inspecting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of inspect.

   She spent the morning inspecting each crate before it left the warehouse.

   Inspecting the old bridge, the engineers found several cracks in the support beams.

   Note

   Here the -ing form does verb work. With be it builds the progressive (they are inspecting the site). On its own it opens a participle clause or acts as a gerund (inspecting crates takes time). Both shades of inspect carry over: the careful search for faults and the official viewing. Once it takes an article or a plural, it has become the countable noun.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   An act of examining or checking something closely.

   The thorough inspecting of the machinery delayed the start of the shift.

   Routine inspecting of the bridges is part of the engineer's job.

   Similarexamination, checking, scrutiny

   Note

   A noun made straight from the verb, so it counts and takes a plural: inspectings. Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind lines it up with detectings, scannings and observings to argue that sensations are not acts of this kind. Plurals like these suit lists of deliberate acts set side by side. For a single ordinary check, inspection is the usual word.

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