conquering

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of conquer.

   Conquering the high passes took the expedition weeks of grueling effort.

   The empire spent generations conquering the lands to the east.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. Inside a verb phrase it is the participle (the empire was conquering the east), and in noun positions it is the gerund (conquering the passes took weeks). Either way it takes a direct object, which is how to tell it from the countable noun, which needs of: conquering the tribes, but the conquering of the tribes. It carries every sense of conquer, from war to overcoming an abstract obstacle.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   An act of conquest: the taking of land or people through military force.

   The conquering of the surrounding tribes secured the kingdom's new borders.

   Historians still debate the brutal conquering of the coastal provinces.

   Similarconquest, subjugation, capture, seizure

   Note

   A countable noun built from conquer plus -ing. It takes a plural, conquerings, and an article, so one can speak of a conquering or of several. Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (c. 1580s) has Love using all to help "his other conquerings," which are victories won over a heart rather than a battlefield. Wherever a plural appears, this is the noun at work.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2