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countable and uncountable, plural handlings
A touching, controlling, managing, using, take care of, etc., with the hand or hands, or as with the hands. quotations examples
the heauens, and your faire handeling / Haue made you maister of the field this day
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 28
[…] at San Francisco it is warehoused and reshipped to Liverpool, or other foreign market; and in exchange for this wheat, comes back the merchandise which has to pass through all these shipments, reshipments, warehousings, handlings, &c.
1864, Oregon. Legislative Assembly. House of Representatives
(obsolete) The mechanism for handling or manipulating something. quotations
In mortal terror of people forcing an entrance at such an hour, and in such a manner as to leave no doubt of their purpose, I would have turned to fly when first I heard the noise, only that I feared by any quick motion to catch their attention, as I also ran the danger of doing by opening the door, which was all but closed, and to whose handlings I was unaccustomed.
1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman
(art) The mode of using the pencil or brush; style of touch. quotations examples
A miniature […] remarkable for its brilliancy of colour and charming freedom of handling.
1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Critical Reviews
A criminal offence, the trade in stolen goods. examples
present participle and gerund of handle examples