keying

Pluralkeyings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of key.

   The clerk was keying customer orders into the system one by one.

   Keying the figures by hand took most of the morning.

   Note

   One spelling serves every verb sense of key: fitting a lock or a machine part with a key, marking items by class, pressing a telegraph key or a radio's transmit switch. For typing, the verb usually takes in, as in keying in the figures, though the bare form also occurs. As a gerund it sits close to the noun for keyboard input, which, unlike the verb, can take a plural: keyings.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Putting text or data into a computer or other device by typing it on a keyboard.

   Manual keying of the survey results introduced several mistakes.

   The office switched to scanners to cut down on keying.

   Similartyping, entry, input

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Deliberate damage to paintwork, especially on a car, made by scratching it with a key.

   A spate of keying left several cars in the lot badly scratched.

   The keying of the bumper was clearly intentional.

   Similarvandalism, scratching

4. 4
   nouncountable

   In the sociology of Erving Goffman, an action or utterance that signals to participants what an interaction means.

   The actor's exaggerated bow served as a keying, marking the scene as parody rather than tribute.

   Among the negotiators, a shift to first names worked as a keying that the meeting had become informal.

   Note

   A term from Goffman's frame analysis, where it names a transformation more than a cue. An activity that already means something is redone as something patterned on it, and everyone involved understands the copy as different. Play fighting is the classic case, keyed from real combat. In this usage the verb works the same way: one activity is said to be keyed from another.

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