conferring

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of confer.

   After conferring with her team, the manager changed the schedule.

   The senators spent the afternoon conferring over the new bill.

   Note

   One -ing form carries two quite different verbs in modern use. With a direct object it means bestowing: conferring a degree, conferring an honor on someone. Without an object it means consulting, and then it usually takes a preposition: conferring with colleagues, conferring over a bill. The older senses of comparing, gathering and contributing are obsolete, so a modern reader meets only these two.

   The university is conferring an honorary degree on the author this spring.

   Conferring a title on him was the king's last public act.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of consulting or discussing with others, or of granting something formally.

   Hours of conferring among the directors produced a unified strategy.

   The conferring over the disputed votes delayed the announcement until evening.

   Similardeliberation, consultation, discussion

   Note

   As a noun it can be counted, so separate rounds of talk can be called conferrings. In Asia: Journal of the American Asiatic Association (1921), the delegates' secret conferring in the Metropolitan Club is set against the conference's open sessions, where results were merely registered. There the noun names private consultation, as opposed to the public business it shapes, rather than the granting sense of the verb.

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