packing

Pluralpackings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The work of gathering things up and stowing them away, especially clothes in a suitcase for a trip.

   His packing was so careful that nothing shifted during the flight.

   They divided the packing between them to save time before vacation.

   Oppositeunpacking

   Note

   Middle English already had the word as pakkynge, pack plus -ing, and this noun still carries the verb's action: his packing means how he packed. Keep it apart from the wrapping material. If the packing was careless, that is about the act. If the packing was recyclable, that is about the stuff.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Material used to wrap or enclose a product for sale; packaging.

   Most of the packing is recyclable, so customers can put it straight in the bin.

   Cheap packing left the electronics rattling loose during shipment.

   Similarpackaging, wrapping

   Note

   This sense sits close to packaging, but it often names the protective fill inside a container. Eugene L. Magad's Total Materials Management (2013) lists "inner packings" such as expanded polystyrene, air bubbles and molded polystyrene. The plural, packings, names kinds of material. In everyday use the word is a mass noun: the packing, some packing.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Material packed into the space around something, especially around a piston or similar part to keep water or air from getting through.

   The plumber replaced the worn packing in the valve to stop the steady drip.

   Old pumps relied on rope-like packing pressed tight around the moving rod.

   Similarseal, gasket, stuffing

   Note

   This is not only an engineer's word. In Scott's Last Expedition (1913), Captain R. F. Scott describes fine Norwegian hay stuffed into fur boots as packing, to keep the feet warm and the boots snug. The core idea is filling a gap so that something fits tight. Sealing a piston or valve is the same job, done against air or water.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   A fee charged to cover the cost of packaging an order.

   Each invoice listed the packing as a separate charge below the item price.

   Buyers were annoyed when the packing nearly doubled the cost of a small book.

5. 5
   verb

   Present participle of pack.

   He spent the whole evening packing boxes before the move.

   Packing fragile items carefully reduces the risk of breakage.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It is the participle of progressive tenses (she is packing) and the gerund that behaves like a noun (packing takes hours). It works with an object or without one: packing boxes, or simply packing for a trip. Its sealing use, making a joint impervious, is the verb behind the material that seals pistons.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The arrangement in space of objects, items, or constituent parts.

   The packing of atoms in a crystal determines many of its properties.

   Researchers compared the packing of spheres in two different lattices.

   Similararrangement, configuration

   Note

   Scientists and mathematicians use the word for arrangement itself rather than the act of arranging: how atoms sit in a crystal, how spheres fill a lattice. It usually takes of plus whatever is arranged (the packing of atoms), and adjectives of density such as close or dense describe how much space the parts leave empty.

7. 7
   nounUSabbreviationclipping

   Clipping of meatpacking.

   Most of the city's new immigrants found jobs in packing, working the kill floors and cutting rooms.

   The packing houses along the stockyards employed thousands of workers.

   Note

   American English uses this shortening for the whole meat trade. Like meatpacking, it takes no plural and no article: people work in packing, not in a packing. The bare word also means the everyday act of packing, so it usually leans on companions such as packing house or the stockyards to make the meat plain.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   In rugby, the way players bind together to form a scrum.

   The coach drilled the packing of the front row for hours.

   Poor packing left the scrum unstable and the referee reset it.

   Note

   Here the pack is the tight knot of rugby players in a scrum, and packing is how well they form it. Coaches treat it as a skill to drill, especially in the front row. When a team's packing is poor, the scrum comes apart and has to be reset, so the word often appears in talk about stability and technique.

9. 9
   noununcountable

   Special material put inside containers or vessels for certain chemical processes, such as in distillation columns.

   The distillation column was filled with ceramic packing to improve separation.

   Workers replaced the fouled packing inside the absorption tower.

   Note

   Chemists fill a vessel with it and then call the vessel packed: a packed bed, a packed distillation or chromatography column. The material is chosen for the work it does inside the column, not for protecting anything. That purpose is what separates it from wrapping material, even though both are stuff placed inside a container.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    The gathering of birds, animals, and the like into a pack.

    Naturalists recorded the packing of the geese in the weeks before migration.

    The packing of the hounds into a single group signaled the start of the hunt.

    Similargathering, grouping

    Oppositedispersal, scattering

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