networking

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The practice of meeting new people in a business or social context, often to build useful contacts.

   The conference is mostly an excuse for networking among industry insiders.

   Years of patient networking gave her contacts in nearly every firm in town.

   Similarschmoozing, socializing, mingling

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The use of computer networks to link devices together so they can exchange data and share resources.

   The company upgraded its networking to handle far more traffic.

   Wireless networking made cables unnecessary throughout the new office.

   Similarconnectivity

   Note

   Here the word belongs to the world of machines and data. Like the social practice, it is uncountable: a company has networking, not a networking. It readily takes a technology in front of it, as in wireless networking. Because the two nouns share one spelling, a phrase like networking skills can point either way. The surrounding words settle it: cables and traffic on one side, contacts and conferences on the other.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of network.

   He spent the evening networking with potential investors.

   The recruiters are networking across several industries this week.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb, and its grammar splits with the meaning. Used of people, it is intransitive: you are networking with investors, not networking them. Used of machines or systems, it takes an object, as in networking the office computers or networking a broadcast across affiliated stations. As a gerund it slides easily into the nouns, so the same word can name either activity.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3