layering

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of layer.

   The chef kept layering thin slices of potato across the bottom of the dish.

   Layering the paint in slow, even coats gave the wall a richer color.

   Note

   The -ing form of a verb that works with or without an object. You can be layering potatoes in a dish, or simply layering. Its spelling is shared with two nouns, the layered structure and the gardener's propagation method. To tell them apart, look for the object. The verb form takes one directly (layering the paint), while the noun needs of (the layering of rock) and can go plural as layerings.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A structure built up from two or more layers placed one on another.

   The geologist examined the layering of rock exposed in the cliff face.

   Designers achieve warmth through the layering of several light fabrics.

   Similarstratification

   Note

   The structure need not be physical. The word stretches past rock and fabric to sound, as in intricate layerings of harmony, where musical parts sit over one another the way strata do in a cliff. It is an ordinary countable noun, so the plural layerings comes naturally when several such arrangements are meant, or when one is being admired for its complexity.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A method of plant propagation that grows new plants by getting stems or cuttings to take root.

   She propagated the climbing rose through layering last spring.

   Layering works well for shrubs whose branches bend easily to the ground.

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