loading

Pluralloadings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of load.

   Crews are loading cargo onto the ship before it departs.

   He injured his back while loading crates onto the pallet.

   Note

   As a verb form, loading takes its object directly: loading cargo, loading a rifle. The noun for the process needs "of" instead: the loading of hazardous cargoes. The verb can also be intransitive, so a ship can simply be loading, meaning it is taking on its load. The spelling is identical in each case, so look at the next word to tell which one you have.

   The ferry is still loading, so we can't board yet.

   They were loading the rifles before dawn.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The process of putting cargo, goods, or data into or onto something.

   The loading of passengers onto the ferry was delayed by bad weather.

   Software loading can slow down when the file is very large.

   Similarboarding, embarkation, stowage

   Oppositeunloading, discharge

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A load, in particular the force put on a structure or the electric current or power supplied to a circuit.

   The roof collapsed when the snow loading exceeded its design limit.

   Electrical loadings on the grid peak during hot summer afternoons.

   Similarweight, stress, demand

   Note

   In engineering talk the word is comfortable in the plural. The loadings on the external walls are the separate forces an engineer has to check, and the loading on a generator is the demand it carries at a given hour. Note the preposition: loading on. R. C. Riley, writing in 1960 on London–Birmingham rail services, blamed slower timings on increased loadings, meaning more weight hauled per train.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An added weighting or bias that shifts a value in a particular direction.

   Smokers often face additional loading on their life insurance premiums.

   The analysts removed statistical loading that skewed the final figures.

   Similarweighting, surcharge, bias

   Oppositediscount

   Note

   Psychologists and statisticians use the word for how strongly a measure leans toward an underlying factor. H. J. Eysenck notes with surprise that the hysteria scale "has a positive loading on this factor". That sentence shows the usual pattern: the loading has a sign, positive or negative, and it sits on a factor. It shares that preposition with the engineer's force.

5. 5
   nounAustraliacountable

   A higher hourly rate paid to a casual employee than to an equivalent full-time or part-time worker, usually to make up for missing benefits such as sick leave and annual leave.

   The award guarantees casual workers a 25 percent loading on their base rate.

   Without sick leave, he relied on the loading to cover lost income.

   Similarpremium, supplement, allowance

   Note

   Australian industrial relations gives the word a precise job. It names the premium a casual worker earns over a permanent colleague doing the same work, usually stated as a percentage on top of the base rate. Think of it as the price of flexibility: the casual worker gives up paid sick leave and annual leave, and the loading stands in for them. Outside Australian workplaces, readers may not recognize the term.

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