doubling

SayDUB-ling/ˈdʌblɪŋ/

5 meanings of doubling

1
nouncountable or uncountable
The process or an instance of making something twice as large or numerous; a multiplication by two.
The doubling of the city's population strained its water supply.
Engineers recorded a doubling of pressure as the valve closed.
Similarduplication
Oppositehalving
Note
The word names both the process and a single event you can count. June Teufel Dreyer's China's Forty Millions (1976) reports a doubling of minority cadres in Yunnan, which is the usual pattern: a doubling of plus whatever grew. The plural belongs to quantitative writing. David C. Schneider's Quantitative Ecology (1994) sets doublings beside halvings and quarterings as proportional changes, which he keeps distinct from additive ones.
2
verb
Present participle of double.
The company is doubling its workforce to meet rising demand.
Doubling the dose without asking a doctor can be dangerous.
Note
The -ing form works both ways the verb does: transitively, when someone is doubling a dose or a workforce, and intransitively, when prices or a population are simply doubling on their own. It also carries the verb's narrower uses: doubling a sheet over, doubling a fist, or, in baseball, doubling to second. Used as a gerund it sits close to the noun for multiplication by two, but only that noun takes a plural: doublings.
3
nouncountable or uncountable
The act of turning around or reversing course to head back the way one came.
The hare's repeated doubling confused the pursuing dogs.
Her doubling on the narrow path made the climb take twice as long.
Similarbacktracking, reversal
4
nouncountable
A pleat or fold, as in fabric or other pliable material.
A neat doubling along the hem gave the curtain extra weight.
The tailor added a doubling of cloth at the collar for strength.
Similarfold, pleat, tuck, layer

Less common meaning

5
nounarchaicuncountable
A trick or deception; dishonest double-dealing.
The courtier's doubling earned him both riches and many bitter enemies.
Repeated doubling at cards eventually ruined his good name.
Note
A word for duplicity that has dropped out of everyday use. The same idea now goes by double-dealing, which survived where this did not. In modern prose a reader will hear the multiplication sense first, so keep this one for period dialogue or historical pastiche, where the context makes the deceit plain. It counts a single trick (a doubling) and also names the habit of deceiving.

doubling is a form of double

double, verb: To make something twice as large, numerous, or strong, or to become twice as large; to increase by one hundred percent. Full entry

Forms: doubledoubles he/she/itdoubling -ing formdoubled past tense, past participle
Spelling: double → doubling: drop the e, add -ing

Practice

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