gaining

Pluralgainings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of gain.

   The challenger is gaining on the leader with every lap.

   Gaining access to the archive took months of paperwork.

   Note

   This form does two jobs under one spelling. After a form of be it builds the progressive (she is gaining). At the head of a clause it works as a verbal noun that still takes an object (gaining access). With on it means closing the gap on someone ahead. The gerund never takes a plural, which is how to tell it from the noun meaning "profit": only that one becomes gainings.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Profit or other benefit obtained from work, trade, or some other activity.

   After a dry summer, the farmers' gainings barely covered the cost of new equipment.

   The contractor was accused of hiding his gainings from the tax authorities for years.

   Similarearnings, profits, takings, proceeds, income

   Oppositelosses

   Note

   The noun most naturally sits in the plural, counting what someone takes in over time. A writer in The London Medical and Physical Journal of 1807 protests that the Doctor might as well have told the public his gainings were thirty thousand a year instead of three. Use gainings for accumulated earnings. For a single advantage or profit, the everyday word is gain.

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