1343 Reading Abbey Tailor's Compotus (BL Add. 19657) in Middle Eng. Dict. at Pressing(e In Reparacione vnius pressynge yryn pro Scissore, viij d.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 86^v Also of drynes comeþ streitnesse of pipes and pressinge of þe longoun, & so folewiþ rouȝnes & hoosnes.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 412 Pressynge, compressio.

c1475 ( Surg. Treat. in MS Wellcome 564 f. 125 (MED) Presse þe wounde wiþ a litil weke baþid in hoot wiyn & wringe out, þat if þer be ony mater wiþinne, it may be putt out wiþ þe pressynge.

a1500 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (BL Add.) (1975) 2304 (MED) Lerne ye may nowe How liquour is in many maners fownde Owte of thingis that be on grownde; Som bi cuttynge, as terebentyne, Som with pressinge, as sydyre and wyne.

1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 297 Then was there great preassing to take the King.

1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique iii. xlix. 533 Good householders doe not loose the drosse of their pressinges, but..cast them into vessels, and with..water, make cyder for the household.

1674 in O. Airy Essex Papers (1890) I. 265 Without y^e extraordinary pressing of friends I cannot remaine in it.

1681 Arraignm.,Tryal & Condemnation S. Colledge 10 The common Judgment of Pressing to Death must not pass upon him, but an Attainder of High-Treason.

1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 207 Those secret Hints, or pressings of my Mind, to doing, or not doing any Thing that presented.

1758 Atkins' Navy Surgeon (new ed.) xv. 219 Endeavour by gentle Pressings to restore it [sc. the uterus]: If too deep for your Fingers, it may not be amiss to use a Stick.

1838 G. P. R. James Robber I. vi. 122 The madman required no pressing.

1875 Guide Royal Porcelain Wks. 13 The manufacture of plates and dishes is called Flat Pressing.

a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. iii. 40 Susan finished her pressing and started to dress at five.

1969 T. C. Thorstensen Pract. Leather Technol. xii. 192 This pressing of the oil removes some of the high melting point components and gives the oil a lower cold test.

1976 Southern Evening Echo (Southampton) 15 Nov. 15/5 The match was one of two halves, with Basingstoke doing all the pressing in the first.

2003 R. Clarke Libertarian Accts. Free Will 157 The electrician's activity is a cause of the bell's ringing, as it brings about background conditions..that, together with the pressing of the button, cause the ringing.

?1701 T. Tryon Way to get Wealth 12 When they are well soaked about twelve Hours, take them out, put them up into a fine Linen pressing Bag, press out the Juice into the Water, then boil them up together.

a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. II. 1785/1 Pressing-bag, the horsehair cloth bag in which flaxseed or stearic acid is pressed.

1996 Mother Earth News (Nexis) 1 Oct. 44 I hand-chopped apples and squeezed them in a stout muslin pressing bag.

1897 E. L. Voynich Gadfly i. ii. 14 He expended half his spare cash on botanical books and pressing-cases, and started off..for his first Alpine ramble.

1858 Trans. State Agric. Soc. Michigan (Michigan State Agric. Soc.) 115 What is the cause of the pressing cloth adhering to the cheese, and what is your remedy?

1917 E. R. Hambridge Simple Dressmaking iii. 65/2 Wring out the pressing cloth very tightly, and lay it on the fabric.

1999 C. Mendelson Home Comforts xxiii. 344/2 Use a pressing cloth when ironing lace and cutwork.

1810 Brit. Patent 3385 Having the pressing cylinder reduced at one side in the well-known form called the D roller (chiefly used by calicoe printers).

1944 K. S. Markley & W. H. Goss Soybean Chem. & Technol. 154 Pressing is accomplished by means of a worm shaft which is continuously rotating within a pressing cylinder or cage composed of closely spaced steel bars.

1990 Ceramic Industry (Nexis) May 19 The pressing cylinder on these four-column machines is housed in the press' upper head.

1908 N.E.D. at Pressing vbl. sb.¹ Pressing-knife.

1760 J. Mair Tyro's Dict. 339 Prĕlum..a press for squeezing grapes or fruits, any pressing machine, such as clothiers and paper-makers use.

1825 in E. C. Barker Austin Papers (1924) I. ii. 1028 We intend to send a gin and probably a pressing machine.

1947 H. Croy Corn County xii. 91 The Reverend Mr. Mattern went to the pit, dug the clay with his own hands, put it in the pressing machine, then wheeled the soft, yielding bricks to the kiln.

2002 D. Aitkenhead Promised Land xx. 202 Professional ecstasy factories are fitted with expensive pressing-machines that produce smooth, tight pills.

c1916 I. R. Burton School Sewing Based on Home Probl. 126 No. 2 is a pressing pad made of heavy unbleached muslin of two or more thicknesses.

1974 Lippman & Erskine Dressmaking made Simple vi. 87 Press..shaped parts over the tailor's pressing cushion/pad.

1998 In Style (Nexis) Aug. 88 Unfortunately, few filter the solvents that pull out dirt and grease, or change their pressing pads regularly (which prevents yellowing).

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) Judges vii. 25 He slowȝ Oreb in þe ston of Oreb, zeb forsoþe in þe pressyngplace [a1425 L.V. pressour; L. Torculari] of zeb.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 488 Make thy pressing plank..of the black Sapine or Horn-beam tree.

1713 Scots Courant in W. R. Scott Rec. Sc. Cloth Manufactory New Mills (1905) Introd. p. lxxxiv Tools for the manufacture of broadcloth, such as..‘two hot presses, one cold press, pressing planks, pressing papers’.

1826 Times 20 Oct. 4/4 (advt.) Mahogany top counter 30 feet long by 3 feet wide, velveteen boards and pressing planks.

1896 Times 25 Jan. 16/3 (advt.) The plant and machinery include a complete sawing and cutting plant, dipping, braiding, and pressing plant.

1958 Manch. Guardian 21 Jan. 6/6 Oriole Records Ltd...has its own pressing plant and..presses all Mr. Lonsdale's records for him.

1995 Wire Jan. 55/3 When the master tapes for the record were reported lost by the pressing plant Fahey re-recorded the entire LP and issued it again in 1967.

1851 Sci. Amer. 22 Mar. 214/3 I claim the use of a lever handle, having its fulcrum on the pressing plate attached to the opposite plate.

1960 G. A. Glaister Encycl. Bk. 163 The three-edge machine..is built like a singleedge cutter, but the table revolves and the press beam is replaced by a pressing plate.

1990 W. A. Livesey GCSE Motor Vehicle Stud. viii. 69/1 The pressing plate, fitted inside the pressure plate, holds the spinner plate against the flywheel by the pressure of the coil springs.

1934 A. L. Hird Princ. & Pract. Needlework & Dressmaking iv. 41 Do not apply water directly to any materials except wool and wool mixtures, but always by way of pressing rag or as steam.

1796 Copies Exemplifications Patents spinning Flax 12 The rollers..are enabled to draw the hemp, tow, flax, or wool forward from under the pressing rollers.

1889 Sandusky (Ohio) Daily Reg. 1 Oct. Said box shall have a combination printing and pressing roller, with a shaft and crank for operating said roller.

1997 Leather (Nexis) Feb. 16 It has a maximum drying pressure of 80 tons with independent adjustment of the two pressing rollers.

1764 V. Green Surv. Worcester 232 From hence, you descend, by a flight of six or eight steps, into another pressing room.

1856 Times 19 June 14/2 (advt.) To be let..residence..comprising lofty and spacious drawing room..four capital bed rooms, two pressing rooms, [etc.]

1922 O. Mitchell Talking Machine Industry vi. 70 When the discs pass into the pressing room the steel backing is laid upon a heated table with the mould upwards.

2003 Observer (Nexis) 26 Jan. 6 The Madonna of the Olives looks down on us from a faded tapestry in the pressing room.

1868 W. Morris Earthly Paradise 489 Far better spoil the gathering vat bore in Unto the pressing shed.

1990 Independent (Nexis) 12 May 40 In his ancient pressing shed, which is full of dust..and the smell of old alcohol, Mr Temperley holds up a glass of something yellow and aromatic.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. ix. 371/1 Parts of the Screw-Press... The Cutting Boards. The Pressing Boards. The Plow Stay or Riglet, on which the Plow runs steady.

1770 W. Graham Art Making Wines 16 Then put them into a linen cloth, not too fine, and press out the juice with a pressing board, or any other conveniency.

1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 424 The volumes are carefully laid between pressing-boards with their rounded backs put outside the edges of each pressing-board so as to escape the coming squeeze.

1894 G. M. Fenn In Alpine Valley I. 153 Only let me get my pressing-boards and the alpenstock.

1969 E. H. Pinto Treen 151/1 (heading) Ironing and Pressing Boards.

2000 Baltimore Sun (Nexis) 8 Mar. 6 d The shop retained its steam iron and pressing board until the end.

1567 A. Golding tr. Ovid Metamorphosis ii. 15 Autumne smerde with treading grapes late at the pressing Fat.

1573 J. Daus tr. H. Bullinger Hundred Serm. vpon Apocalipse (rev. ed.) f. 214 There shall the right pressingfat be set vp and made readie.

1545 Rates Custome House sig. cij^v Pressinge papers the C. leues xx.d.

1609 Rates Marchandizes sig. K2 Pressing-paper the hundred leaues, vi.s.viij.d.

1718 Boston News-let. 2 June 2/2 Pressing Papers of several sorts fit for Weavers.

1769 J. Priestley Hist. & Present State Electr. (ed. 2) i. 26 He found light emitted in the dark by the silk and the linen, but more especially by a piece of white pressing paper, which is of the same nature with card paper.

1895 Bot. Gaz. 20 492 I always carry with me on my collecting trips a small press..filled with small blotters and pressing paper.

1928 E. Hawks Pioneers of Plant Study 233 Linnæus traversed in five months some 4600 miles of country, carrying fowling piece.., pressing paper, pocket microscope, telescope, and but a small allowance of clothing.

1995 Brittonia 47 220/1 After collection, the highly divided leaves of some taxa..are best floated onto pressing paper.

1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Maherimiento Pressing of soldiers, delectus.

1640 H. Parker Case Shipmony 48 The pressing of men, and other charges of warre.

1697 D. Defoe Ess. Projects 81 A Set Price..which each County, &c. shall raise, not by Assessment in Money, but by pressing of Men, Horses, and Carriages for the Work.

1705 Boston News-let. 26 Mar. 2/1 It's said there was the greatest pressing of men in England that was ever known.

1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. xxiv. 219 I was disarmed, taken prisoner, and carried on board a pressing tender.

1761 D. Hume Hist. Eng. II. App. iii. 510 The power of pressing both for sea and land service..was another prerogative.

1820 J. Trumbull M'Fingal i, in Poet. Wks. I. 7 Brought armies o'er, by sudden pressings, Of Hanoverians, Swiss and Hessians.

1862 K. Cumming Jrnl. 47 A soldier snatched it [sc. a pail] up and carried it off... This is not called stealing, but pressing.

1893 Eng. Hist. Rev. 8 283 The arrangements for increasing it were counter-ordered, and the pressing of men was stopped.

1916 Polit. Sci. Q. 31 614 He traces the pressing of men to a time as early as the reign of King John.

1950 J. E. Neale Elizabethan House of Commons v. 120 Then came the repeated pressing of men for Essex's expeditions and the Irish wars.

1986 N. A. M. Rodger Wooden World (1988) v. 182 Pressing at sea or on land was for the most part a humdrum affair calling for little if any violence.

2005 Evening Herald (Plymouth) (Nexis) 8 July 46 Impressment of foreigners was the principal cause of the war between England and the USA in 1812, for pressing was not confined to the shore.

1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn i. sig. A3 The heauie yoke Of pressing cares, that hang vpon a Crowne.

1633 H. Hawkins Partheneia Sacra sig. Aiiij Behold then our Sacred Parthenes, Virgin of Virgins, for excellencie, is she..whom the impatient World for so manie Ages, groaning vnder their pressing burden of their crimes, with vowes and prayers had most incessantly begged and importuned.

1653 R. Austen Spirituall Vse of Orchard 13 in Treat. Fruit-trees The sence of his present miserie, is therefore the more pressing.

1722 E. Thomas Misc. Poems 75 He bore our Sins, his Father's wrath, the heavy pressing Load of both.

1749 J. Brine Nature of True Holiness Explained 28 We shall eternally behold what a gracious Part the blesses Spirit acts in our Favour, who..applies his Blood to our Souls, to ease us of the pressing Load of our Guilt.

1850 Times 17 July 5/2 I do not now see that harassed look of pressing fear which the prevalence of cholera and fever had then put upon them.

1896 R. Kipling Seven Seas 108 Across the pressing dark.

1916 A. Bullard Diplomacy of Great War 264 If the French are relieved of the pressing fear of Germany, they will stop sinking their money in the bottomless pit of the Tsar's misgovernment.

1994 Sci. Fiction Age July 40/3 He would be stranded here, on a sulfur-jetting rock in space, under the pressing gaze of the monstrous cat's-eye of a planet that hung luminescent above, nightmarishly dominating the sky.

1656 tr. T. Hobbes Elements Philos. iii. xv. 155 Bodies, whose parts yeild more or less to the Endeavour which the pressing Body makes at the first arrival.

1683 J. Oldham Poems & Transl. 93 Forsaking every Wood, and Grove, The Sylvans ravish'd at the sight, In pressing Crowds about you strove, Gazing, and lost in wonder quite.

1716 J. Gay Trivia ii. 24 But above all, the groaping Blind direct, And from the pressing Throng the Lame protect.

1774 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 64 129 We..carried a pressing sail, with hopes of reaching Torbay before dark.

1827 W. Wordsworth White Doe of Rylstone (new version) v, in Poet. Wks. IV. 62 Nor wanted 'mid the pressing crowd Deep feeling.

1885 G. Meredith Diana (ed. 2) II. vii. 155 Beaten..like a blown banner-flag, by the pressing wind.

1938 J. M. Brewster et al. Philosophy of Act 186 In the case of the stone there is only the sense of resistance in the stone against the pressing hand.

1949 Times 26 Apr. 6/4 In the earlier boats, before this great pressing sail came into use, a 6-metre would be near the rating of 19.68ft. On the waterline and have an overall length of about 24ft.

1989 Guardian (Nexis) 26 Aug. We formed a dense mass in a narrow street... Nothing was clearly audible in that time, and the discomfort was heightened by the pressing bodies.

2005 Las Vegas (Nevada) Rev.-Jrnl. (Nexis) 29 Aug. 1 b An emcee urged the pressing crowd to give him space.