1527 L. Andrewe tr. H. Brunschwig Vertuose Boke Distyllacyon ciii. sig. G.iv^v Of the same water dronke two ounces or two ounces and a half is good for congeled blode in the body where it be of pusshyng betynge or fallynge downe.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 259 Pusshyng, thrustyng, rebovtement.

1659 C. Noble Moderate Answer To Rdr. 2 May we not take these bold disputes and questionings, as pushings at the feet of his present Highness?

1705 H. Nicholson Conf. between Soul & Body 123 Shewing that Dexterity in Pushing, which they learned from their Scoundrel Fencing-Masters, and in which a paltry Rope-Dancer..shall perhaps out-do the greatest and noblest Lord in Europe.

1783 J. Lambert Countryman's Treasure (ed. 5) 67 When they are weaned, and above all in their wanton pushings and buttings..take care they do not injure themselves, nor their Fellows.

1799 H. More Strict. Mod. Syst. Fem. Educ. (ed. 4) I. 244 With the same earnest pushing on to continual progress.

1854 A. C. Mowatt Autobiogr. Actress v. 106 Here the throng is so dense that we must fight our way by means of divers gentle elbowings, quiet nudges, and pertinacious pushings, if we would pass at all.

1885 C. F. Woolson in Harper's Mag. Feb. 471/2 With some pushing he made his way within.

1936 Geogr. Jrnl. 87 3 As far as Asia is concerned, railway development takes the form of rather insignificant pushings in from the coast.

1962 ‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed ix. 61 My boss don't go for guys that goof like that. So he bounced me fast. I'm through pushing.

1989 Money Marketing 25 May 42/6 There is no plugging of specific funds or companies, no pushing of certain investment tactics.

2003 New Yorker 24 Nov. 49/2 He stood cool amid the schoolyard punchings and pushings.

1812 J. J. Henry Accurate Acct. Campaign against Quebec 195 The pushing-pole was of the same kind of materials [sc. ash or birch],..and if iron could be had was shod at the but-end.

1883 A. M. Mayer Sport Gun & Rod Amer. Woods (1884) II. 751 Boats..with a broad stern in which was a roomy seat for the pusher to stand on while he plied his ‘gaff’. This is the name given to the pushing-pole.

1938 Beaver Sept. 17/1 The dogs were soft, the going bad because of a thaw, but, using pushing poles, we came just after dark to..the bottom of the lake.

1991 Daily Herald (Chicago) 3 Feb. vi. 2/2 The diagonal V-skate is basically a simple herringbone with the addition of a pushing pole plant and weight shift.

1868 Sci. Amer. 25 Jan. 61/1 Pushing jack for railroad car.

2003 Geogr. Jrnl. 169 13/1 Once the building was safely on the tracks, six hydraulic pushing jacks were placed in the excavated ground to the south. These were then used to push the lighthouse along the tracks.

1699 G. Farquhar Love & Bottle i. 3 He appear'd crowded about with a Dancing-Master, Pushing Master, Musick-Master, and all the throng of Beau-makers.

1699 G. Farquhar Love & Bottle ii. ii. 17 Sir, here comes the pushing master.

1733 S.-Carolina Gaz. 19 May 4/1 Run away from Mr. Alex Vanderdussen's Plantation at Goose Creek, a Negro Man named Thomas Butler, the famous Pushing and Dancing Master.

1780 J. O'Keeffe Tony Lumpkin in Town i. 3 If he'd have a tune from his music-master, a thrust from his pushing-master..or a square from his boxing-master, I'm the boy that can shew him life in the genteel way.

1883 Great Internat. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 254 Two Bag Nets. Casting Net. Beach Net... Pushing Net.

1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Pushing-School, a Fencing School.

1725 New Canting Dict. Pushing-School, a Fencing School; also a Bawdy-house.

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Pushing school, a fencing school; also a brothel.

1823 P. Egan Grose's Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (rev. ed.) Academy, or Pushing School, a cyprian lodge.

1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum xxi. 483 Lippoman expoundeth it as well de equo calcitroso, of a striking horse, as of a pushing oxe.

1693 T. Power tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires xii. 241 Forward he bounds his Rope's extended length, With pushing front.

1713 J. Smith Poems Several Occasions 46 The pushing Blood a War maintains, And sallies from the Heart, and charges thro' the Veins.

1731 T. Cooke Triumphs Honour & Love 44 Who wou'd, with Sword in Hand, the Fort invade, And shew the Virtues of a—pushing Blade.

1854 C. Rossetti Poems (1904) 182 With pushing horns and clawed and clutching hands.

1857 F. W. Faber Sir Lancelot (ed. 2) x. 308 A pushing root which has not flowered as yet,..but, succoured by their acts, Protrudes into the surface of their times.

a1928 I. E. Mackay Compl. Poems (1930) 47 Her brooding glances roam Above the pushing crowd to her far home.

1950 J. H. F. Umbgrove Symphony of Earth 64 The tectonic disturbances along the southern margin of the Molasse trough, too, are supposed to have been caused by the pushing action of the Alpine nappes.

2002 T. James et al. in P. T. Mccabe Contemp. Ergonomics 10 The device design transfers the required pushing force from the weaker, upper extremities to the stronger, lower extremities.

1682 T. D'Urfey Royalist iv. ii. 48 Why he's a pushing Captain, that will fight any thing under the Sun upon any Cause.

1692 tr. C. de Saint-Évremond Misc. Ess. Pref. sig. A5^v As for Personal Courage, that of Augustus was not pushing.

1737 L. Clarke Compl. Hist. Bible I. i. 33 Nimrod, a bold and pushing Man.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Pushing, enterprising, vigorous.

1765 C. Brietzcke Diary 8 Aug. in Notes & Queries (1964) Jan. 13/1 Said Nothing.., for fear he should think me pushing.

1864 J. H. Burton Scot Abroad I. iv. 167 A pushing rising family.

1884 Birmingham Daily Post 23 Feb. 3/3 Assurance..Pushing Man Wanted.

1903 J. M. Falkner Nebuly Coat xi. 158 If I had not caught the post, some pushing person or other might quite possibly have asked him sooner.

1945 C. Headlam Diary 23 Aug. in S. Ball Parl. & Politics in Age Churchill & Attlee (1999) xiv. 476 Proby was in the chair and I thought him rather futile... Somehow or other we must get a more pushing man to take charge.

1966 Listener 27 Oct. 613/2 Lesser men might think him pushing or selfish or out for his own ends.

1975 A. Sayre Rosalind Franklin & DNA i. 21 No pushing mother can be located in a comfortable, prosperous background.

1847 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Pushingly.

1910 Daily Chron. 5 Mar. 7/4 It is also disturbing to contemplate that a woman who pushingly invades man's territory of labour may be neglecting her own most sacred duty.

1961 tr. W. Jaide in W. Stahl Educ. for Democracy W. Germany ii. 27 Active, helpful, popular boys..who do their school work or apprenticeship assiduously but not pushingly.

1974 Argus (Fremont, Calif.) 22 Nov. 23/1 He none too gently pushed into the front of the foodline at a celebrity golf tournament in Marin County, fitting..the image of his brash, pushingly boyish hero in ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’.

1881 Daily News 23 Mar. (leader) Avarice, ambition, and social pushingness.

1935 W. Lewis Commerc. Art & Industry Mar. 84 In the objective world of our senses slickness is prone to affect us very much as pushingness, or as a thick-skinned self-confidence.

1949 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 62 286 Force, the ‘shove’ or ‘pushingness’ of the sound.

1995 F. Tustin Autism & Childhood Psychosis viii. 115 Due to the upsetting loss of the illusion of at-one-ness with the mother, the nursing situation seems to be divided in terms of nice–nasty, soft–hard, receptivity–pushingness, ‘female’–‘male’.