answering

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of answer.

   The receptionist is answering calls coming in on three separate lines.

   Answering honestly can be harder than simply staying silent.

   Note

   The same -ing spelling does two jobs. After be it builds the progressive (she is answering the phone). At the head of a subject or object it acts as a verbal noun (answering honestly is hard). It carries every meaning of answer: answering a purpose means suiting it, and in law, answering a complaint means filing a response. The gerund still takes a direct object, while the noun of the act takes of.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of giving an answer to a question or request.

   The patient answering of each juror's concern won the lawyer their trust.

   Her prompt answering of the door startled the visitors waiting outside.

   Note

   A noun older than it looks: Middle English already had answerynge, simply answer plus -ing. Unlike the gerund, it can be counted and made plural. John Cann Bailey's The Continuity of Letters (1923) speaks of "logical answerings," where the plural marks separate acts of reply. Beside the plain noun answer, it puts the weight on the giving rather than on what was said.

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