marring

marring

English

Verb

marring

1. present participle of mar: ruining, thwarting, spoiling.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     […] Hath all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?
     From Tripolis, from Mexico, from England,
     From Lisbon, Barbary, and India?
     And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch
     Of merchant-marring rocks?

Etymology 2

mar +‎ -ing

Noun

marring (plural marrings)

1. Something that mars or spoils; a blemish.
   • 1985, Samuel R. Delany, Flight from Nevèrÿon:

     Unable to read even as much of them as the scamps who wrote them and could read nothing more, the smuggler had finally trained himself to ignore them; they were marrings to be overlooked while the eye was out for other, more meaningful detail.

Anagrams

• armring