blending

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of combining different things into one mixture, or the mixture that results.

   The blending of tea leaves from several regions creates the company's signature flavor.

   Careful blending of pigments produced a uniform shade across the entire canvas.

   Similarmixing, combination, fusion, mingling

   Oppositeseparation

   Note

   A noun that counts as easily as it measures. It can be one overall merging, or several in the plural, as in blendings of old and new. Ronald M. Burrows, in The Discoveries In Crete (1907), uses it for vase designs where light and dark grounds fuse so thoroughly that neither reads as background. Faroese blending, meaning a mixture or a crossing, is its close cousin.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of blend.

   The chef is blending several spices into the simmering sauce.

   They were blending different wines to create a new house label.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty as participle and gerund, and it carries both uses of blend. With an object it means mixing things together (blending spices). Without one, usually followed by into, it means merging with surroundings until hard to pick out, as moths do in the echo clutter bats hear from leaves. As a gerund it still takes a direct object (blending wines), unlike the noun for the mixture, which needs of.

   The deer stood still, blending into the dry grass.

   Her accent kept blending into the local speech after a few months.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2