buffering

Pluralbufferings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of using a buffer to cushion, protect, or temporarily hold something.

   Like a shock absorber that smooths out sudden jolts before they reach you.

   Careful buffering of the broth prevented its flavor from turning sour overnight.

   The video paused for buffering whenever the connection slowed down.

   Note

   Usually a mass noun for an ongoing process, like the pause while a video loads, but engineers count it too. Fiber Optic Designs and Applications (1994) weighs "the most practical bufferings" for cabling inside buildings, setting tight buffer against composite buffer. There a buffering is one particular buffer design, so the plural comes naturally. Outside that kind of technical writing, the uncountable use is the safer choice.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of buffer.

   The technician is buffering the solution to keep its pH steady.

   Slow internet means the movie spends more time buffering than playing.

   Note

   One spelling doing several jobs: with be it forms the progressive (the stream is buffering), and on its own it can head a phrase as a gerund. The data-storage meaning works with or without an object. A player buffers a video, or simply sits buffering. The chemist's use takes one: buffering a solution. Only the countable noun has a plural, bufferings.

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