dishing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of dish.

   The waiter was dishing the stew into bowls when the lights went out.

   Dishing food in large quantities requires steady hands and good timing.

   Note

   One spelling carries every verb dish has become. Over a stew it means serving. In slang it means gossiping about someone, or running them down. In a workshop it means pressing something concave, the action behind the "concave" adjective. An archaic slang use meant outwitting or defeating. Context does the sorting, and the serving and shaping uses take a direct object: dishing the stew, dishing a metal panel.

2. 2
   nounfigurativelyuncountable

   The transfer of something into a dish, as when a cook plates up food to serve.

   The dishing of each course was timed so the plates reached the guests still warm.

   Neat dishing turned the buffet into a display worth photographing.

   Similarplating, serving, presentation

   Note

   Food is the plain case, but the word stretches to anything served up to an audience, often with a note of disdain. The National Review in 1887 complained of the "dishings-up" of old musical forms in new coatings, meaning stale material reheated and presented again. In that compound the plural falls on the first word: dishings-up, not dishing-ups.

3. 3
   adjective

   Shaped like a dish; curving inward; concave.

   Mechanics noticed the dishing profile of the brake disc after years of heavy use.

   The satellite reflector had a slightly dishing face to focus the signal.

   Similarconcave, cupped, hollow, bowl-shaped

   Oppositeconvex, domed

4. 4
   noununcountable

   A bowl-like hollow or inward curve in a surface, whether intended or the result of deformation.

   Inspectors flagged the dishing along the beam as a sign of overloading.

   Repeated polishing left a faint dishing across the lens blank.

   Similarconcavity, depression, sag, hollow, dip

   Oppositeconvexity, bulge

Showing meanings only. Show all 4