behaving

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of behave.

   The new puppy has been behaving surprisingly well around guests.

   Behaving politely at the negotiation table set a constructive tone.

   Note

   On its own, the participle already carries approval: "the children are behaving" means they are behaving well. Add an adverb of manner and it turns neutral (behaving badly, behaving oddly). The reflexive pattern brings in a pronoun (behaving yourself). The same spelling also serves as the noun for conduct, and only that noun takes a plural, behavings.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The way a person, animal, or thing acts or conducts itself.

   His thoughtful behaving toward the staff did not go unnoticed.

   The novel lingers over the careful behaving of its characters at the dinner table.

   Similarbehavior, conduct, manner

   Note

   A noun that comes into its own in the plural, where it counts conduct act by act instead of naming it as a whole. E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924) watches "the semichivalrous behavings of the three English" with irony. Conway and Groff's Nietzsche: The World as Will to Power (1998) speaks of "all our behavings." Where plain behavior would serve, choosing behavings is a deliberate, writerly effect.

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