narrowing

Pluralnarrowings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The process of becoming narrow.

   The narrowing of the artery reduced blood flow to his heart.

   Geologists noted a gradual narrowing of the canyon downstream.

   Similarconstriction, contraction, tapering

   Oppositewidening, broadening

   Note

   Though it names a process, the noun also counts. The narrowings of a road are the individual places where it pinches in. As a process it usually takes of, as in the temporary narrowing of the channel. That is the quickest way to tell it from the gerund, which takes its object directly (narrowing the channel).

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of narrow.

   The valley keeps narrowing until it becomes a tight gorge.

   Their lead is narrowing with every passing minute.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs: the progressive (the road is narrowing) and the gerund (narrowing the search took hours). Because narrow works with or without an object, the form can describe something shrinking on its own or someone shrinking it. It also carries the verb's specialized uses: eyes narrowing in suspicion, a knitter narrowing a stocking, a programmer narrowing a value to a smaller data type.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The part of a stocking that has been shaped to be narrower than the rest.

   The seamstress reinforced the narrowing where the stocking tapered toward the calf.

   A run had formed just above the narrowing of the silk stocking.

   Note

   A knitter's word, usually used in the plural. The narrowings are the rows where a hand-knit stocking is shaped by working two stitches into one, the craft meaning of the verb. Margaret Maria Gordon's Household economy (1858) gives a rule of proportion: before the narrowings begin, the stocking should be at least twice as long as its top is wide.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3