campaigning

1. 1
   noun

   Gerund of campaign.

   Months of campaigning finally paid off on election day.

   Her relentless campaigning for road safety reshaped local policy.

   Note

   The noun that turns the activity into something you can describe and even count. It takes determiners and adjectives (her relentless campaigning, months of campaigning), and it has a plural. Thomas Carlyle, writing in 1858, recalls "terrible campaignings against the Turk," where each one is a war. A quick test separates it from the verb form: if "the" or an adjective fits in front, it is the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of campaign.

   Volunteers were campaigning across the state throughout the summer.

   Campaigning tirelessly, she visited every district before the deadline.

   Note

   Here the word still behaves as a verb. It follows forms of be (volunteers were campaigning) and is modified by adverbs rather than adjectives (campaigning tirelessly). It usually takes no object, since to campaign is simply to take part in a campaign. Racing keeps a transitive use for riding in races consistently over a season, a construction the noun cannot share.

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