exercising

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of exercise.

   She kept exercising despite the cold weather.

   Exercising before breakfast gives her more energy.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb, including transitive ones that are easy to miss. Beside the gym meaning (she was exercising), it puts rights into practice (exercising an option) and can mean occupying or worrying someone: a question exercising the committee. As a gerund it takes its object directly, as in exercising caution. The countable noun instead joins its object with of and can be plural.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act by which a right, power, or function is put into effect.

   The exercising of judicial authority must follow strict procedures.

   Her steady exercising of restraint defused the argument.

   Similaruse, application, exertion, employment

   Note

   A noun built on the gerund but able to count. It takes a plural, exercisings, and links to its object with of. The plural belongs to legal language: Sarah Wilson's Todd & Wilson's Textbook on Trusts (2007) speaks of "all exercisings of investment power," treating each use of a power as a separate act. Choose this noun when individual acts are being counted.

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