maneuvering

Pluralmaneuverings

1. 1
   verbUS

   Present participle and gerund of maneuver.

   The pilot was maneuvering the jet through heavy crosswinds on the final approach.

   Both campaigns are maneuvering behind the scenes for the union's endorsement.

   Note

   Where something is going usually follows the verb: maneuvering into position, maneuvering a sofa through a doorway, maneuvering a jet through crosswinds. The scheming meaning can drop the object altogether, as when both campaigns are maneuvering for an endorsement, and then for or behind the scenes carries the sense. The spelling is the American one.

2. 2
   nounUScountable or uncountable

   An act of moving something carefully into position, or of steering events or people to gain an advantage.

   The bill passed only after months of political maneuvering in the Senate.

   Behind the scenes, the board's maneuverings left the founder without a single ally.

   Similarscheming, jockeying, manipulation, plotting, machinations

   Note

   In the plural the noun leans toward scheming: legal maneuverings, bureaucratic maneuverings, the moves people make offstage to steer an outcome. John Tagliabue, reporting in 2007 on the effort to save Anne Frank's tree, wrote of the bureaucratic maneuverings around it. The singular often goes without an article (after months of maneuvering) and can describe slow physical work as easily as politics.

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