1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Regatonia Pedling, buying of small wares.

1607 R. Johnson Pleasant Conceites Old Hobson 7 Follow thy old trade of pedling again & one day thou maiest pay me all.

c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1641 (1955) II. 72 Little Wagons..full of pedling Merchandises,..drawne by Mastive-Dogs.

1693 J. Clayton in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 17 792 The best of Trade that can be driven is only a sort of Scotch Pedling.

1730 D. Defoe Brief State Home Trade Eng. vii. 56 It is not the Men that we so earnestly move against..; 'tis the Hawking and Peddling in all its various Forms and Shapes.

1760 C. Johnstone Chrysal II. i. xviii. 150 That lower species of trade called Pedling.

1857 O. W. Wight Quinland I. 100 He invested [$300] in an old horse and wagon..and started for the interior, on a peddling tour.

1861 A. Trollope Orley Farm (1862) I. vi. 45 I call it hawking and peddling, that going round the country with your goods on your back. It aint trade.

1898 R. Kipling Fleet in Being ii. 22 A slow peddling-out of Admiralty allowance for the month.

1953 ‘P. Lanham’ & A. S. Mopeli-Paulus Blanket Boy's Moon vi. 131 There is..a huge trade carried on in South Africa in the growing, smuggling and peddling of dagga.

1996 Observer 29 Dec. 18/7 There is nothing hole-and corner about the endemic peddling of financial influence.

1737 J. Murray Lett. (1901) 37 We..send our peddling to..the neighbouring colonies, for which we have European or other goods at their price.

1851 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Mar. 249 Surely this peddling and mystery, and shrugs and nods, are pitiful.

1868 F. W. Farrar Seekers after God Concl. 332 The ‘moral peddling’, the pedagogic display..we have had to point out.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 120 What can be done quickly and thoroughly will probably be beneficial, and prolonged peddling the reverse.

1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 639/2 The pedelyng knaues that here bring ouer theire bookes, grispe aboute an halfepeny.

1592 T. Nashe Pierce Penilesse (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. L2 Who can abide a scuruie pedling Poet to plucke a man by the sleeue at euerie third step.

1602 R. Parsons Warn-word f. 26 This pedling marchant comming later to the faire with his wrangle-word.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Saltimbanco, a Mountebank, a Quacksalver, a pedling Physician.

1685 J. Crowne Sir Courtly Nice i. 7 Pedling Women cry Scotch Cloath of a groat a yard.

1728 J. Morgan Compl. Hist. Algiers I. Pref. p. xi The peddling Traders; which the wealthy Dons deem Interlopers.

1754 E. Burt Lett. N. Scotl. I. iv. 77 A Pedling Shop-keeper, that sells a Pennyworth of Thread, is a Merchant.

1834 G. P. R. James John Marston Hall xii I began conversing with him as a peddling Jew.

1864 E. Sargent Peculiar viii. 57 Pride in all those habitudes..which separated us so immeasurably from the peddling and swindling Yankee nation.

1969 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 75/2 Rich as Croesus he was said to be, a fish-peddling miser who lived on soda crackers and milk.

2003 Windsor Star (Nexis) 13 Sept. a3 Locked doors are keeping out drug-peddling intruders.

?1536 R. Copland Hye Way to Spyttell Hous sig. Eiii^v They babble tyll theyr thryft is thyn I wote not What With theyr pedlyng frenche.

1597 Bp. J. Hall Virgidemiarum: 1st 3 Bks. ii. iii. 34 Since pedling Barbarismes gan be in request, Nor classicke tongues, nor learning found no rest.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Bimbeloté, furnished with paultrie ware, or pedling stuffe.

1707 P. A. Motteux Farewel Folly ii. 17 Why mayn't a rich Man have a good Dish before him every day, to rouse his Appetite, tho he has but a peddling Stomach?

1759 R. Jackson Hist. Rev. Pennsylvania 353 The Province was..to receive it in so pedling a Way, as rendered it in a Manner useless.

1845 T. Carlyle in O. Cromwell Lett. & Speeches I. 3 Poor peddling Dilettantism.

1885 E. Clodd Myths & Dreams i. i. 9 We find place given to inane peddling details.

1902 J. Conrad Heart of Darkness iii You with your little peddling notions—you are interfering with me.

1925 J. Drinkwater Robert Burns ii. 26 You're a little man, in a little place, and for your peddling bit of dignity and self-esteem you'll break your girl's heart and ruin me.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage ii. vii. 228 From these foure in processe of time arose other 68. Sects of name, besides other pedling factions.

1693 Apol. Clergy Scotl. 37 Our Pedling little Reformers.

1737 W. Hogarth in J. Ireland Hogarth Illustr. (1791) I. p. li These peddling demi-critics, on the painful discovery of some little inaccuracy..,without any regard to the more noble parts of a performance..condemn the whole as a bad and incorrect piece.

1776 T. Paine Common Sense 60 Such a thought is unworthy a man of honour, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart, and a peddling politician.

1818 A. Eaton Let. 13 Sept. in E. M. McAllister Amos Eaton viii. 187 You know I am a pedling chemist among other things.

1848 C. Kingsley Saint's Trag. iv. iii. 207 I am dwindling to a peddling chamber-chaplain, Who hunts for crabs and ballads in maids' sleeves, I, who have shuffled kingdoms.

1862 T. W. Robertson Progress i. i. 546 This, they say, is a degenerate, peddling age, and they will have none of it.

1892 Graphic 22 Oct. 478/3 A Minister who..is peddlingly unambitious.