moving

Pluralmovings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of move.

   The glaciers are moving a few inches each year.

   He spent the whole day moving from room to room.

   Note

   The -ing form of move does double duty. After be, it builds continuous tenses (the glaciers are moving). As a gerund, it names the action itself (moving furniture, moving house). The same spelling is also an adjective, so test it with very. A very moving speech is the emotional adjective, while a crowd moving toward the exit is the verb.

2. 2
   adjective

   That is in motion; not fixed in one place.

   Sensors on the bridge track every moving vehicle that crosses it.

   The camera struggled to keep the moving runners in focus.

   Similarmobile, dynamic, animate

   Oppositestationary

   Note

   Here the motion is literal, and it does not come in degrees. Something is moving or it is not, so more moving and most moving belong to the emotional sense instead. It usually stands before its noun, as in moving pictures. Its plain opposite is stationary. Mobile is close, but it describes what can move, while moving describes what is in motion now.

3. 3
   adjective

   Stirring deep emotions such as sadness, sympathy, or tenderness.

   The veterans' reunion was one of the most moving events of the year.

   Readers found her memoir both honest and profoundly moving.

   Similartouching, affecting

   Note

   The emotional adjective grades freely, unlike the literal one. It takes more moving and most moving, and in Coleridge's Remorse (1813) someone says, "'t was a moving letter, very moving!" Affecting and touching are near neighbors. Before nouns like scene or picture, check which meaning is intended, because literal motion may be meant as well.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The relocation of goods from one place to another.

   The moving of the gallery's collection required specialized crates.

   Careful moving of fragile equipment kept the lab running without delay.

   Similarrelocation, transport, transfer, removal

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An act of causing something to change position.

   Each moving of the dial reset the machine to its starting point.

   One careful moving of the rudder was enough to swing the boat toward the harbor.

   Similarturn, shift, adjustment

   Note

   Unlike the noun for relocating goods, this one can be counted: a moving, several movings, as in "The rats' movings are willed movements." That line also shows the boundary with movement. Movings names each separate act of setting something in motion, and movement describes the motion that results.

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