tithing

Etymology

From Middle English tithyng, from Old English tēoþung or tēoðung, from tēoða (“tithe, n.”) + -ing (“forming patronymics & diminutives”) and tēoðian (“tithe, v.”) + -ung (“forming verbal nouns”). Equivalent to tithe + -ing.

noun

1. A tithe or tenth in its various senses, (particularly):
   1. The tithe given as an offering to the church.
      I prayed for the sick and saw some of them healed under my hands. I was given tithings of money and food by people who had not enough to eat themselves. 1998, Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents, HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP (2019), page 294
   2. The payment of tithes.
   3. The collection of tithes.
2. (dialectal) Ten sheaves of wheat (originally set up as such for the tithe-proctor).
3. (historical, law) A body of households (originally a tenth of a hundred or ten households) bound by frankpledge to collective responsibility and punishment for each other's behavior.
4. (historical, law) A part of the hundred as a rural division of territory.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of tithe