beeping

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A repeated short, high-pitched electronic sound, or a single instance of one.

   The hospital room filled with the steady beeping of heart monitors.

   He finally tracked the faint beeping to a dying smoke detector in the hallway.

   Similarpinging, chirping

   Note

   The verb form names an action, and this noun names the sound itself, with its own plural, beepings. The grammar shows the difference. As a verb form it takes objects and adverbs (beeping the doctor urgently). As a noun it takes adjectives and an of-phrase (the faint beeping of a detector). It can count single sounds or, like noise, describe a continuous stream of them.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of beep.

   The truck kept beeping as it reversed into the loading dock.

   Smoke detectors started beeping throughout the building during the fire drill.

   Note

   Beyond the progressive (the alarm is beeping), the -ing form carries every use of the verb, not only the sound. It can take an object: a hospital beeping a doctor on a pager, or someone beeping a friend by letting the phone ring once so they call back. There is also an informal, euphemistic use meaning sex, so the context decides which reading is meant.

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