croning

A number of women have held “croning” ceremonies in which, on reaching sixty, they celebrate wisdom and the entry into a new phase of life.

Spirituality in the United States. 2009

Then a grunting of weary men, and the lifting noise of stirrups, and sometimes the clank of iron mixed with the wheezy croning of leather and the blowing of hairy nostrils.

Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

Mongols and other pastoral people, a melancholy race, who will sit for hours upon a bank gazing at the moon, or croning some old ditty under the trees.

First footsteps in East Africa 2003

Following him, a venerable old man comes tottering along, personating the acolyth, the bell-ringer, the sacristan, or other church dignitary, as may be necessary, croning out in his dreary voice, as he swings the burning censor, the second to the chants of the priest.

Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom Trumbull White 1904

Then a grunting of weary men, and the lifting noise of stirrups, and sometimes the clank of iron mixed with the wheezy croning of leather and the blowing of hairy nostrils.

Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor 1862

It was the croning of a Norland enchantress, and young Hope sat at her open window, looking out into the moonlight, and listening.

Trumps George William Curtis 1858

There I have often seen a man clapping his hands and dancing, childlike, alone to relieve the exuberance of his spirits: here they become, as the Mongols and other pastoral people, a melancholy race, who will sit for hours upon a bank gazing at the moon, or croning some old ditty under the trees.

First Footsteps in East Africa Richard Francis Burton 1855

And he stopped croning and gazed on him with infinite tenderness, yet sadness; for at that moment he could not help thinking what might have been but for a piece of paper with a lie in it.

The Cloister and the Hearth Charles Reade 1849

He's jist sitthing over the kitchen fire, moaning and croning this way and that, but sorrow a word he's spoke since the masther hoisted him out o 'the big hall door.

Castle Richmond Anthony Trollope 1848

There, still in her seat beside the fireplace, she kept up the same croning movement, to and fro, maintaining her balance perfectly, yet fast asleep all the while.

The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution. By the Author of "The Yemassee," "Guy Rivers," &c. In Two Volumes. Vol. I 1835