a1300 Passion our Lord 671 in R. Morris Old Eng. Misc. (1872) 56 (MED) We iherden heom heryen in heore preching After vre tunge.

c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) (1961) 9 (MED) By his voice is bitokned þe prechyng of holy chirche þat is clene of synne.

?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 157 The prechinge of Religiouse cristenmen.

a1450 York Plays (1885) 172 Men are so dull þat my preching Serues of noght.

a1500 (?a1390) J. Mirk Festial (Gough) (1905) 9 (MED) Þer come to his prechyng mony a þowsand of folke.

1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 601/1 They could not beleue it at the preaching of a woman, without any other miracle.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. lx The preaching of the Gospell.

1602 J. Nichols Plea of Innocent 11 There was much preaching in the Vniuersities.

1673 True Notion Worship of God 45 Preaching is nothing else but Publishing, Declaring, or Pronouncing what is said to be Preached.

1735 in Rec. Early Hist. Boston 111 The Overseers of the Poor had..taken Care to Provide Preaching at the Alms-House.

1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xx. 226 Preaching was considered as the most important office of the bishop.

1793 J. Boswell Life Johnson (ed. 2) anno 1763 I. 428 Johnson: Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park III. iii. 64 Those who were ordained..forty years ago..must have thought reading was reading, and preaching was preaching. View more context for this quotation

1862 W. M. Thackeray in Cornhill Mag. Aug. 286 Perhaps of all the novel-spinners now extant, the present speaker is the most addicted to preaching.

1909 Outlook (N.Y.) 27 Feb. 430/1 He [sc. President Roosevelt]..swung round in his swivel chair, and said: ‘I suppose my critics will call that preaching.’

1932 W. Faulkner Light in August xx. 448 When there was preaching on peaceful Sundays in quiet groves to be done, he had done it.

1976 Christian 3 139 Many Methodists went to hear his simple, direct, evangelical preaching.

2005 News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida) (Nexis) 13 Feb. 8 e It's very fashionable nowadays for books to avoid preaching; most writers are very, very scared of appearing to want to sell any particular philosophical line.

c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) (1961) 55 (MED) Þe foure Aungels..bitokneþ þe deueles þat shullen destroyen þe prechynges & þe godspelles [Fr. les predicatiuns del euvangile].

c1350 Psalter (BL Add. 17376) in K. D. Bülbring Earliest Compl. Eng. Prose Psalter (1891) lxxii. 28 (MED) Ich shewe alle þyn prechynges in þe passyng of þe soules of þe saued.

?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 188 (MED) Maist þou wel knowe, by þe exposicyouns and prechinges of þe gospel, how in dyuerse wises it is declarid to cristen men.

c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 90 Without him, grees goon on out of gree, and prechingis rennen arere.

?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. liiii^v A prechyng or a sermonde is: where a conuocatyon, or a gatheryng of people on holydayes..[is] in churches or other places, and tymes set and ordayned for the same.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Jonah iii. 2 Preach vnto them the preachinge, which I bade the.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie i. xiii. 24 The Poets..made certaine poems in plaine meetres, more like to sermons or preachings then otherwise.

a1653 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) Introd. 50 There is not a preaching preached but some gracious pickle falleth upon some heart.

1748 J. Wesley Let. 10 Feb. (1931) II. 120 All other worship, both praises, prayers, and preachings..man sets about in his own will.

a1773 Coltness Coll. (1842) i. viii. 11 He was a great frequenter of Knowsyde preachings, (so he called field conventicles).

1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 145 In New England, a vast deal of time is spent in attending preachings, and other religious meetings.

1845 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 79 The fastings, the footwanderings, and the preachings of Christ.

1861 M. Pattison in Westm. Rev. Apr. 415 We find the Germans..attending the preachings in Allhallows.

1899 H. G. Graham Social Life II. 41 When the concourses were great the preachings were held in the field or churchyard.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 915/1 In the preachings of the early Hussites..one finds the same ideas forcibly expressed.

1965 Dumfries Standard 24 July 6 The annual conventicle at Kirkbride takes place this year on Sunday... The ‘preaching’ amid the ancient ruins of Kirkbride Church was held regularly between the wars and was revived in 1957.

1993 W. Baldwin Hard to catch Mercy ii. 43 When I happened one day to share these preachings with my Sunday school teacher, the poor woman shrieked and ran off.

1819 P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. 574/1 Preaching Cross, a cross erected in the highway for the purpose of preaching.

1867 J. G. Nichols Hist. from Marble 91 The Preaching Cross of the Blackfriars, said to have been erected circ. 1350.

1923 Times 24 Sept. 15/5 In the midst of the city an ancient preaching cross still stands.

1999 Church Times 22 Jan. 7/1 There has been a faith community here since the setting up of the first preaching cross over 1300 years ago.

1792 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. III. 513 There are two preaching stations besides the church,..the one 10, and the other 14 miles, distant from the manse.

1835 Times 25 Dec. 2/3 Deducting mere preaching stations, and vacant congregations who have no settled pulpit-demagogue to disturb their quiet habits with his church jealousies, there are just 480 (Protestant and Popish) Dissenting congregations in Scotland.

1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 86 A preaching-station in connection with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Stranraer.

1896 Amer. Missionary May 154 At Piney Grove, a preaching station was begun in an old dwelling house, and a little church of twelve members is the result.

1993 Episcopal Life Sept. 4/1 A hundred people are waiting at this preaching station..for a festive celebration of the Eucharist.

2010 H. O. Old Reading & Preaching Script. VII. iv. 210 A vigorous preacher, not only for his own congregation..but also for five preaching stations in the surrounding villages.

1560 Bp. J. Pilkington Aggeus the Prophete (1562) 182 They shall finde mo worshipfull names geven to the preachinge minister, then to any one sorte of men.

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. K4^v Are those preaching prelates..or else reading ministers?

1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre iii. v. 44 in Wks. II Edg... An odde fellow, yonder, is stealing away. Ove. Brother, it is the preaching fellow!

1650 R. Stapleton tr. F. Strada De Bello Belgico ii. 35 So that nothing was done to oppose the preaching-men.

1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. viii. 275 He left..3083 Sermons..accounted a prodigious number in this preaching age.

1747 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 27 Mar. (1932) (modernized text) III. 892 I would not, at twenty years, be a preaching missionary of abstemiousness and sobriety.

1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) II. 157 Ministers, or preaching presbyters..alone can..assist at the imposition of hands upon other ministers.

1881 Times 26 Feb. 6 Their preaching men must revert to commercial principles and use the land in the way which was found the most profitable.

1895 B. M. Croker Village Tales (1896) 219 This must be the place the preaching moola meant when he spoke of the garden of Paradise.

1927 Amer. Mercury Feb. 195/1 He did not even indulge a vagrant thought upon the windy fatuity of preaching fellows.

1994 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 4 Sept. 5 There are preaching ministers and people ministers.

1598 J. Stow Suruay of London 362 On the West side towardes the North end thereof was of old time the church and house of the preaching Friers.

1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God xiv. viii. 507 What could this doue-eyd innocent Preaching Friar do lesse then take her for a Whore?

1700 J. Tyrrell Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 882 The Preaching Friars and Minors exhorted him.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xii. 140 It was known that a preaching friar had been exerting himself to inflame the Irish population of the neighbourhood against the heretics.

1980 M. Harris Treasure of Sainte Foy vii. 81 Dominican is just a nickname. What's the order really called? Preaching Friars, I think.