supperingn.

1675 T. Hobbes tr. Homer Odysses xxi. 259 But now 'tis time for After suppering Ere day be done, and taking such delights, As Cups, Discourse, and pleasant Musique bring.

1730 D. Turner tr. U. Hutten De Morbo Gallico xix. 58 Such as draw out their Dinners unto Supper time, and their Supperings unto Midnight.

1740 S. Richardson Pamela II. 62 The Breakfasting-time, the Preparation for Dinner,..and the Supperings, will fill up a great Part of the Day.

1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 173 Such visiting and dressing, and dinnering, and suppering.

1827 T. Hood Lycus 25 Once, at my suppering, I pluck'd in the dusk An apple.

1861 M. L. Charlesworth England's Yeomen iii. 27 Good health to ye, mistress, and thanks for our suppering.

1878 Bicycle Jrnl. 22 Feb. 1/1 Not even the most wretched supperings of cold pork and hard dumplings could..induce me to recognise such a congregation of very gentle-men as a parliament.

1901 Folk-Lore Dec. 417 They spend one-quarter of this on Garland Day, another quarter on the 5th of November for their ‘suppering’ at one of the inns, [etc.].

1916 M. Gyte Diary 22 Jan. (1999) 75 Mr. Weadon and I had a conversation over the choir suppering. He did not go to supper but just looked in after.

1977 Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio) 4 Aug. a5/3 Eggs are great camping take-alongs... They'll keep, in a cooler in the shade, for several days of great breakfasting, lunching or suppering.

2005 San Diego Mag. Sept. 8/2 Dining... midnight suppering.

1820 J. Clare Poems Rural Life 134 Far and near, the motley group Anxious claim their suppering-up.

1824 Edinb. Mag. & Literary Misc. July 2/1 We recommend, that he shall set aside, for the perusal of them, some quiet evening, after witnessing the suppering up of the beasts, (a duty of the master himself, in all well-regulated, moderate country establishments).

1827 New Monthly Mag. 21 86/2 When the sun sets at four or five o'clock, a farm-servant has a deal of time to spare betwixt the unyoking of the plough and the suppering of his team.

1829 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Plants 683 In Scotland..before the introduction of naked fallows and turnips, it [sc. Cnicus arvensis] formed the suppering of housed cattle, during five or six weeks of every summer.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm I. 835 Beside the fine pasture they receive, they are supplied with an ample suppering of clover-grass or tares.

1859 Farmer's Mag. Dec. 469/1 Another plan is to slice the Swedish turnip, and give about one bushel per day, divided into three equal feeds, for morning, noon, and night; cut chaff twice, and hay for a ‘suppering-up’.

1899 S. R. Crockett Kit Kennedy 243 Kit must be back at Loch Spellanderie for the suppering of the horses.

1902 St. George 5 154 Sheep wants suppering up, and I'se not so sewer but what I cud do wid a bit of poddish mysel.

1932 ‘L. G. Gibbon’ Sunset Song ii. 120 Ah well, he kept to his whistling and his secret smiling, and every night after loosening and suppering was done, off down the road on his old bit bicycle he'd go.

1958 Agric. Hist. Rev. 6 37 The demands of the Forteviot ploughmen included references to the level of wages and to the suppering of horses.

1980 F. Dobson Fungus 7 Inside the farm'ouse, owd Gran'dad Staaples wattched while the three cats finished the'r supperin'-up milk; then sez, ‘All reight, maates, come yar on.’

2001 L. Kelly in D. H. Lawrence Rainbow Introd. p. xviii The effect of this ‘suppering-up’ scene in the cowshed is to produce a profound bond between Tom and his stepdaughter.