apologizing

1. 1
   say sorryverb

   Present participle and gerund of apologize.

   The manager was apologizing for the delayed flight when the gate finally opened.

   Apologizing to the customer, the clerk offered a full refund on the spot.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it builds the progressive (she was apologizing), and on its own it heads a clause as a verbal noun (apologizing solved nothing). The -ize spelling is American and also the Oxford choice in British English. Behind it sits an older, now dated meaning, to make a defense or act as an apologist, so in older prose apologizing may be defending rather than expressing regret.

2. 2
   say sorrynoununcountable

   The act of making an apology, expressing regret to someone for a fault or wrong.

   The company's public apologizing did little to win back its angry customers.

   His endless apologizing began to annoy the rest of the team.

   Note

   Here the gerund has settled into a full noun, and it can even take a plural, which the verb form never does: Allen Drury's Advise & Consent has "appeals and apologizings and beseechings," a run of repeated acts rather than one. As a noun it also takes determiners and adjectives (his endless apologizing), where the verb form would take an object or an adverb instead.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2