permitting

Pluralpermittings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of permit.

   The new rules are permitting cyclists to use the bus lanes.

   The software keeps permitting unauthorized logins despite the patch.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final t of permit, the same way admit gives admitting. It does double duty, as a participle (the rules are permitting cyclists) and as a gerund (permitting late entry caused delays). It also keeps every pattern of the verb: a bare object, an object plus to-infinitive, or intransitive of, as in facts permitting of only one reading. Its fixed use after a noun is the "weather permitting" phrase.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   Used in an absolute clause after a noun to show that the intended action will happen only if that thing does not prevent it.

   The crew will repaint the bridge next week, weather permitting.

   Budget permitting, the team hopes to add two more staff members.

   Similarallowing

   Note

   A frozen absolute phrase puts a noun naming a possible obstacle before permitting, with no verb to join them. Several nouns can share the one participle, as Gay Community News put it in 1979: "weather, health, and car permitting." The phrase sits at either end of the sentence, set off by a comma. It hedges a plan rather than promising it, so it belongs with statements of intent.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An act or instance of allowing something to take place.

   The permitting of additional flights eased congestion at the airport.

   Each permitting was recorded carefully in the council's logbook.

   Similarapproval, authorization, allowance

   Oppositeprohibition

   Note

   In government and industry, the noun has narrowed to the work of granting official permits. Emily Cochrane and Lisa Friedman, writing in 2022, describe legislation to "streamline the permitting of fossil fuel and energy infrastructure projects." It usually behaves as a mass noun, as in the permitting of something. Even so, the plural permittings exists, and it turns up before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in 2003.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3