noddingn.
/ˈnɒdɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈnɑdɪŋ/ The action of nod v.; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in specific manner > alternating or reciprocating motion > [noun] > nodding the head
noddinga1398
the world > physical sensation > sleeping and waking > sleep > [noun] > nodding in sleep
nodding1548
nutation1612
niddy-noddy1653
society > communication > indication > gesturing or gesture > other gestures > [noun] > head gestures
nod1541
nodding1550
headshake1603
shake of the head1713
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 288 The hert calf..haþ þat name hynnulus of hinniendo, bekkyng oþer noddyng.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 357 Noddynge wythe the heed, conquiniscio.
c1500 Makculloch MS in G. S. Stevenson Pieces from Makculloch & Gray MSS (1918) xiv. 51 Of nodyng of hedis.
1548 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) Nutatio, noddynge, as a mans head dooeth, whan he sytteth slepyng.
1550 J. Heywood Hundred Epigrammes x. sig. Av What thyng is it..That bringeth this busie blissyng and noddyng?
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 146 They pray silently with ridiculous and continual noddings of their heads.
1649 J. Bulwer Pathomyotomia ii. i. 56 Nodding to us is a gesture of invitation.
1671 J. Dryden Evening's Love ii. 21 For all your noddings, and your Mathematical grimaces.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xii. x. 271 He endeavoured, by winking, nodding, sneering, and grinning, to hide the Impression from Jones. View more context for this quotation
1812 L. Hunt in Examiner 19 Oct. 657/1 Mr. Sheridan..assures him, with a hearty nodding of the head.., that they all drank his health.
1844 M. Howitt My Own Story viii. 73 With sundry winks of his large eyes, and upward noddings of his chin.
1882 Garden 11 Mar. 167/1 The constant nodding of the florets, even in the calmest weather, is delightful.
1960 E. V. Truefitt in R. F. Hansford Radio Aids to Civil Aviation v. 328 The aerial performs a nodding motion which scans the radar beam in elevation.
1975 R. Geesin Fallables (BNC) 90 I'm so used to seeing dribbly noddings on trains.
1991 J. Davidson Nat. Creation & Formative Mind (BNC) 94 Social bonding includes everything from nodding, winking and shaking hands, to having a good cuddle.
Compounds
nodding acquaintance n. (a) a slight acquaintance (with a person or thing); (b) a person with whom one has a slight acquaintance.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > [noun] > state of being acquainted > acquaintance > slight acquaintance
bowing acquaintance1807
nodding acquaintance1824
nodding terms1838
1824 T. L. Beddoes Let. 3 Mar. in Wks. (1935) 581 On one point, where he is most vulnerable, you have omitted to place your sting,—I mean his palpable ignorance of the Elizabethans,..with whom he ought to have formed at least a nodding acquaintance.
1886 T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge I. xvii. 207 A hint from a nodding acquaintance enlightened her.
1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 107 Most educated people will by now have heard of the Oedipus complex and will have a nodding acquaintance with libido and imago.
1996 F. Chappell Farewell I'm bound to leave You (1997) 179 She never missed out on a chance to give aid and comfort to whoever she could, kinfolk or neighbors or nodding acquaintances or pure rank strangers.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > [noun] > tedious or dull place > specifically in a book
nodding-place1711
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 124. ¶1 The most severe Reader makes Allowances for many Rests and Nodding-places in a voluminous Writer.
nodding terms n. terms of slight acquaintance; esp. in to be on nodding terms (with).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > [noun] > state of being acquainted > acquaintance > slight acquaintance
bowing acquaintance1807
nodding acquaintance1824
nodding terms1838
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > make friends with [verb (transitive)] > make acquaintance > be acquainted with slightly
to be on nodding terms (with)1959
1838 J. Galt in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 41/2 We were not overly acquaint, though on nodding terms when we passed.
1863 C. Dickens Uncommerc. Traveller in All Year Round 18 July 494/2 I am on nodding terms with a meditative turncock.
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren viii. 122 Childhood is on nodding terms with the supernatural.
1990 Poetry Rev. Spring 18/1 Of the enormous cast featured here..I was on nodding terms with most and more or less friendly with many.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
noddingadj.
/ˈnɒdɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈnɑdɪŋ/ 1.
a. That nods (in various senses).
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in specific manner > alternating or reciprocating motion > [adjective] > nodding
noddingc1450
noddling1649
niddle-noddle1761
c1450 J. Lydgate Dietary (Sloane) 51 in Anglia (1918) 42 188 (MED) Suffur no surfettes in thy house at nyght; Ware of rere-suppers and of grete excesse, Of noddyng hedes [L. capud quod innuit] and of candillight.
1566 J. Studley tr. Seneca Medea f. 13v Orpheus..That forced euen..the ioconde nodding woodes wyth fotyng fyne to daunce.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream ii. i. 250 I know a banke..Where Oxlips, and the nodding Violet growes. View more context for this quotation
1637 J. Milton Comus 2 This dreare wood, The nodding horror of whose shadie brows Threats the forlorne..Passinger.
1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Palamon & Arcite iii. 370 At length the nodding statue clash'd his arms.
1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey II. ix. 224 Crown'd with rough thickets, and a nodding wood.
1757 T. Gray Ode I i. i, in Odes 5 The rocks, and nodding groves.
1792 R. Kerr Linnæus's Animal Kingdom 69 Nodding Monkey.
1820 P. B. Shelley Ode to Liberty iv, in Prometheus Unbound 210 The nodding promontories, and blue isles, And cloud-like mountains.
1866 W. Barnes Poems Rural Life in Dorset Dial.: First Coll. 88 An' there, vor fun, we dress'd her head Wi' noddèn poppies bright an' red.
1871 G. Meredith Harry Richmond III. xii. 197 He collapsed in speech, and became what he used to call ‘one of the ordinary nodding men’.
1895 L. Binyon Poems 1 Wet heads of nodding flowers!
1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables ii. 20 A big hat all flowers and nodding plumes.
1984 T. C. Boyle Budding Prospects (1985) iv. ii. 259 I..saw the nodding head of the all-night clerk in the frantically lit quick-stop store.
b. spec. Drowsy, sleepy. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sleeping and waking > sleep > drowsiness > [adjective]
winkinga1000
slummy?c1225
anappedc1300
sleepya1325
heavy1382
slumberyc1386
sleepful1398
peisant1484
slumberous1495
drowsy1530
sleepish1530
sleepery1535
slumberinga1538
somnolent1547
heavy-headed1552
drowsy-headed1576
narrow-eyed1607
soporiferous1607
oscitant1625
nodding1631
Morphean1641
dormious1656
somniculous1656
dozed1659
drowsed1667
peeping1673
dozy1693
peepy1699
somniferous1798
noddy1801
dozing1820
head-nodding1832
snory1837
soporific1841
somnolescent1845
swodder1847
adrowse1848
snoozy1877
slumbersome1884
1631 T. Dekker Match mee in London i. 1 No honest soules vp now, but Vintners, Midwiues, The nodding Watch, and pitious Constable.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil Wks. 472 He wakes The nodding Watch.
1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 33 So to order their lives as to have no need of a nodding justice.
c. spec. Of a structure, etc.: swaying, tottering; inclining. Also figurative. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in specific manner > alternating or reciprocating motion > oscillation > [adjective] > swaying
nodding1693
rolling1753
swaling1824
swaying1847
swingy1943
the world > movement > motion in specific manner > irregular movement or agitation > unsteady movement > [adjective] > tottering
tolter1423
totterc1480
totteringa1535
cockering1553
tottered1626
cockling1634
nodding1693
cockery1825
cocklety1828
rickety1832
cockly1859
cockerty1895
1693 T. Southerne Maids Last Prayer ii. ii Sure, Granger, thou lovest a nodding wall, that will bury thee in its ruins.
1715 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad I. ii. 18 Destruction hangs o'er yon' devoted Wall, And nodding Ilion waits th' impending Fall.
1735 J. Thomson Greece: 2nd Pt. Liberty 404 Scarce any trace remaining, vestige grey, Or nodding column..To point where Corinth, or where Athens stood.
1793 J. Byng Diary 19 July in C. B. Andrews Torrington Diaries (1936) III. 226 I..then took my round by the nodding ruin of the old-castle.
1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge lxviii. 335 The tumbling down of nodding walls and heavy blocks of wood.
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. 452 Nodding, pendulous, stalactitic hummocks were not unfrequent.
1990 Country Life 15 Feb. 58/2 An angel under a nodding ogee.
2.
a. In the names of plants having pendulous flowers or inflorescences.Frequently translating the specific epithets nutans (see nutant adj.) and cernuus (see cernuous adj.).
ΚΠ
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Carduus Carduus; nutans... The Musk, or Nodding Thistle.
1789 J. Pilkington View Derbyshire I. viii. 451 Bidens cernua, Nodding Double-tooth.
1822 S. Clarke Hortus Anglicus II. 110 Nodding Dragon's Head... Flowers in whorls, somewhat drooping.
1857 A. Gray First Lessons Bot. (1866) 193 Nodding Trillium or Wake-Robin.
1907 A. B. Lyons Plant Names (ed. 2) 366 P[ogonia] trianthophora... Eastern U.S. Nodding Pogonia, Three-birds.
1939 National Geographic Mag. Aug. 264/2 The nodding onion (A. cernuum) is so named because of the pendent position of the blossoms.
1994 Brisbane News 27 July 24/3 In a hanging basket the nodding violet, Streptocarpus caulescens, is hard to beat.
b. Chiefly Botany. Esp. of an inflorescence: bent or curved downward; pendulous.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > physical arrangement or condition > [adjective] > turned inwards, upwards, backwards, etc.
reflexeda1500
resupinated1661
nutant1751
nodding1776
resupinate1776
reversed1777
deflex1791
retrorse1818
deflexed1826
deflected1828
fornicate1828
invaginated1835
antrorse1838
invertile1853
posterial1866
retrorsal1870
invaginate1887
invaginable1888
1776 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (ed. 3) 378 Nutans, nodding, the Top or Head bent downwards.
1793 T. Martyn Lang. Bot. sig. M7v Nodding, when applied to a flower it signifies that the peduncle is considerably curved, but not so much as in the flos cernuus; which, as the term implies, points directly to the ground.
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. xlvi. 300 Nodding horn (Cornu nutans). When a horn bends forwards.
1886 A. H. Church Food-grains of India 40 With..hairy leaves and a much divided nodding panicle.
1976 S. M. Gault Dict. Shrubs in Colour 171/2 The white saucer like nodding flowers appear with the leaves in June.
2000 Org. Gardening Sept. 61/2 Snowdrops (Galanthus spp.) have three-lobed nodding bells of pure white that stand out in the late-winter lawn.
Compounds
nodding dog n. chiefly British (a) a small model of a dog with a head which nods, typically displayed in a car; (b) a sycophant; a yes-man (frequently attributive).
ΚΠ
1987 G. Fulton in Edinb. Rev. No. 77 Two cars A red one a dented one With windscreen wipers Nodding dog Fizzy cassette In the William Hill's..Car park.
1998 Daily Tel. (Electronic ed.) 22 Jan. I just like to push my ideas through, and why shouldn't I? I'm not paid to do a nodding dog act.
1999 M. Sawyer Park & Ride (2000) ii. 24 Outside school hours, my brother and I were such regular back-seaters that we could have been substituted with nodding dogs.
2000 People (Electronic ed.) 24 Feb. Even if you get onto a Commons committee you are no more than a nodding dog.
nodding donkey n. Oil Industry a reciprocating pump for drawing oil to the surface.
ΚΠ
1973 Times 1 Dec. 2/3 The Kimmeridge pump jack, familiarly known in the trade as a nodding donkey, seesaws steadily on.
1993 Independent on Sunday 19 Sept. 10/3 A couple of nodding donkeys which silently pump oil from one of Britain's few land-based wells.
nodding lily n. U.S. regional the Canada lily, Lilium canadense, with nodding yellow flowers.
ΚΠ
1822 A. Eaton Man. Bot. (ed. 3) 337 Lilium canadense (nodding lily).
1993 T. Coffey N. Amer. Wildflowers 305/1 Canada Lily, Meadow Lily, Wild Yellow Lily. Lilium canadense... [Also called] Nodding Lily.
nodding thistle n. the musk thistle, Carduus nutans.
ΚΠ
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Carduus Carduus; nutans... The Musk, or Nodding Thistle.
1858 A. Irvine Illustr. Handbk. Brit. Plants 504 C. nutans, Linn. Nodding Thistle... Stems erect, winged, spinous, branching.
1981 J. Halliday & J. Halliday in K. Thear & A. Fraser Compl. Bk. Raising Livestock & Poultry iv. 73/2 Weeds such as star thistle and nodding thistle.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1398adj.c1450