fashioning

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act or process of making or shaping something into its finished form; manufacture.

   The fashioning of the silver ring required a steady hand and fine tools.

   Each stage in the fashioning of the violin affects how the instrument sounds.

   Similarmaking, shaping, crafting, creation, construction

   Note

   Once it takes the and of, the word stops behaving like a verb and becomes a true noun: the fashioning of the ring, not fashioning the ring. That is the easiest way to tell it apart from the gerund, which takes a direct object instead. As a full noun it can also be counted, so fashionings is available when separate acts of making are meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of fashion.

   The artist is fashioning a mask from carved hardwood.

   The smith spent the morning fashioning hinges for the heavy door.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: the participle of progressive tenses (the artist is fashioning a mask) and the gerund that names the activity while still taking an object (fashioning hinges took all morning). It comes from the verb, not from fashion as trend or clothing, so it keeps the maker's meaning: building something by hand, often in an improvised way. The material usually follows from, as in fashioning a mask from hardwood.

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