doing

Pluraldoings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of do.

   The committee is doing everything possible to resolve the dispute.

   What are you doing this weekend?

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. As a participle it builds continuous tenses (is doing, were doing); as a gerund it fills a noun slot (after doing the dishes). Only main-verb do takes this form. The auxiliary do of questions, negatives and emphasis has none, so in "What are you doing?" the helper is be. The same spelling also gives the noun for a deed and, by coincidence, an unrelated springy sound.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A deed or action, especially one for which someone is held responsible.

   The collapse of the deal was nobody's doing but his own.

   The unexpectedly thorough cleanup must have been your doing.

   Similarwork, handiwork, fault, deed

   Note

   A noun that leans on its possessor: his doing or nobody's doing but her own pins an outcome on someone, often with a hint of blame. Used uncountably, it means effort, as in take some doing, said of a hard job. The plural doings is lighter and means events or goings-on, as in a 1900 Book News review of "strange doings at sea."

3. 3
   interjection

   A springy, boinging sound made when an elastic object strikes or is struck by something hard.

   Doing! The coiled spring sprang loose from the broken toy.

   The ball clipped the metal rim (doing!) and bounced straight back into his hands.

   Similarboing

   Note

   Pure echo: the word copies the twang of something springy meeting something hard, such as a loose coil or a ball off a metal rim. It only shares its spelling with the -ing form of do. Like most sound words, it usually stands alone, closed by an exclamation mark or set off between dashes at the moment of impact.

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