pillowing

Pluralpillowings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of pillow.

   The tired child dozed off, pillowing her face against the soft armrest.

   The cat curled up on the sill, pillowing its chin on one paw.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. As a participle it follows a form of be (she was pillowing her head on his shoulder); as a gerund it acts as a noun (pillowing your chin on a fist is an old habit). The verb is transitive, so what gets rested, a face or a chin, is its object, and on or against names the support. Keep it apart from the stuffing noun, which can take a plural, pillowings.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Material used to make pillows.

   The upholsterer kept a bin of loose pillowing beside her sewing bench.

   Damp storage had matted the pillowing into stiff clumps.

   Similarstuffing, filling, padding, wadding

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