motioning

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of motion.

   He stood at the gate, motioning the trucks through one at a time.

   The usher kept motioning latecomers toward the empty seats at the front.

   Note

   A verb form that does double duty, as a progressive participle (she was motioning) and as a gerund naming the act itself. Most uses carry the gesture meaning, usually with an object and a direction: motioning someone forward, motioning a car through. The parliamentary use, as in motioning to adjourn, is proscribed. Careful usage frowns on it, so it is best kept out of formal minutes.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Movement, or the act of moving from one place or position to another.

   The constant motioning of the crowd made it hard to keep her balance.

   A slight motioning of the curtains was the only sign that a breeze had entered the room.

   Similarmovement, stirring, swaying

   Oppositestillness

   Note

   A noun that can be counted. Its plural, motionings, appears in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned, describing "the scarcely perceptible motionings of her eyelids." That use shows where the word is at home: small, repeated movements, more continuous than a single gesture. Because it shares its spelling with the gesturing participle, the surrounding grammar decides which is meant. An article or a following of usually marks the noun.

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