parading

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of parade.

   Protesters were parading past the courthouse with painted banners.

   He spent the whole evening parading his new car around the neighborhood.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. As a participle it builds progressive tenses (were parading past the courthouse). As a gerund it heads a noun phrase (the parading of prisoners through the streets). The verb runs with or without an object: troops parade past, or parade the streets. It can also be figurative, for strolling about to be seen or moving slowly through a place.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of one who parades: marching, processing, or showing oneself off in a public, showy manner.

   The endless parading of captured banners marked every victory celebration.

   Her parading about town in expensive jewelry drew quiet disapproval.

   Similardisplay, flaunting, strutting, exhibition

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted, so it takes a plural: paradings. Henry Charlton Beck's Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey (1936) uses that plural for repeated performances. It describes Cornbury answering protests with paradings in women's apparel on the ramparts of his fort. The plural counts separate displays, while the singular names the activity itself.

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