1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xi. 26 Poore naked wretches, where so ere you are That bide the pelting of this pittiles night. View more context for this quotation

1653 W. Ramesey Astrologia Restaurata 13 We were at slashing and pelting with the Hollanders, and they with us.

?1770 Adventures of Actor viii. 97 O who will abide the pitiless pelting of that day!—Who will dare to stand before the Lamb of God!

1797 M. Robinson Walsingham III. lxv. 257 The proud cedar..Stands like a landmark to attract men's eyes; And tho' it shares the bright meridian blaze, It cannot 'scape the pelting of the storm.

1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge ii. 247 The rude buffets of the wind and pelting of the rain.

1895 S. Crane Red Badge of Courage xx. 190 They accepted the pelting of the bullets with bowed and weary heads.

1976 P. Flower Crisscross vii. 68 The rain..started its pelting as he drove into the garage.

1994 Discover Apr. 89/2 Saturn probably comes in for an even heavier pelting since the planet's greater mass attracts more material its way.

1540 R. Wisdome in J. Strype Eccl. Memorials (1721) I. App. cxv. 319 The putting away of pelting perdons and the roting out of famous idols.

1553 J. Bale Vocacyon 43 They are but pilde peltinge prestes.

1565 J. Calfhill Aunswere Treat. Crosse Epist. to Martiall sig. Bij Like a pelting Pedlar putting the best in your packe vppermost.

1573 G. Harvey Let. 21 Mar. in Let.-bk. (1884) 12 Inforcid rather to bungle up a pelting histori then to write a set epistle.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 184 Poore pelting villages, sheep-coates, and milles. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) ii. ii. 115 Euery pelting petty Officer Would vse his heauen for thunder. View more context for this quotation

1634 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. Hist. New Test. (STC 12640.5) 246 To tender a trade of so invaluable a commodity, to these pelting petty chapmen, for thirty poore silverlings.

1685 tr. B. Gracián y Morales Courtiers Oracle 186 Sometimes a little pelting fret costs a repentance, that lasts as long as life.

1820 P. B. Shelley Philos. View Reform in E. Dowden Life Shelley II. 293 A set of pelting wretches, in whose employment there is nothing to exercise..the more majestic forces of the soul.

1873 R. C. Trench Plutarch (1874) ii. 37 Greece was a province:..Her flourishing cities..had dwindled into pelting villages.

1961 H. Corke Early Drowned 58 The young man looks into the cup and sees All the poor pelting villages of Pripet, Dumb walls of Spanish ghettos,.

1555 W. Turner New Bk. Spirituall Physik f. 49 Some hauynge landes of theyr owne to lyue on, haue peltyngly gone about from court to court, biynge fermes and bargaynes.

1592 G. Babington Certaine Comfortable Notes Genesis (xxi.) f. 88^v It is not euer by and by well spared, that pinchingly and peltingly is spared.

1592 G. Harvey Fovr Lett., & Certaine Sonnets iii. 17 Mine owne modest petition, my friendes diligent labour, our high Chauncelors most-honourable and extraordinarye commendation, were all peltingly defeated, by a slye practise of the olde Fox.

1602 Contention Liberalitie & Prodigalitie ii. iv. sig. C3^v For thy paines I wil not greaze thy fist, Peltingly with two or three crownes.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1645/1 (margin) [Bp.] Boner in a pelting chafe.

1584 J. Lyly Alexander, Campaspe, & Diogenes v. iii. sig. F Good drinke makes good bloud, and shal pelting wordes spill it?

1624 T. Heywood Γυναικεῖον 309 This young man..being (as our English phrase sayth) in a pelting chafe.

1684 J. Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress 2nd Pt. 64 When they were come to the Arbour, they were very willing to sit down, for they were all in a pelting heat. View more context for this quotation

1767 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IX. xiv. 59 There is a pelting kind of thersitical satire, as black as the very ink 'tis wrote with.

1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda IV. vii. li. 37 I delivered you from the pelting contempt that pursues Jewish separateness.

1710 A. Philips Pastorals ii. 99 The pelting show'r Destroys the tender herb and budding flow'r.

1737 T. Hare tr. Horace Epodes v, in tr. Horace Odes & Epodes 273 You ugly Hags the Mob shall beat With pelting Stones from Street to Street.

1797 S. T. Coleridge To Rev. G. Coleridge in Poems (ed. 2) p. xviii Chance-started Friendships. A brief while Some have preserv'd me from life's pelting ills.

1851 A. Helps Compan. Solitude x. 181 There is a pitiless, pelting rain this morning.

1894 ‘M. Twain’ Pudd'nhead Wilson ii. 31 Over in the vacant lots was Jasper,..sitting on a wheelbarrow in the pelting sun.

1908 L. Woolf Let. 29 Oct. (1990) 140 I started to ride here at 4 yesterday afternoon in pelting rain.

1989 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 4 June i. 1/4 Shouting with rage now at the two-dozen military troops..sweating in their heavy green uniforms under the pelting sun.

2004 Timaru (N.Z.) Herald (Nexis) 25 Feb. 13 The fleet was kept fully occupied with the strong gusty winds and pelting rain.