losing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of lose.

   The company was losing money every quarter.

   Losing track of time, she missed her appointment entirely.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. With a form of be it makes the progressive (was losing money). Without be it can open a clause (Losing track of time, she…) or act as a noun inside one. In every use it keeps the verb's direct object and its whole range of meaning: losing weight, losing a friend, losing a bet, losing a right. The silent e of lose drops before the ending.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a person or side, currently failing to win or having already been defeated.

   Supporters of the losing candidate left the hall before the speeches ended.

   She refused to back what she saw as a losing strategy.

   Similardefeated, beaten, unsuccessful, doomed

   Oppositewinning, victorious, successful

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process by which something is lost, or a single instance of loss.

   The gradual losing of memory is a hallmark of the disease.

   He wrote movingly about the losing of innocence in his childhood town.

   Similarloss, erosion, decline

   Note

   This one is a true noun and behaves like one. It takes the and an of-phrase (the losing of innocence), and it can be counted: The United States Magazine and Democratic Review wrote in 1842 of "an alternation of such losings and regainings." That plural is the quickest test against the verb's -ing form, which takes a direct object instead. You can say losing innocence but never losings innocence.

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