a piece of leather used to reinforce or trim part of the upper of a shoe
foxing in American English
(ˈfɑksɪŋ)
noun
1.
material used to cover the upper portion of a shoe
2.
discoloration, as of book leaves or prints
Word origin
[fox + -ing1]-ing is a suffix of nouns formed from verbs, expressing the action of the verb or itsresult, product, material, etc. (the art of building; a new building; cotton wadding). It is also used to form nouns from words other than verbs (offing; shirting). Verbal nouns ending in -ing are often used attributively (the printing trade) and in forming compounds (drinking song). In some compounds (sewing machine), the first element might reasonably be regarded as the participial adjective, -ing, the compound thus meaning “a machine that sews,” but it is commonly taken as a verbalnoun, the compound being explained as “a machine for sewing”
Examples of 'foxing' in a sentence
foxing
Several of the steel engravings hung on the left-hand wall were spoilt by foxing.
Moore, Margaret FORESTS OF THE NIGHT
She found it satisfying to look for signs of foxing, the browning of a book's pages.
Globe and Mail (2004)
That is responsible for those little brown spots, known as foxing, found in many old books.