English

Noun

gaingiving ‎(countable and uncountable, plural gaingivings)

1. A misgiving.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 2

     It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gaingiving as would perhaps trouble a woman.

   • 1904, Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon:

     His olden courage is without reproach; Albeit his temper trends toward gaingiving!

   • 2003, Pamela Dean, The whim of the dragon:

     “A hasty withdrawing on thy part, or a gaingiving in thy look, those will serve.”

   • 2011, Harold Skulsky, Spirits Finely Touched::

     The hero of our play will be, not only a man who might have made a soldier, "had he been put on," and who has effectively been relieved of his vigil by the time we bid him farewell, but one also who, though he scorns to be troubled by "gaingiving", [...]

2. A giving against or away.
3. An internal feeling or prognostic of evil.
   • 1880, The Irish monthly: Volume 8:

     "I tell thee what it is, Dick," he growled, " I have a gaingiving come over me, as I think on yonder barn ; it well nigh makes me turn back, now we are within a stone's throw of it, and that's the truth.

Related terms

• gaingive