petitioning

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of making a formal appeal or request to an authority, usually asking it to act on or change something.

   Years of petitioning by local residents eventually forced the factory to install filters.

   Her petitioning of the board led to a formal review of the policy.

   Similarlobbying, campaigning

   Note

   As a true noun it can be counted. Melville's Pierre; or, The Ambiguities (1852) has "my own poor petitionings, unceasing in her behalf," where the plural turns one act into a run of repeated pleas. Those pleas are personal and humble, not official. In everyday use the singular stays uncountable, as in years of petitioning, and the plural petitionings now has a literary, slightly old-fashioned ring.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of petition.

   The union is petitioning management for safer working conditions.

   Petitioning for clemency, the family gathered thousands of signatures.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. In "the union is petitioning management" it is a participle carrying the verb's object, and in "petitioning for clemency takes patience" it acts as a gerund. The verb is transitive, so the authority being asked comes directly after it, and what is wanted is introduced by for. When the form settles into a countable noun, it can even take a plural.

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