celebrating

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of celebrate.

   The whole town was celebrating the harvest with music and dancing.

   Crowds filled the square, celebrating the new year well past midnight.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. As a participle it builds the progressive with be (they were celebrating), and as a gerund it fills a noun slot (celebrating takes planning). It works with or without an object: you can be celebrating a victory or simply celebrating. It also keeps the verb's solemn side, as when a priest is celebrating a sacrament.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of marking a special occasion with festivities and rejoicing.

   After the final whistle, the celebrating spilled out into the streets.

   Once the votes were counted, the celebrating went on until dawn.

   Similarcelebration, partying, revelry, festivities, merrymaking

   Note

   A noun built on the -ing form, usually as a mass noun. In "the celebrating went on until dawn" it names the ongoing activity rather than a single event. It can still be counted: Leonard J. Lea lists "bazaars, banquets, decoratings, celebratings" in Views from the Mountain (1961). Where one occasion is meant, celebration is the usual word.

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