cruising

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The pastime of driving around an area with no particular destination, done socially for enjoyment.

   Cruising the boulevard on Saturday nights was a teenage ritual in the 1970s.

   The town banned cruising downtown to cut down on traffic and noise.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The pastime of sailing around in a boat for pleasure, without a set destination.

   Cruising under sail gave them a slower, quieter trip than motoring would.

   Weekend cruising on the lake is popular among the local boat owners.

   Similarsailing, yachting, boating

3. 3
   verbcountable or uncountable

   Present participle of cruise.

   The jet was cruising at thirty thousand feet when the announcement came.

   By midnight the taxi was still cruising for fares downtown.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every verb sense of cruise, including some the nouns never took. An aircraft cruises at constant speed for efficiency, and a cab cruises for custom. A forester cruises timberland to estimate how much lumber it will yield. As a gerund it overlaps the sailing pastime and its noun siblings. When it takes an object (cruising the boulevard) or follows a progressive be, it is plainly the verb.

4. 4
   nounslanguncountable

   The practice of walking or driving around an area in search of a partner for casual sex, especially among gay men.

   For decades, the waterfront was a well-known site for cruising.

   He wrote about cruising in the city's parks during the 1970s.

   Note

   Slang that reached print early: Aaron J. Rosanoff's Manual of Psychiatry (1927) still sets it off as an insider's term for picking up partners at random in parks or streets, and by the Mattachine Review of 1957 it is ordinary usage. It works as a mass noun (a fair amount of cruising) and in go cruising and cruising places. Context matters, because the social driving sense uses the same word innocently.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   A stage in learning to walk in which a baby steps along while holding onto furniture or walls, usually around ten months.

   Cruising usually appears a month or two before a baby takes independent steps.

   The pediatrician noted that the baby's cruising was right on schedule.

   Note

   Child development uses the word for the stage just before unassisted walking, usually around ten months. The baby is upright and moving, but only by holding onto furniture and walls. It is a clinician's term that parents use freely, and it is said only of babies. An unsteady adult gripping the furniture is not cruising. The stage brings expected tumbles and some crying, which are part of the milestone rather than a setback.

6. 6
   nounslanguncountable

   The practice of lowering the dose of performance-enhancing drugs rather than stopping them entirely between cycles.

   Cruising lets users keep their gains while giving the body a partial rest.

   He alternated heavy cycles with periods of cruising on a low dose.

   Oppositeblasting

   Note

   Bodybuilding slang built on the language of cycles. Between heavy phases, a user either cycles off performance-enhancing drugs completely or cruises, dropping to a lower dose without stopping. The picture is of easing back to a steady speed rather than coming to a halt. The word belongs to gym talk, not to medical vocabulary, so it reads as insider jargon outside that world.

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