English

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Etymology

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From Middle English pakkynge; equivalent to pack (verb and noun senses) +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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packing

  1. present participle and gerund of pack

Derived terms

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Terms derived from packing (verb)

Noun

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packing (plural packings)

  1. The action of the verb.
    1. The action of putting things together, especially of putting clothes into a suitcase for a journey.
    2. (sciences, mathematics) The spatial arrangement of objects, items or constituent parts.
    3. The gathering of birds, animals etc. into a pack.
    4. (rugby) The forming of players into a scrum.
  2. As a concrete noun.
    1. Material used to fill in the space around something, especially to make a piston etc. watertight or airtight.
      • 1913, Captain R. F. Scott, Scott's Last Expedition Volume I[1]:
        A kind of fine Norwegian hay, used as packing in the finnesko to keep the feet warm and to make the fur boot fit firmly.
    2. Material used to wrap a product for sale etc.; packaging.
      • 2013, Eugene L. Magad, Total Materials Management, →ISBN, page 375:
        Among the inner packings in use are expanded polystyrene (popcorn), plastic-encapsulated air (air bubbles), various types of paper products, foam-in-place, molded polystyrene, and corrugated partitions (egg crating).
    3. A fee charged to cover the costs of packaging.
    4. Special material used to fill containers or vessels for certain chemically related applications.
      Packing in a packed bed, or a column such as a distillation column or a chromatography column
  3. Clipping of meatpacking.

Adjective

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packing (comparative more packing, superlative most packing)

  1. (slang) Having a large penis.

Derived terms

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