banking

Pluralbankings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The business of managing and operating a bank.

   Decades of deregulation reshaped how banking is conducted across the country.

   Mobile apps have transformed everyday banking for millions of customers.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Work in a bank, including managing one, considered as a profession.

   She went into banking straight after finishing her degree.

   Long hours pushed him to leave banking for a quieter profession.

   Similarfinance

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bank.

   The pilot is banking the plane to line up with the runway.

   We are banking on clear skies for the trip.

   Note

   The -ing form serves every verb spelled bank, the money verbs and the flight verbs alike: banking with a credit union, banking the day's takings, a plane banking left. The flight verb works both ways, so the aircraft is banking, or the pilot is banking it. When the word takes an object or an adverb, it is the verb. When it stands alone as a field or practice, it is a noun such as the business sense.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The branch of finance that helps companies and governments raise capital, issue securities, and carry out mergers.

   After graduate school, she moved into banking and spent years structuring corporate mergers.

   Banking on Wall Street drew him in with the promise of advising on billion-dollar deals.

   Similarfinance

   Note

   Insiders use banking on its own to mean investment banking, so context has to separate it from banking in general. The clipped word shows up most in career talk, as in an analyst in banking or a graduate choosing banking over sales and trading, where it names one division of a firm among several. Outside finance, say investment banking in full so readers do not picture a retail bank.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act of tilting an aircraft to one side to make a turn in the horizontal plane.

   The instructor explained how banking changes the direction of flight.

   Too much banking at low speed can cause the aircraft to stall.

   Similartilting, rolling

   Note

   In flying, the word names the tilt rather than the turn itself. Rolling the aircraft about its long axis inclines the wings, so part of their lift pulls sideways and the flight path curves. The nose is not simply steered round. Pilots talk of banking left or right, or banking into a turn, and steeper banking means a tighter turn.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The practice of helping a train up a steep slope by adding another locomotive to push from the rear.

   On the steepest section, banking was needed to push the loaded wagons to the summit.

   The railway relied on banking to help freight trains tackle the long climb.

   Note

   On the railway, the steep gradient is itself called a bank, and the extra engine that pushes from the rear is the banker. W. McGowan Gradon, writing in the Railway Magazine in 1944, speaks of "banking assistance" on the Dava line, which shows the word used as a modifier as well as a noun. Banking is pushing from behind. A second engine at the front is a different arrangement.

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A mechanical part used in a clock or watch to prevent unwanted vibration.

   The watchmaker adjusted the banking to stop the lever from over-swinging.

   Proper banking keeps the movement running smoothly without vibration.

   Note

   This watchmaker's term usually appears in the plural. Bankings are the stops that keep a balance from swinging beyond its proper arc. The Transactions of the Society Instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts (1825) applies them to every timekeeper except the chronometer, and it uses the verb too: escapements are "banked" by a pin meeting a stop. In a lever watch, they are the fixed pins that limit the lever's travel.

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