baring

Pluralbarings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of bare.

   Baring his chest, the wrestler stepped into the ring.

   The receding tide was baring the rocks along the shore.

   Note

   The -ing form drops the silent e of bare, so it is spelled baring, never bareing. It needs an object, such as baring his chest or baring the rocks, and it extends figuratively to whatever is revealed rather than undressed. Keep it apart from bearing, the -ing form of bear. As a gerund it shades into the countable noun, which can even be made plural.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   An instance of laying something open or uncovering it so it can be seen or known.

   The baring of the foundations revealed cracks no one had expected.

   Her public baring of old family secrets shocked the relatives.

   Similaruncovering, exposure, revelation, disclosure, unveiling

   Oppositeconcealment

   Note

   A verbal noun that counts: barings is a genuine plural. Carolyn Arends writes of "countless whispered barings of the soul" in Wrestling with Angels (2008). It nearly always takes an of-phrase naming what is exposed. That object can be physical, like foundations or rock, or inward, like the soul or a secret, and the inward use is where the plural most naturally appears.

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