attending

Pluralattendings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of attend.

   The doctors attending the seminar shared their latest research.

   He kept attending the support group every week without fail.

   Note

   The verb form behind every other use on this page: attending a lecture, attending a patient, a lady attending a queen. The adjectives and the noun share its spelling, so position sorts them out. The attending surgeon names a role, while a surgeon attending the patient is simply giving care. After verbs like keep or stop it works as a gerund: he kept attending.

2. 2
   adjective

   Serving as a doctor on the staff of a teaching hospital.

   The attending surgeon supervised the residents throughout the operation.

   Only an attending physician can authorize the patient's discharge.

3. 3
   nounCanadaUScountable

   A physician on a hospital's staff, especially the chief one overseeing a patient's care.

   The attending decided to keep the patient overnight for observation.

   Each resident reports to the attending before changing any medication.

   Similarconsultant

   Note

   North American hospital talk, used in the US and Canada. The noun is the staff-doctor adjective standing on its own, with physician understood. It takes a plural, attendings, and pairs naturally with residents, the trainees it supervises. The New York Times in 2009 writes of residents and attendings in a hurry. Readers outside North America may need the fuller attending physician.

4. 4
   adjective

   Present at or in attendance on something; accompanying in a serving or supporting role.

   The attending guests rose to their feet as the bride entered.

   Attending staff guided visitors quietly to their seats.

   Similarpresent, accompanying

   Oppositeabsent

5. 5
   adjective

   Accompanying or going along with something else; occurring together with it.

   The storm and its attending floods destroyed most of the harvest.

   The new policy raised wages along with all the attending costs.

   Similaraccompanying, attendant, associated, concomitant, related

   Note

   Here the word has moved from people to circumstances: what attends an event is whatever comes along with it, such as costs, floods or consequences. It sits before its noun and does not grade, so nothing is more attending than something else. Attendant and concomitant are its near twins. Unlike being present in person, it never describes someone in the room.

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