gassing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of gas.

   Soldiers were gassing the enemy trenches before the advance.

   She was gassing the balloons with helium for her daughter's party.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles its final consonant, so gas gives gassing, never gasing. The verb behind it covers a wide range. It is transitive when someone is gassing an enemy, a room or a balloon, and intransitive in the slang sense of chattering on. That talky use has a noun twin, boastful or empty talk. Only the nouns spelled gassing take a plural, gassings; the verb form never does.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Poisoning caused by breathing in noxious or toxic gas.

   The factory accident led to the gassing of a dozen night-shift workers.

   Soldiers in the trenches lived in constant fear of gassing.

   Similarpoisoning, asphyxiation

   Note

   Usually a mass noun, though it becomes countable when it names separate incidents, and the plural gassings is then natural. The victims follow of (the gassing of a dozen workers), and fear of gassing treats it as an ever-present threat rather than one event. Choose the plural only when the incidents themselves are being counted or compared.

3. 3
   nounslanguncountable

   Boasting, or insincere and empty talk.

   Like hot air: lots of noise signifying nothing.

   The meeting was all gassing and no real decisions.

   Ignore his gassing; he just loves to sound important.

   Similarboasting, bragging, bluster, blather, bombast

   Note

   Slang for talk that is all air, and it is nearly always dismissive. It often takes a possessive aimed at the speaker: Christina Stead's The Man who Loved Children (1940) has "I can't stand your gassing," set right beside windbag. It belongs in conversation or fiction, not in formal criticism, where empty talk or bluster says the same thing without the slang edge.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The release of hydrogen from an overcharged battery, caused by electrolysis of the electrolyte.

   Overcharging the cell led to noticeable gassing at the electrodes.

   Technicians monitor gassing closely to avoid damaging the battery.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   A textile process in which cotton goods pass between two rollers and over many tiny gas jets that burn off small surface fibers.

   The mill added a gassing stage to remove fuzz from the yarn.

   Gassing removes the loose fibers that make cotton thread look hairy.

   Similarsingeing

   Note

   A mill-floor term in which the gas is fuel, not the substance acting on the cloth. Rollers carry the cotton past many tiny flames, and what is burned away is the loose surface fuzz. Do not confuse it with the poisoning sense: nothing is poisoned or filled here. In manufacturing writing it often works as a modifier, as in a gassing stage.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   Any comparable singeing process that burns small fibers off the surface of a material.

   Felt makers sometimes rely on gassing to remove stray fibers from the surface.

   Gassing gave the brushed fabric a cleaner, more even finish.

   Similarsingeing

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