making

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of make.

   He spent the morning making repairs to the old fence.

   The committee is making steady progress on the new policy.

   Note

   A fresh formation from the verb, simply make plus -ing, and much newer than the old noun. It works in progressive tenses after be (we'll be making complete DNA) and as a verbal noun in subject or object position. As a gerund it takes its object directly, as in making repairs. By contrast, the noun of workmanship needs of: the making of the cathedral.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of forming, causing, or producing something; the workmanship or manner in which something is constructed.

   The making of the cathedral spanned three generations of craftsmen.

   The fine making of the violin gives it a warm, rich tone.

   Similarcreation, construction, production, manufacture, workmanship

   Note

   The noun is far older than it looks. Old English already had macung, and Middle English making carried it on, with relatives in Dutch making (now dated) and Old High German machunga. It names both an act and its result: the making of a violin can mean the work of building it or the quality of the craftsmanship. It is countable as well as uncountable, with the plural makings.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of growth or development by which something gradually comes into being.

   Years of patient practice mark the making of a skilled musician.

   Historians watched the making of a new nation unfold over the decade.

   Similardevelopment, formation, emergence, birth

   Note

   Most at home in the phrase in the making, which follows its noun: a genius in the making. The phrase describes something not yet finished but already on its way, so it suits both forecasts and hindsight. Outside that phrase, the sense usually takes of, as in the making of a nation. It shares its Old English pedigree with the act of building.

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