handseling

Verb

handsel (third-person singular simple present handsels, present participle (US) handseling or (UK) handselling, simple past and past participle (US) handseled or (UK) handselled)

1. (transitive) To give a handsel to.
   • She would leave a gold guinea to hansel the baby.2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 55
2. (transitive) To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.
   • And it is better undecently to faile in hanseling the nuptiall bed, full of agitation and fits, by waiting for some or other fitter occasion, and more private opportunitie, lest sudden and alarmed, than to fall into a perpetuall miserie, by apprehending an astonishment and desperation of the first...1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 42
3. (transitive) To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.
   • Indeed there is no contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath hanselled it with prayer.1647, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Worse Times

See all 6 meanings of handsel