bridging

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bridge.

   Engineers are bridging the deep valley with a single steel span.

   Bridging the divide between the two rivals proved harder than anyone expected.

   Note

   Every use of the verb travels with this form: engineers bridging a valley, a musician bridging from one section into the next without a pause, a technician bridging two computer networks. You can spot the gerund by its object. Bridging the divide takes one directly, while the noun for building a bridge needs of, as in the bridging of the canyon.

2. 2
   adjective

   Serving to connect two separate things or to fill the space between them.

   A short bridging course prepares students for the demands of the full degree.

   The negotiator proposed a bridging arrangement to keep both sides talking.

   Similartransitional, interim, intermediate, linking

   Note

   A classifying adjective names what a thing is for, not how much of a quality it has, so nothing is more bridging than something else. Modern Railways in 1964 describes bridging boards laid between platform and train at smaller stations, a literal span across a gap. The same idea carries over to courses and arrangements that span a gap in preparation or agreement.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act or process of constructing a bridge.

   The bridging of the canyon required a fleet of cranes and months of planning.

   Funding for the bridging of the estuary was approved by the regional council.

   Note

   Most often it comes with of and no plural, but it can be counted when each crossing is a separate job. Stanley Weintraub's 15 Stars (2007) has 60,000 combat engineers on hand for multiple bridgings of a river, meaning one span after another. The plural bridgings marks those individual operations rather than the work in general.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The system of bracing placed between floor joists or other timbers to distribute the load.

   Building codes often require bridging in spans longer than eight feet.

   Once the bridging was nailed in, the floor felt noticeably stiffer underfoot.

   Similarbracing, blocking

   Note

   This is a framer's term for the short members set between joists, so that a load on one is shared by its neighbors. It keeps joists from twisting and limits how much the floor flexes. It takes the form of solid blocking or diagonal cross-bracing, and the Handbook of Specifications of 1860 calls for stout double herringbone strutting. Unlike the act of building a bridge, it names something built into the floor, not an activity.

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