1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Iaulnissure,..a yellowing, or making yellow.

1622 T. Stoughton Christians Sacrifice xii. 166 Thrift..is pleaded for this yellowing of linnen as the which being so yellowed needeth not so much washing.

1705 tr. Whole Art of Dying 173 Turmerick and Gummi Guttæ, are used in the Yellowing of Scarlates.

1756 Prater 28 Aug. 197 I had this Summer some very fine Cantaloupes, the daily yellowing of which I beheld with unusual satisfaction.

1859 A. Smith in Macmillan's Mag. Dec. 125 The slow yellowing of wheaten plains.

1894 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 41 25 There would be no yellowing if the paper was good.

1947 J. M. Edwards in P. I. Smith Pract. Plastics ix. 136/2 The thermoset allyl resins..are resistant to weathering although they show a slight yellowing on prolonged exposure.

1974 S. Clapham Greenhouse Bk. xviiii. 194 This plant is particularly prone to magnesium deficiency, indicated by the yellowing and falling of the leaves.

2004 Quilter's Newsletter Mag. Apr. 69/2 Many curators of textiles and dress..have reported undesirable stiffening and yellowing of textiles.

1785 Morning Chron. 22 July Mr. Bearcroft would be the more probable successor to the Solicitorship but for the stubbornness of etiquette, which will not brook subservience to a junior, as in the navy that predicament which is termed yellowing.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Yellowing, the passing over of captains at a flag promotion.

1999 A. G. Brown Persons, Animals, Ships & Cannon 39/2 A Post Captain..thus becoming the first victim of the new notion of ‘yellowing’.

1840 Mag. Domest. Econ. June 363 The pin is now made, but several operations are still necessary before it is in a fit condition for the purchaser. The first of these is to cleanse it perfectly, and give the metal of which it is composed a bright appearance—an operation called yellowing.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Yellowing, a manufacturing term for cleaning pins.

1652 tr. G. de Costes de La Calprenède Cassandra ii. 124 Running about the Camp with horrible yellowings [Fr. des mugissemens horribles].

1660 1st Pt. Johnson's Hist. Seven Champions Christendom (new ed.) xvii. sig. X2^v Now they were affrighted with the roaring of Lyons, yellowing of Wolves, the Croaking of Toads in Roots of rotten Trees.

1694 C. Mather Life & Death Rev. Mr. J. Eliot iii. 89 Accustoming themselves to grievous Mournings and Yellowings for the Dead.

1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus ii. iii. 20 Whilst the babling eccho mocks the hounds,..Let vs sit downe and marke their yellowing [1623 yelping] noyse.

a1692 W. Mountfort Life & Death Faustus (1697) iii. 18 A parcel of..Fumbling, Grumbling, Bellowing, Yellowing, Peas-picking, Stinking, Mangy, Runagate, Ill-begotten, Ill-contriv'd, Wry-mouth'd, Spatrifying, Dunghill-raking, Costive, Snorting, Sweaty, Farting, Whawdrover Dogs.

1720 H. Stanhope Governour 14 How with kind Suns the Yellowing Harvest glows.

1793 W. Wordsworth Evening Walk 6 How pleasant, as the yellowing sun declines, And with long rays and shades the landscape shines.

1859 T. J. Gullick & J. Timbs Painting 208 The yellowing tendency of oils on blue.

1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 348/1 He saw again the floods of sunshine on the yellowing chestnut leaves.

1908 S. E. White Riverman viii. 72 The old piano with the yellowing keys.

1961 E. Williams George xxi. 339 The yellowing idea that an Oxford graduate must have a solid religious training.

1977 Guardian Weekly 10 July 17/4 All that is left is a batch of yellowing declarations of good intentions.

2016 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 14 Oct. 18 Pick off yellowing leaves of Brussels sprouts and harvest when the sprouts are large enough.