parking

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Space in which to leave a car or other vehicle, such as a lot or a curbside spot.

   The apartment complex offers covered parking for all of its residents.

   Limited parking near the stadium forced many fans to take the train.

   Note

   Here the word names an amenity rather than an act, and it behaves like other mass nouns of supply: ample parking, limited parking, covered parking. The clipped phrase parking in rear belongs to signs and advertisements. Car park, also written carpark, is a near-synonym, but it names a particular lot you can point to, while parking is the space on offer.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of bringing a vehicle to a stop and leaving it in a particular spot.

   Parking in a tight space takes careful steering and patience.

   The repeated parking of delivery vans here causes daily congestion.

   Note

   It is usually a mass noun (free parking, parking in central London), but traffic planners count it. The Report of the Charlotte Parking Survey (1948) tallies the number of parkings in a downtown district, each one a single act of leaving a car. As a noun it takes of (the parking of delivery vans), which sets it apart from the gerund, whose object follows directly (parking a car).

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of park.

   He was parking his truck when the alarm suddenly went off.

   Drivers are parking along the river to watch the sunset.

   Note

   The -ing form of park does three grammatical jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive (they will be parking the aircraft); in a noun slot it is a gerund (parking a car in a tight spot); before a noun it acts as an adjective (parking skills). It carries every sense of the verb, including the informal one of deferring a matter (parking a proposal until later) and the US slang for romance in a stopped car.

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