guiding

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of guide.

   A ranger was guiding hikers up the steep trail when the storm hit.

   Mentoring younger staff means guiding them through difficult decisions.

   Note

   Besides marking continuous tenses (was guiding hikers), the form often stands before a noun as an adjective. Guiding rollers keep a hauling cable on course, and a guiding mind controls an industry's finances. The first draws on the steering sense of guide, the second on exerting control or influence. As a gerund it shades into the noun meaning "guidance", which can also take a plural.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act or process of directing, advising, or showing someone the way.

   Her steady guiding helped the team through a difficult year.

   The apprentices relied on his patient guiding to learn the trade.

   Similarguidance, direction, leadership, mentoring, instruction

   Note

   A noun that can be counted as well as used in bulk. Its plural, guidings, names separate promptings or directions rather than one steady activity. Theodore Dreiser's The Financier (1912) pairs it with a near-synonym in "the guidings or leadings of romance." In the singular it reads as an ongoing process, very close to the gerund of the verb form.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The membership, training, and activities of the Girl Guides, a youth movement for girls.

   Guiding teaches girls outdoor skills and teamwork from an early age.

   She spent much of her childhood involved in guiding.

   Note

   Short for Girl Guiding, it names the movement as an activity rather than as an organization. In running prose it can be written lowercase even when the troops keep their capitals. Robert T. Grimm's Notable American Philanthropists (2002) writes of "two Girl Guide troops" and, a sentence later, of the belief "that guiding could serve many beneficial ends."

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