Onding

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Breathing; smelling.
  2. 2
    A heavy, continuous fall of rain or snow; a downpour. UK, dialectal

    "... they inform the rest, with inward sorrow, that it is still "a terrible onding." So the circle is once more formed. Some one now proposes a game o' cairts, and the pack is produced."

Example

More examples

"... they inform the rest, with inward sorrow, that it is still "a terrible onding." So the circle is once more formed. Some one now proposes a game o' cairts, and the pack is produced."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English ondyng, equivalent to onde (“to breathe, breathe on”) + -ing.

Etymology 2

From on- + ding (“to beat, strike”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.