coursing

Pluralcoursings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A sport in which dogs pursue wild animals, especially hares, hunting by sight rather than by scent.

   Hare coursing was outlawed in England in 2005 after years of public debate.

   They took the whippets out for an afternoon of coursing along the open moor.

   Note

   A sport's name grown straight out of the verb's -ing form, it now stands on its own as a noun. It often modifies another noun: Harriet W. Daly, writing in 1887, calls Narracoorte the great coursing town of its district and of the colony. It also leads compounds like hare coursing. Mostly uncountable, it can be counted too, with coursings for separate events.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of course.

   Adrenaline was coursing through her body as she stepped onto the stage.

   The river came coursing down the mountainside after the storm broke.

   Note

   One -ing form serves as both participle (blood coursing through the veins) and gerund (the coursing of the river). It is most often intransitive and paired with through or down, describing liquids and especially blood. Used transitively, it means running over ground or chasing prey, which links it to the sport with dogs. Only that noun takes a plural, coursings.

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