phoning

Pluralphonings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of phone.

   Phoning ahead saved us a long wait at the clinic.

   The manager is phoning each client personally about the delay.

   Note

   The -ing form of phone does two jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive (she is phoning the clinic). As a subject or object it is a gerund (phoning ahead helps). Like phone itself, it works with or without an object: you can be phoning a client or simply phoning. The silent e of phone drops before -ing.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   The act or activity of calling someone by telephone.

   Her constant phoning of the support line finally got the issue resolved.

   A single phoning to the landlord settled the whole dispute.

   Similarcalling, call

   Note

   Here the word behaves as a true noun: it takes a or the and forms a plural. Martha Stephens's The Treatment (2002) lists "the coffee and papers and phonings" among a household's bustle, with each phoning counted as a separate call. To tell it from the verb form, look at the object. The gerund takes one directly (phoning the landlord), while the noun needs of (the phoning of the landlord).

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