bathing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of bathe.

   Several children were bathing near the shallow end of the lake.

   The vet recommended bathing the wound twice a day in warm salt water.

   Note

   Two verbs share this spelling. Here it comes from bathe, while the participle of bath comes from bath. From bathe it works both ways: intransitive when children are bathing in a lake, and transitive when someone is bathing a wound or a baby. As a gerund it can head a sentence, as in bathing in the sea is considered healthy.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Washing the body in a tub of water.

   Regular bathing was considered a rare luxury in many earlier centuries.

   After the long hike, bathing felt like the greatest reward imaginable.

   Similarwashing

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of swimming.

   Bathing was once a fashionable pastime along that stretch of coast.

   Lifeguards posted clear warnings wherever bathing became dangerous at high tide.

   Similarswimming

   Note

   Swimming for pleasure, named as an activity: there is no bathing at this beach means the water is off limits, not that nobody may wash there. In this sense the word is usually uncountable and sits comfortably after no. Setting separates it from the washing meaning. A beach, river or lake points here, while a tub or bathroom points to the other.

4. 4
   USBATH-ing/ˈbæθ.ɪŋ/UKUKBAHTH-ing/ˈbɑːθ.ɪŋ/US

   verbCommonwealth

   Present participle of bath.

   She was bathing the newborn in the kitchen sink while her mother watched.

   Bathing the children every evening had become part of the family routine.

   Note

   The Commonwealth verb behind this form is bath, with no final e. To bath a baby or a dog is to wash it in a tub, and informally you can bath yourself as well. Unlike bathe, it is never about swimming, only washing, so bathing the children here means tub time. Nothing in the spelling shows which verb is meant. Only context and the variety of English do.

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