1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie xvii. 27 Whiche sqwyre shall sqware me, a scantlin well bent, For a right rewle, to show me innocent.

1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. x. 156 That nothing in al the worlde is made of nought,..is a measuring of the builder and his building by one rule or skantling.

1678 Lively Oracles iii. §19. 269 To mesure immensity and omnipotence by our narrow scantling.

1526 in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (1790) 215 They shall neither send nor bring into the Court…any Pike of less scantling than eighteen inches long.

1588 in Acts Privy Council (1897) XVI. 171 Provyde bullettes of all scantelins to be sent to the Lord Admirall, and two last of poulder.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 148 Dogs of a middle scantling beetwixt the first and the second.

1683 J. Pettus Ess. Metallick Words at Boyling, in Fleta Minor ii The water..keeps at one scantling, neither swelling higher nor decreasing.

1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. ix. 390 Having several holes of different Sizes fit for the scantlings of all fingers.

a1721 M. Prior Misc. Wks. (1740) II. 34 A coat not of the smallest scantling.

1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Elm Truncheons of the Boughs cut to the Scantling of a Man's Arm.

1555 Act 2 & 3 Phil. & Mary c. 16 §5 Any Whirye or Boate..which shall not bee..according to thold quantitie, scantlyng, thicknes of boorde, goodnes & good proportyon, heretofore had & used.

1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 605 That is the vsuall scantling for the thicknes of planke boord.

1615 E. Sharpe Britaines Busse sig. A3 A Busse of thirty fiue Last, that is, of seauenty Tunne, is of a very good and meete size or scantling, wherewith..to make the gaine.

1680 W. Temple Ess. Advancem. Trade Ireland in Wks. (1731) I. 120 Forbidding any Man to cut down any Oak..unless it be of a certain Scantling.

1792 Trans. Soc. Arts 10 31 Young oaks and chestnuts of the same age and scantling.

1793 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §91 The harder the quality of the moorstone, the more exactly..it could be split to the size or scantling required.

1812 Capt. Carden Let. 28 Oct. in Examiner (1813) 4 Jan. 6/2 The United States is built with the scantling of a seventy-four gun ship.

1837 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 6/2 The piles are from twelve to twenty-five feet long, and eight by six inches and a half scantling, shod with iron.

1845 P. Nicholson Carpentry in Encycl. Metrop. VI. 235/1 In regard to squared stones the term [scantling] is applied to the three dimensions of length, breadth, and thickness.

1874 J. H. Pollen Anc. & Mod. Furnit. S. Kensington Mus. Introd. 34 Veneers of well mottled wood or of precious wood, small in scantling, were glued on pine, cedar, &c., as a base.

1888 Daily News 17 Oct. 4/7 A fine twin screw steamship, built of steel to the same scantlings as if of iron.

a1895 Ld. C. E. Paget Autobiogr. (1896) vi. 196 Our armour-clads were on the scantling of line-of-battle ships, but with the addition of considerable beam or width.

1933 W. Munro Marine Aircraft Design v. 74 The scantlings of a wing float frame are given in Fig. 55. The frames are spaced about 8 in. apart.

1978 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts 126 681/2 Figure 3 indicates the comparative scantlings for compression structures having the same load carrying capacity.

1586 J. Ferne Blazon of Gentrie 94 If it can be so, that our Gentle-man before proposed, the scantling and measure of his liuing considered.

1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique iii. xlix. 530 When..the apples shall be well prepared, and come to a good scantling of ripenes.

1624 R. Montagu Immediate Addresse 144 The Angels behold what they can behold and see, and Archangels as much as they are capable of, each according vnto his owne measure and scantling.

1655 H. L'Estrange Reign King Charles 74 The Rochellers perceived by the scantling and grandure of this preparation, the natural issue could be no other than their ruine.

1692 R. L'Estrange Fables cxli. 129 Though 'tis a Hard Matter to find out a Woman, even at the Best, that's of a Just Scantling for her Age, Person, Humour, and Fortune to make a Wife of.

1716 J. Sharpe 12th Serm. 3 Oct. We then according to our scantlings return glory to Him when we serve those purposes He made us for.

a1734 R. North Examen (1740) ii. iv. §143 307 We may propose the Extremes to shew the Scantling of the Author's false and inveterate Malice.

1756 Monitor No. 39 I. 381 There are many others, whose abilities are of the same scantling; that have large salaries too.

1551 King Edward VI Jrnl. in Lit. Remains (1857) II. 337 My lord marcus' reward was delivered at Paris, worth 500 pound, my lord of Ely's 200, mr. Hobbies 150, the rest al about on scantling.

1633 J. Shirley Bird in Cage i. i Your Lordships wisedome and mine is much about a scantling then.

1678 V. Alsop Melius Inquirendum Ep. Ded. sig. Aiii That there can be No Unity hoped for,..nor peace maintained, unless all Men be of a scantling in their judgments.

1585 R. Parsons Christian Directorie i. iii. 15 By this now may a carefull Christian take some scantling of his own estate with God.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 655 If you take their scantling and length as they crooke a little, then are they about three foot long.

1647 J. Trapp Comm. Epist. & Rev. (2 Cor. vi. 11) We pour forth our selves in this floud of speech, that thereby ye may take a scantling of our over-abundant love to your souls.

1657 R. Sanderson 14 Serm. Pref. sig. C4^v From hence chiefly,..we are to take our best scantling, whereby to judge what is, and what is not, to be esteemed Popery.

1674 Govt. Tongue ix. §15. 154 We have not so just a scantling of our selves, as to know to a grain what will level the scales, and place us in the right mediocrity.

1597 F. Bacon Ess. f. 10^v Such as exceede not this scantling [L. qui non ultra hoc potes sunt] to bee sollace to the Soueraigne and harmelesse to the people.

1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. lxvi. 414 The butterflies..are forciblie kept within a narrow scantling, the pot it selfe being not wide but narrow.

a1617 S. Hieron Penance for Sinne in Wks. (1620) II. 281 Wo to them that ayme at the cherishing of the people in a kind of formall Religion, and would haue none to exceede their owne Laodicean scantling!

1621 R. Montagu Diatribæ Hist. Tithes 2 Because it farre exceeded the scantling of their Poore Vnderstandings, and Vndertakings.

1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis xix. 186 Which when they are too strictly swathed with Bands, reduce the Breast to so narrow a scantling, as is apt to endanger..the life of children.

1678 S. Butler Hudibras: Third Pt. iii. ii. 153 And setting all the Land on Fire, To burn t' a Scantling, but no higher.

1691 T. P. Blount Ess. 74 But this certainly is to measure Truth by a wrong Standard, and to Circumscribe her by too narrow a Scantling.

1577 R. Stanyhurst Treat. Descr. Irelande i. f. 3/2, in R. Holinshed Chron. I If I may craue your patience, to tyme you see me shoote my bolt, I hope you will not deny, but that as neere the pricke as you are, & as very an hagler as I am, yet the scantling shall be myne.

1584 W. E. New Yorkshyre Song 1/1 And then was shooting out of crye, And skantling at a handfull nie.

1591 G. Fletcher Of Russe Common Wealth xix. f. 72^v Not suffering them to eate, til they haue shot neere the marke within a certein scantling.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) London 191 A poor Blew Cap..played so well thereon [sc. a fire-engine], that..he could hit within the scantling of a Shilling.

1585 J. Higgins tr. Junius Nomenclator 412 Ramentum,..a fragment, remnant, scantling, or litle peece of marble, or other thing.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 537 The former hoofes of a horse being scraped, and the same fragmentes or scantlinges thereof being beaten in the duste.

1665 R. Brathwait Comment Two Tales Chaucer (1901) 24 One now resolved to sleep out that small scantling of time which is left him.

1743 H. Walpole Let. to H. Mann 4 Apr. I am really ashamed to send this scantling of paper by the post, over so many seas and mountains.

1765 H. Brooke Fool of Quality (Dublin ed.) I. Ded. p. vi I cannot find about me the smallest Scantling of Veneration for your Virtues.

1849 C. Brontë Shirley III. iv. 89 A scantling of apples enriched the trees.

1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia II. ix. xi. 548 You shall get back your Lombardy,—all but a scantling which we fling to the Sardinian Majesty.

1876 D. Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 6) i. 26 Some scantling of geological knowledge will be of advantage.

1576 A. Fleming in tr. J. Caius Eng. Dogges To Rdr. sig. Aiii^v The booke..being but a pamphlet or skantling.

1693 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. I. xiii. 425 Velleius Paterculus..is an Epitomizer, a Scantling of an Historian.

1708 Hudson in T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. 3 Aug. (O.H.S.) II. 123 Thetford..is nothing but y^e poor scantling of an ancient spatious town.

1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 42 The cutting of their Scantlings.

1683 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II. 199 The Compositer sends..for..good strong Wast-Paper, and cuts it into so many several Scantlins as the number of each Scantlin of his Boxes in his Case are.

1704 London Gaz. No. 4002/4 A Good quantity of..Oak Timber, fit to be cut for Planks and Scantlings for Shipping,.. is to be sold.

1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 753 He that saw His patrimonial timber cast its leaf, Sells the last scantling, and transfers the price To some shrewd sharper.

1845 P. Nicholson Carpentry in Encycl. Metrop. VI. 235/1 In the construction of naked flooring and roofing the small timbers which are used are called by the general name of scantlings.

1889 ‘M. Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xxiii. 289 About two hundred yards off..we built a pen of scantlings.

1958 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 743/2 Scantling.., a piece of timber of thickness from 2 to 4 in. and of width from 2 to 4½ in.

1965 ‘Lauchmonen’ Old Thom's Harvest ii. 15 The young girl walked round the pickets that had fallen off the rotten scantling runners of the wooden part of the fence.

1972 Gloss. Terms Timber (B.S.I.) 21 Scantling. 1. Softwood. A piece of square-sawn timber 50 mm to under 100 mm thick and 50 mm to under 125 mm wide. 2. Hard~wood. Timber converted to an agreed specification such as waggon oak scantlings. Otherwise any squared-edged piece of dimensions not conforming to other standard terms.

1703 tr. H. van Oosten Dutch Gardener iv. xii. 225 You must keep your Scantling or Boares whereon your Pots stand very neat.

1743 Colonial Rec. Georgia (1906) VI. 68 The Reverend Mr. Bolzius [petitioned] this Board to allow him a Quantity of Boards, Planks, and Scantling.

1785 T. Jefferson Notes Virginia xv. 279 The private buildings are very rarely constructed of stone or brick; much the greatest portion being of scantling and boards.

1794 J. Morse Amer. Geogr. 520 Boards, scantling, staves, shingles.

1901 J. Black Illustr. Carpenter & Builder Ser.: Scaffolding iii. 32 If it is decided to use scantling [for ladder-sides] the two pieces should be tapered from about 3½ in. by 2 in. at the bottom end.

1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 38/1 Whether square Stone, or uneven Scantlings.

1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture II. 16/1 The method of cutting Marble into thin scantlings..scarce half an inch thick.

1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture II. 41/2 The Ancients.., instead of panes of glass, made use of thin transparent scantlings of Alabaster.

1824 Fowler Corr. (MS.) 482 Account of stone..sawn into scantling at Quarry.

1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 622 The blocks [of slate]..are, by the application of wedges, reduced into layers, called scantlings, from four to nine inches in thickness, and of any required length and breadth.

1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. ii. 500 Slate is separated from its bed..by means of gunpowder..then divided into scantlings by wedges.