

1946 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers 93 i. 378/2 The foundation for precision radar ranging in fire control was firmly laid in 1938.

1965 R. F. Filipowsky & E. I. Muehldorf Space Communications Techniques ii. 136 The microwave link to the receiver where the ranging equipment is situated.

1996 Sci. Amer. Feb. 34/1 The U.S. Air Force was planning a navigation system that utilized ‘ranging’—the measurements of distances to several satellites—rather than the Doppler shift in radio frequency.

1728 tr. A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville Theory & Pract. Gardening (ed. 2) ii. iv. 156 As for the Side-borders, they are set out by the Ranging-Line, measured with the Fathom, and traced out by the Cord.

1766 A. Fletcher Univ. Measurer (ed. 2) 80 The shorter the offsets the better; because without much labour it is difficult to get them square to the ranging line.

1844 F. W. Simms Pract. Tunnelling x. 98 The ranging line was stretched along the heading on each side of the shaft..representing the intended central line of the tunnel.

2006 M. Thorpe Hodge's Brickwork for Apprentices (ed. 5) viii. 130 The ranging lines are set to wall marks on the profiles, and plumb lines are taken down on the main corners to the concrete foundation.

1880 Manufacturer & Builder Aug. 184/3 [The] cost [of ranging rods] is but little more than that of the wooden ‘ranging poles’ ordinarily used.

1897 Scribner's Mag. Nov. 572 Close by the ranging-poles, which showed where the finish was to be, a large tent had been pitched.

1950 J. Glendinning Princ. Surv. (1966) i. ii. 12 He must also hold his ranging pole vertical by supporting it loosely between the forefinger and thumb so that it tends to hang vertical under its own weight.

1996 A. Clark Seeing beneath Soil (2000) viii. 161 An optical square..enables one to establish right angles and to interpolate along straight lines, sighting on vertical markers such as ranging poles.

1880 Manufacturer & Builder Aug. 184/2 (heading) A self-plumbing ranging-rod for transit field work.

1949 T. W. Birch Maps: Topographical & Statist. iv. 32 Ranging rods..are placed about the field to form terminal points of lines which make up a series of triangles.

1992 S. Wass Amateur Archaeologist iii. 65 A collection of ranging rods, the kind of red and white poles surveyors use, are helpful for marking out the site.

1712 J. James tr. A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville Theory & Pract. Gardening ii. i. 84 'Tis better..to place yourself three or four Foot beyond the Ranging-Stick; and stooping to its Height, with one Eye shut, aim with that which is open, and direct all the other Stakes according to the Range of the first.

1996 K. Tovey in S. Watts & L. Halliwell Essent. Environmental Sci. iv. 195 A low-powered beam..is reflected by a special reflecting prism which may be tripod-mounted for accurate station fixing, or mounted on a ranging stick for map making and setting-out purposes.

1752 W. Douglass Summary State Brit. Settlements N.-Amer. II. 50 In North-America, Ranging Timber, Spars, Oak and Pine Plank,..Shingles & Laths are called Lumber.

1838 J. C. Loudon Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum IV. iii. cxiii. 2118 The timber..is sent to England, principally from Savannah in Georgia, in planks called ‘ranging timbers’, which are from 15 ft. to 30 ft. long, and 10 in. or 12 in. broad.

1907 J. F. Defebaugh Hist. Lumber Industry Amer. II. 17 Timber under twelve inches, was called Ranging timber.

1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 740/1 The New York Building Code..requires that every building..shall have foundations..[laid] upon piles or ranging timbers when solid earth or rock is not found.

1819 P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. II. 46/2 Ranging of glass is the cutting it in breadths, as the work may require, and is best done by one uninterrupted cut from one end to the other.

1819 P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. II. 46/2 The ranging lath must be long enough to extend rather beyond the boundary of the table of glass.

1556 N. Grimald tr. Cicero Thre Bks. Duties Pref. sig. ¶viii Reason within vs ought to rule raunging lusts.

1559 W. Baldwin et al. Myrroure for Magistrates Clarence xxix A raynles ranging horse.

1560 A. L. tr. J. Calvin Serm. Songe Ezechias iv. 62 Though we haue many ranging woordes in our prayer.

1570 J. Foxe tr. Constantine Epist. in Actes & Monuments (rev. ed.) I. 141/1 Neyther yet in ranging wyse wander the stars to what place of the world they list.

1601 R. Chester Loves Martyr 149 Some gentle minds these ranging thoughts do hate.

1655 E. Nicholas Nicholas Papers (1892) II. 337 Only fit for one of..his ranging spaniells to finde where the game lyes.

1744 J. Thomson Summer in Seasons (new ed.) 73 O'er Heaven and Earth, far as the ranging Eye Can sweep.

1787 H. J. Pye Poems I. 123 Soon to the spot the ranging pointer drawn.

1816 H. Downing Mary 10 With tower, and Spire,..And ranging buildings, light and dark, As evening shadows fall.

1887 C. Bowen tr. Virgil Æneid vi, in tr. Virgil in Eng. Verse 270 Many the troubled thoughts that in ranging talk they pursue.

1921 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Feb. 97/4 One of the ranging, rambling journals that he [sc. Keats] sent periodically to his brother and sister-in-law in America.

1988 Times 17 Feb. 12/5 Hunter-gatherer societies..rely for food on wild nuts and berries, and meat from ranging animals.

2001 R. Nicoll White Male Heart (2002) 222 They were passing the ranging heights of Ben Wyvis, its peaks covered in snow.

1757 W. Smith Rev. Mil. Operations N.-Amer. 121 Rogers..capt. of a ranging company, gave repeated demonstrations of his activity in the neighbourhood of Crown Point.

1857 F. L. Olmsted Journey through Texas v. 300 Any one, having obtained from the government a commission to form a ranging-company, advertised a rendezvous.

1962 W. C. Nunn Texas under Carpetbaggers iii. ix. 200 Governor Davis issued an order for the organization of seven ranging companies to serve for four months.

2005 Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) (Nexis) 17 July The famed New England-born frontiersman led ‘ranging companies’ on raids and reconnaissance missions for the British.