asserting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of assert.

   The senator spent the debate asserting her position on tax reform.

   By asserting control early, the new manager set clear expectations.

   Note

   The -ing form serves two grammars. As a participle it joins a form of be to make the progressive (she was asserting her claim). As a gerund it heads a noun phrase (asserting one's rights takes nerve). It carries every meaning of assert, including the reflexive asserting oneself, the programmer's asserting a condition in code, and the engineer's asserting a signal on a line.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of making assertions, of stating firmly that something is the case.

   His constant asserting of his innocence eventually wore the jury down.

   The endless asserting and counter-asserting brought the negotiation to a standstill.

   Similarassertion, insistence, affirmation, declaration

   Oppositedenial

   Note

   A philosopher's word as much as an everyday one. It names the act and leaves assertion to stand for what is said. James Tartaglia's Richard Rorty: Mind, language and truth (2009) relies on that split, treating assertings as performances by asserters and judging what is said in them separately. Unlike the verbal gerund, it takes a plural (assertings) and introduces its object with of: the asserting of his innocence.

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