Definition of "pawling" [pawling]

• Present participle of pawl. (verb)

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• "I was certainly the first fireroom officer aboard the Taussig who ever conducted his own hull inspections — I did my own diving — and who wore green fatigues while pawling over, under, around, and through the whole boiler and propulsion system before I signed off that any specific work had been done."
• "They were heave-ho-ing, stopping and unstopping, pawling, catting, and fishing, for three hours; and the sails hung from the yards all the afternoon, and were not furled until sundown."
• "My limits do not allow me to mind my L's and Q's and R's, or I might have enlarged upon such words as _palaver_, and _pawling_, and _peart_, and _prod_, and_romper_, and _ramshackle_, and _rawm_; and I can only dwell upon one selection from the S's, of which there is a long"