1775 W. Marshall Minutes Agric. 16 Aug. (1778) Nothing can equal sub-plowing, for clearing the surface from running weeds;..the second subbing was eight or nine inches deep.

1853 ‘M. Twain’ Let. 26 Oct. (1917) I. i. 26 If I want it, I can get subbing every night of the week.

1900 H. George Life Henry George 126 By irregular ‘subbing’ of this kind he was able to earn enough to pay their board bills. After a few days, learning of an opening in Sacramento,..he went up and got ‘subbing’ work on the ‘Union’.

1943 Billboard 29 May 13/3 The subbing of McIntyre does not affect the band timetable.

1992 S. King Gerald's Game (1993) x. 143 Subbing formed a bridge to the life she had lived before she'd met Gerald.

1998 R. Pennington Longhorn Hoops 179/1 Lemons did frequent subbing, trying to find a fifth starter.

1867 Leisure Hour 4 May 326/2 Most contractors pay fortnightly; and this ‘subbing’ becomes sometimes absolutely necessary.

1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 19 Nov. 612 During the month there has been a more than usual amount of ‘subbing’.

1905 L. W. Hawkins Cost Accts. xxii. 111 The practice of ‘subbing’ or making advances to workmen on account of current wages is to be discouraged.

1916 F. Tillyard Industr. Law vi. 57 In the case of casual workers subbing is almost a necessity.

1895 L. Wilcox Irrigation Farming xix. 283 Subbing.—This is the most natural method of sub-irrigation and it is practiced without resorting to pipes or artificial water ways.

1925 Soil Surv. Hidalgo Co., Texas (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 25 This open structure renders the soil liable to subbing, or the establishment of a high water table in irrigated areas.

1928 Sci. Monthly Dec. 498 The use, north of the Rio Grande, of a type of irrigation developed in this locality and called sub-irrigation, or, more simply and popularly, ‘subbing’.

1956 El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post 14 Apr. 6/1 Water pushes salt horizontally in a field and upward toward drier spots such as the tops of rows. This is ‘subbing’.

2001 Western Farm Press (Nexis) 15 Dec. 24 He concluded..that Kerb was being leached by sprinkler irrigation before the weeds germinated. The subbing of furrow water held the material in place.

1909 Fabian News 20 76/1 A certain amount of margin and space between the lines for any ‘subbing’ that may be required.

1915 T. Burke Nights in Town 318 I have worked on six newspapers... I have done everything, from subbing to specialling.

1958 E. A. Robertson Justice of Heart vi. 84 The ‘subbing of the purple’ was always a painful business for a journalist.

1986 L. Barrow Independent Spirits p. xi Her robustly sensitive subbings.

1994 Guardian 10 Oct. ii. 8/1 He was a member of the grizzled..and intimidating subbing team.

2002 Press Gaz. 1 Nov. 2/3 The Mail on Sunday has always prided itself on the quality of its subbing.

1922 Trans. Soc. Motion Picture Engineers 15 60 Water, either as an impurity or absorbed by the solvents used for ‘subbing’ had the same bad effect upon adhesion.

1941 T. T. Baker Photogr. Emulsion Technique x. 179 The film base may be wiped or cleaned prior to subbing... The cleaned and substratumed film base is coated at a fairly rapid rate.

1977 J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 263/1 Other non-porous surfaces should be pre-coated with the subbing which is normally supplied with the emulsion.

2000 F. W. D. Rost & R. J. Oldfield Photogr. with Microscope xviii. 223 The subbing layers, of gelatine and cellulose, promote adhesion between the layers.