fining

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of fine.

   The city is fining residents who leave their trash cans at the curb after pickup day.

   Repeatedly fining the same offenders has done little to change behavior.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. After be it makes the progressive (the council is fining residents), and in noun positions it works as a gerund. The same spelling also serves the verb of purifying, so fining wine or beer means clarifying it. A dated use pairs it with away, down or off to mean dwindling. Both the simple past and the past participle are fined.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A Cambridge drinking-game custom at meals, in which a person is made to drink as a penalty for breaking a rule, much like sconcing at Oxford.

   Fining at the swap got out of hand once the rules kept multiplying.

   New members quickly learn that fining is part of every formal dinner.

   Similarsconcing

   Note

   Student slang tied to one university: Cambridge says fining where Oxford says sconcing. It is uncountable and names the custom as a whole, so fining is part of the evening, not "a fining." It turns up most at swaps. A single penalty is usually described with the verb instead, as when someone is fined a drink.

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