1650 R. Baxter Saints Everlasting Rest xii. 511 Such Novices are admitted into the Sacred Function, to the hardning of the wicked, the sadning of the godly, and the disgrace and wrong of the Work of the Lord.

1740 Declar. True Presbyterians within Kingdom of Scotl. 39 Sadning of the Hearts, and weakening of the Hands of the Godly.

1833 E. Bulwer-Lytton Godolphin I. xx. 248 The most common disease to genius is nympholepsy—the saddening for a spirit that the world knows not.

1867 A. C. Graves Jephthah's Daughter iii. 78 Thus early, it were sure to fling Too much of sorrow's saddening.

1990 M. Mooney Shakespeare's Dramatic Trans. viii. 178 He will stay with Antony long enough to witness his sentimental saddening of his servants and to rebuke Antony for making him and his men ‘onion-ey'd’.

1743 Sel. Trans. Soc. Improvers Knowl. Agric. Scotl. 370 Never wring your Yarn between the Liquors where any Saddening is used; for if you do, your Yarn will be uneven.

1787 J. Haigh Dyer's Assistant (new ed.) ix. 87 Saddening, is giving a crimson or violet cast to red.

1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 414/2 Saddening, a peculiar method of applying certain mordants in dyeing and printing cloths, so as to give duller shades to the colours employed.

1873 E. Spon Workshop Receipts 1st Ser. 30/2 Winch 30 minutes, and lift for saddening.

1958 Isis 49 169 In wool dyeing, for example, especially for darker colors, mordanting or ‘saddening’ may follow the dyeing or ‘stuffing’.

1650 R. Baxter Saints Everlasting Rest iii. §v. 315 They scorned to entertain any saddening thoughts; the talk of death and Judgment was irksome to them.

1675 R. Allestree Art Contentm. iv. 87 Why should we look on the more sadening spectacles of human frailty or misfortune,..and perversly turn away our eies from the cheerfuller?

1714 M. Henry Pleasantness Relig. Life vii. 158 Christians should endeavour to keep up a chearful Temper, and not indulge themselves in that which is Sadning or Disquieting to the Spirit.

1742 W. Collins Persian Eclogues iv. 21 And Shrieks and Sorrows load the sad'ning Wind.

1804 J. Grahame Sabbath 43 He never longs to read the saddening tale Of endless wars.

1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) II. vii. 190 The circumstances under which this session opened were..grave and saddening.

1884 Christian Commonw. 23 Oct. 21/3 It is saddening to hear that the Sunderland engineers have been on strike for 60 weeks.

1947 K. Tynan Let. 1 Jan. (1994) ii. 138 We moved on to the party in Bourneville Church Hall. It is a saddening place, bare & inhospitably hardseated.

1979 Washington Post (Nexis) 14 May b1 The 350 objects clunkily installed at the American Museum of Natural History, those saddening souvenirs.

2004 E. Conlon Blue Blood ii. 43 They lived strange and saddening half-lives, one leaving her husband and children forever, the other..dying young.

1652 W. Blith Eng. Improver Improved xx. 134 In..working it [sc. lime] into the Land..it seems and appeares to be Coldest, and most sadning of Land of any Soyl whatsoever.

1838 E. S. Wortley Lays of Leisure Hours II. 150 A golden gloom was saddeningly shed out on all around.

1938 Winnipeg Free Press 18 Aug. 12/2 Immigrants..willing to live at [a] saddeningly low standard.

2002 Harper's Mag. (Nexis) Nov. 73 She is thought saddeningly callous.