conditioning

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Preparation or training of the body, especially through athletic exercise.

   The coach emphasized conditioning during the off-season to prevent injuries.

   Years of careful conditioning gave the marathon runners remarkable endurance.

   Similartraining, exercise, preparation, fitness

   Note

   Sports writing treats it as a quality a team can have more or less of, not only as an activity. Ben Dirs, reporting England's 41–10 win over Georgia for BBC Sport in 2011, saw England's "superior conditioning" begin to show in the final quarter. Graded this way, it works much like fitness. Where the behavioral sense shapes responses, this one builds the body.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The process of modifying the behavior of a person or animal.

   Pavlov's experiments demonstrated conditioning by pairing a bell with food.

   Advertisers rely on conditioning to link their products with feelings of happiness.

   Similartraining, habituation, programming

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of condition.

   The gym is conditioning athletes for the upcoming season.

   Conditioning the leather regularly keeps it supple and crack-free.

   Note

   The verb form keeps the verb's full range, including meanings the nouns never took on: treating hair with conditioner, or making one thing conditional on another. As a gerund it still takes a direct object, as in conditioning the leather. That is how to tell it from the behavioral noun and its siblings, which need of: the conditioning of the samples.

   The lender is conditioning the loan on a full audit.

   She has been conditioning her hair after every swim.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The storage of a material specimen at a specified temperature and humidity for a set period before testing.

   Standard conditioning of textile samples often occurs near 20°C and 65% relative humidity.

   Engineers documented the conditioning period before measuring the polymer's tensile strength.

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