arraying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of array.

   Arraying the data in clean columns made the patterns far easier to spot.

   The commanders were arraying their forces along the river before dawn.

   Note

   One -ing form does two jobs here. It is a participle in "were arraying their forces" and a gerund in "Arraying the data made the patterns easier to spot." Either way it keeps the verb's direct object, which sets it apart from the noun for dressing up, which takes of. It carries all of array's meanings: clothing and adorning, marshaling troops, and the legal sense of calling a jury one by one.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of clothing or adorning someone or something.

   The arraying of the bride followed customs passed down through the family.

   Each morning's arraying of the shrine called for fresh flowers and clean silk.

   Similardressing, adornment, decoration

   Oppositeundressing, stripping

   Note

   Unlike the participle, this noun can be counted: arrayings, in the plural, are separate bouts of dressing and decking out. Charlotte Brontë's Villette (1853) lists them beside "ablutions" and "bedizenings" to tease a dormitory's elaborate toilette, and that company suits the word, which fits ceremony or gentle mockery better than simply getting dressed. In the singular it usually takes of: the arraying of the bride.

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