qabseil ("&bzaIl, "&bseIl) [G. abseilen, f. ab down, seil rope.] The technique of descent of a steep face by means of a doubled rope fixed above the climber. So as v. intr., to use the abseil or ‘rope down’ technique in descent. Hence "abseiling vbl. n.
1933 G. D. Abraham Mod. Mountaineering x. 184 To help in the abseil or descent of steep, almost holdless places.
1941 C. F. Kirkus Let's Go Climbing! v. 76 To abseil you must be unroped. Hang the rope over a higher bough, so that it hangs down on either side and both ends are resting on the ground. You thus have a double rope to slide down.
Ibid. 78 In the Alps a great deal of abseiling is done.
1954 Oxf. Mountaineering 1954 59 One member of the party ascended the first pitch of Brant, and was then forced to abseil off, for nobody would, or could, follow him.
1955 M. E. B. Banks Commando Climber v. 80, I had to untie for the last abseil down to the glacier.
1956 R. C. Evans On Climbing xii. 170 He had been abseiling, and the rock over which he had looped his doubled rope had come away.