going

Pluralgoings (some meanings)

1. 1
   movingverb

   Present participle of go.

   The children are going to school despite the storm.

   Prices are going up faster than wages this year.

   Note

   One -ing form does two jobs: after be it makes the progressive (the children are going), and on its own it names the action as a noun. It comes from Old English gānde through Middle English goinge and gaand, and the noun and adjective uses below grew from it. In I'm afraid I must be going, the progressive carries go's sense of leaving, a courteous way to announce a departure.

2. 2
   currentadjective

   Currently in effect or prevailing at the present time.

   The going rate for freelance editing has climbed sharply this year.

   Few buyers will pay more than the going market price.

   Similarcurrent, prevailing, standard, usual

   Note

   Most at home in the going rate, the price that holds right now for a job or a good, such as $25 an hour for shoveling snow. Here the adjective comes before its noun, which separates it from the "available" meaning, which follows the noun. The going rate is what people are actually paying, not an official or fixed price.

3. 3
   progressnoununcountable

   The rate or manner of progress being made.

   She read three long novels in a single week, which is pretty good going.

   The team made steady going on the project all week.

   Similarprogress, headway

4. 4
   progressnounfigurativelyuncountable

   The conditions that make advancing easier or harder in any undertaking.

   Negotiations slowed once the going became difficult for both sides.

   She thrives precisely when the going is hardest.

   Similarsituation, conditions

   Note

   The ground underfoot carried over into life at large: the state of the terrain becomes the state of any undertaking, as when the going was difficult for an immigrant. It takes the same adjectives, easy, tough, or difficult, and it is the noun in when the going gets tough, the tough get going, a proverb that plays this noun against the verb.

5. 5
   departurenoununcountable

   The act of leaving or departing.

   His sudden going took the entire family by surprise.

   They marked her going with a small farewell party.

   Similardeparture, exit

   Oppositearrival, coming

   Note

   A literary word for leaving, and often for leaving for good. Lord Dunsany's The Gods of Pegāna (1905) speaks of what remains after the going of the gods, where departure shades into ending. It pairs naturally with its opposite: Samuel Beckett's Watt (1953) lists the comings, the stayings, and the goings, and the plural takes the noun from a single departure to the ordinary traffic of arrival and leaving.

6. 6
   availableadjective

   Available to be had; currently on offer.

   Critics called it the finest restaurant going in the whole city.

   He took the steadiest job going and never looked back.

   Similaravailable, around

   Note

   Unlike most adjectives, this one comes after its noun, typically one sharpened by a superlative: the easiest job going. It can also close a relative clause, as when Natalie Dormer, talking about Tudor history in 2013, said she read every single book that was going. Both patterns mean all that could be had. Placed before the noun, going means something else entirely.

7. 7
   viableadjective

   Likely to continue operating; viable as an ongoing business.

   The auditors confirmed the company remained a going concern.

   Investors prefer to buy a going concern rather than start from scratch.

   Similarviable, ongoing, operating, solvent

   Oppositedefunct

   Note

   An adjective that has more or less settled into one phrase: a going concern, a business that is up and running and expected to stay that way. It belongs to the vocabulary of lenders, buyers, and auditors weighing whether a firm will survive. Outside that phrase, viable or ongoing is the natural choice.

8. 8
   regular visitsverbintransitivein compounds

   Attending or visiting a particular place or event regularly or habitually.

   Going to the same summer festival every year became a family tradition.

   She credits her fitness to going to the pool each morning.

   Similarattending, visiting

   Note

   Here going works as the second half of a compound, joined to a noun that names the destination: church-going, movie-going. The compound names a habit rather than a single trip, so a church-going family is one that attends week after week. Joined with a hyphen, it can stand as a noun for the practice or sit before another noun to describe a person or a public.

   Church-going was still the habit of almost every family on the street.

   The movie-going public has grown tired of sequels.

9. 9
   ground (racing)noununcountable

   The condition of the ground as it affects riding, walking, or racing across it.

   Heavy going slowed every horse in the field.

   The trainer preferred firm going for his fastest runner.

   Similarground, footing, terrain

10. 10
    step depthnouncountable

    On a staircase, the horizontal distance from the front of one step to the front of the next.

    Building codes set a minimum going for each tread on a staircase.

    A generous going makes a long staircase far easier to climb.

    Similarrun

    Note

    A builder's term that comes paired with rise: a step with a rise of 170 mm and a going of 250 mm. The rise measures how far up each step takes you, and the going measures how far forward. Together the two numbers describe how a staircase feels to climb. Tread is the everyday word for the step itself, while going is the measurement.

11. 11
    way of lifenouncountable or uncountableplural

    A person's course of life, conduct, and habitual ways.

    Her steady going earned the respect of everyone in the village.

    The diary recorded the daily goings of a restless, searching mind.

    Similarconduct, behavior, habits

    Note

    Usually plural, and biblical in flavor. The King James Bible of 1611 says of God that he seeth all his goings, meaning everything a man does and every path he takes through life. Used today, the phrase his goings sounds deliberately old and solemn. For a plain modern sentence, ways or doings says the same thing without the echo of scripture.

12. 12
    whereaboutsnounusually singular

    The place where something is or has ended up, used in the phrase "the going of."

    Note

    This meaning lives in one fixed phrase, the going of, and it usually turns up in a question about something mislaid: you haven't seen the going of them, have you? The phrase asks where a thing has got to, not how it moved, so it should not be confused with the "departure" meaning. Outside that phrase, whereabouts is the word to use.

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