Definition of "hovelling" [hovelling]

• A method of securing a good draught in chimneys by covering the top, leaving openings in the sides, or by carrying up two of the sides higher than the other two. (noun)

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• "'hovelling' or 'on the look out' for a job in a great gale."
• "Certainly nothing better describes the Deal boatmen's occupation for long hours of day and night than the expression so well known in Deal, 'on the look-out,' and which thus appears to be equivalent to 'hovelling.'"
• "The town called them Sally Hancock's Gang, she being their leader, though they worked separate, shrimping, cockling, digging for lug and long-lining, bawling fish through Plymouth streets, even a hovelling job at times -- nothing came amiss to them, and no weather."