easing

Pluraleasings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of ease.

   The central bank is easing restrictions on small loans this quarter.

   Easing into the cold lake, he gasped at the first shock of water.

   Note

   The -ing form drops the silent e of ease and carries every sense of the verb, from soothing pain to slackening a line or moving something carefully into place. As a gerund it still acts like a verb and takes a direct object, as in easing restrictions helps small lenders. The noun, by contrast, needs of: the easing of restrictions.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or process by which something is made less severe, less tight, or less difficult.

   Like the slow release of pressure from a valve until the strain is gone.

   The easing of monetary policy was meant to spur new investment.

   Doctors noted a gradual easing of her symptoms over the week.

   Similarrelaxation, loosening, lessening, alleviation, abatement

   Oppositetightening, worsening, intensification

   Note

   The process noun also counts. Alongside the easing of a policy there are single easings, small acts of loosening or relief. Jack Vance writes of "furtive easings of position" in The View from Chickweed's Window (1978), a plural that suits fidgets and shifts. Railway writing uses it for holding engines back: Cecil J. Allen's "British Locomotive Practice and Performance" (1947) describes drivers doing "a little easing of their engines" when the track demands it.

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