arcing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of arc.

   A hawk was arcing slowly over the open field, watching for mice.

   Electricians traced the fire to a cable arcing inside the wall.

   Note

   One -ing form serves all three uses of the verb: a hawk arcing over a field, a cat arcing her back, current arcing at a loose contact. The curved-path sense works with or without an object, shaping something into an arc always takes one, and the electrical sense never does. The same form also names the curved shape or motion as a noun, with the plural arcings.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The shape or movement of something that arcs, whether an object following a curved path or electricity forming an arc between conductors.

   Inspectors traced the outage to severe arcing between the cable and a corroded terminal.

   The gentle arcing of the bridge's cables gives the whole structure a sense of motion.

   Similarsparking, curving

   Note

   Around electrical equipment the noun pairs naturally with between, naming the two parts the current jumps across: arcing between a cable and a terminal, or between conductor shoes and the third rail. That second pair comes from “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification” (1959), which reads the brilliant, explosive flashes as proof of the new engines’ greater power.

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