deeming

Pluraldeemings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of deem.

   The memo explained the board's reasons for deeming the project a failure.

   Deeming the offer too low, she rejected it outright.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here: it builds progressive verbs and serves as a verbal noun. In everyday use it carries deem's living sense, to regard as, with an object followed by a description of it: deeming the offer too low. The older judicial meanings, to sentence or to dispense justice, are obsolete. Its line runs back to Old English dēmende, "judging", separate from the noun meaning judgment.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The exercise of judgment in assessing something or reaching an opinion about it.

   Her careful deeming of the evidence led to a fair conclusion.

   Sound deeming requires setting aside personal bias before reaching a verdict.

   Similarjudgment, assessment, evaluation, estimation, appraisal

   Note

   Here the -ing ending makes a true noun with its own history: Middle English deming, from an Old English *dēming known only inside fordēming, "confiscation". It works as a mass noun (sound deeming requires care) and as a countable one, with the plural deemings for separate judgments. The participle describes judging in progress, while this noun treats a judgment as a thing in its own right.

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