# hoarding

Pronunciation: US say "HOR-ding" /ˈhɔɹdɪŋ/; UK say "HAW-ding" /ˈhɔːdɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of hoard. — present participle and gerund of hoard
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of hoard. Use it after is, are or was, or as the name of the action.
   - _Investors were accused of hoarding gold while the currency collapsed._
   - _She has been hoarding every scrap of gossip about the new manager, waiting for the right moment to use it._

## Noun

2. The practice of accumulating goods and keeping them as a store.
   - Simple: The habit or act of collecting and keeping a lot of things.
   - _Rich countries were criticized for the hoarding of vaccines while poorer nations waited for supplies._
   - _Rumors of a rice shortage set off a wave of panic buying and hoarding across the city._
3. An anxiety disorder marked by a compulsive need to accumulate goods and by anxiety or discomfort at the thought of discarding them.
   - Simple: A mental health problem where a person feels they must keep collecting things and gets very upset about throwing them away.
   - _The therapist specializes in hoarding and helps clients decide, one box at a time, what they can let go._
   - _Firefighters said the man's hoarding had blocked every exit in the apartment._
4. A large outdoor board for displaying advertisements, known in the US as a billboard. *(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: A large board outside where advertisements are shown, called a billboard in the US.
   - _The supermarket's Christmas advert was plastered across every hoarding in central London._
   - _The candidate's face smiled down from the hoardings along the main road into Dublin._
5. A temporary fence-like structure built around a construction site to make it secure and protect the public from accidents. *(Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, UK)*
   - Simple: A tall temporary fence put up around a building site to keep it safe and keep people out.
   - _The developer covered the hoarding with pictures of the luxury flats that would one day stand behind it._
   - _Most of the station was hidden behind hoardings while the platforms were rebuilt._
6. A roofed timber structure fitted over a castle's battlements and jutting out beyond them to protect the defenders.
   - Simple: A wooden shelter with a roof, built out over the top of a castle wall in the past.
   - _Archers crouched in the hoarding and fired down on the soldiers trying to scale the wall._
   - _Restorers rebuilt the timber hoardings along the north tower using medieval carpentry methods._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A good that has been hoarded.

## Origin

**Meanings 4–6** — Formed from hoard (in the sense "structure") + -ing.
**Meanings 2–3** — Formed from hoard + -ing.
**Meaning 1** — Formed from hoard + -ing.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hoarding (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).