handing

Pluralhandings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of hand.

   The volunteers are handing blankets to families in the shelter.

   Handing over the office keys felt like the end of an era.

   Note

   The -ing form of a verb that always takes an object: something is handed, so this form nearly always carries one, as in handing blankets or handing over the keys. As a gerund it keeps that object directly (handing the keys felt final). The noun for the act instead takes of and a plural, handings. The same form also covers sailors furling a sail, and the obsolete senses of managing or seizing.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The act by which an object is passed or given directly to another person.

   The formal handing of the signed treaty marked the end of the negotiation.

   A clean handing of the baton decided the outcome of the relay race.

   Similartransfer, delivery, passing, presentation

   Note

   The plural shows this noun at its liveliest. Dickens, writing in 1836–37, has a doctor patiently enduring "all the handings of negus" at a gathering, round after round of glasses passed from guest to guest. For a single act it sounds more formal, as in the handing of a treaty or a baton. Unlike the verb's gerund, it needs of before the thing handed.

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