# mooning

Pronunciation: say "MOON-ing" US /ˈmunɪŋ/, UK /ˈmuːnɪŋ/

## Noun

1. The act of exposing one's bare buttocks to other people, usually as a prank or a gesture of contempt.
   - Simple: The act of pulling down your pants to show your bare bottom to people, often as a joke.
   - _The mooning at the rally ended up on the local news that evening._
   - _A bit of drunken mooning from the balcony got the whole group thrown out of the bar._

## Verb

2. Present participle of moon. — present participle and gerund of moon
   - Simple: Present participle of moon. Use this form for something happening right now.
   - _The teenagers were mooning passing cars from the railway bridge._
   - _He spent the whole afternoon mooning about, lost in thought._

## Origin

This use reflects "moon" as a metaphor for "the buttocks," a sense recorded since 1743. It was popularised from American student slang in the 1960s.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mooning (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).