eOE King Ælfred tr. Gregory Pastoral Care (Hatton) (1871) lix. 453 Swa eac ða uncystgan cysta lære, swa he ða cystgan on merringe ne gebringe.

eOE King Ælfred tr. Gregory Pastoral Care (Hatton) (1871) xx. 149 Ðylæs..se agita for his goda mierringe gielpe.

OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Mark (headings to readings) xlii Seductiones ammonet praecauendas: merrunga læreð fore tobehaldano.

J. Gaytryge Lay Folks' Catech. (York Min.) (1901) 124 Withouten ony merryng of hir modirhede.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 8779 (MED) Þai fand gret merring [a1400 Gött marring] in þair merck.

1494 Loutfut MS f. 112^v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue at Merr-, Marring The keparis of the feild suld attent weil to the fechtaris and keip thaim weil fra marring of thaim.

1573 J. Daus tr. H. Bullinger Hundred Serm. vpon Apocalipse (rev. ed.) xxxiii. f. 94^v Of the traditions of men, and their marring of the Scripture, ariseth darkenes.

1649 J. Milton Εικονοκλαστης vi. 58 The making or the marring of any Law.

1710 H. Wanley Let. 16 Sept. (1989) 261 'Tis propos'd that..the..Intanglement of Chains, together with the Marring of Books be prevented.

1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward II. ii. 24 But know, Quentin Durward, that you have foiled me to the marring of thine own fortune.

1860 E. B. Pusey Minor Prophets 65 Man shrinks from the violent marring of his outward form.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. IV. 597 Scrofula:..its frequency, its pitifulness, and its marring of fair young lives.

1991 Bicycle Guide Sept. 6/1 (advt.) Cable lock protects against marring, abrasion and withstands rough weather.

1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs viii. f. 78 Lest creping wormes, and vermine vile in yeare that is to come Do gnaw ye corne with marring mouth.

1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. ii. 269 And not one vessell scape the dreadfull touch of Merchant-marring rocks? View more context for this quotation

1644 A. Hume tr. Petrarch Triumph Chastitie i, in tr. Petrarch Triumphs Love, Chastitie, Death 66 There her palmes she laid, And did commit them to the Thuscan youth, Whose marring scarres beare witnesse of his truth.

1744 E. Young Complaint: Night the Seventh 37 Instinct, than Reason, makes more wholsome Meals, And sends all-marring Murmur far away.

1836 W. E. Gladstone Diary in J. Morley Life Gladstone (1903) I. ii. iii. 136 [Wordsworth] named the discrepancy between his [sc. Shelley's] creed and his imagination as the marring idea of his works.

1876 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Tom Sawyer v. 59 He had but one marring thought; he was willing that the dog should play with his pinch-bug, but he did not think it was upright in him to carry it off.

1891 R. Dowling Isle of Surrey 256 Mottled with marring blotches of scorbutic red.

1906 S. Phillips Nero iii. ii. 70 Children, when there shall come, and come there must, The smallest marring wrinkle on this face, [etc.].

1831 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 29 677 This open expression..brings out marringly the lesson.