sembling

Compare assembling.

sembling (uncountable)

1. (archaic) The practice of attracting male butterflies or other insects by exposing the encaged female. It used to be done by collectors wanting to procure specimens.
   • 1899, James William Tutt, A Natural History of the British Lepidoptera:

     time of sembling birds' droppings

   • 1831, James Rennie, Insect Architecture:

     Upon this is founded the practice of sembling, as it is called by the London collectors, among whom, as we learn from Barbut and Harris, it has been long in use, for entrapping the males of the fox-moth […]

sembling

1. present participle and gerund of semble

• “sembling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.