poling

Pluralpolings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of pole.

   Poling the punt upstream took real skill against the current.

   She steadied herself while poling the boat past the reeds.

   Note

   Every use of the verb pole runs through this form, so it covers far more than punting. Poling beans gives them poles to climb, poling molten glass stirs it, and poling a ball strikes it very hard. As a gerund it overlaps with the noun for the act. With a direct object, as in poling the boat, it is the verb form.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of propelling a boat or supporting a structure by means of a pole or poles.

   Poling kept the barge moving where the water was too shallow for oars.

   The crew relied on poling to guide the flat-bottomed boat through the swamp.

   Note

   Two quite different jobs share this noun: the gardener's poling of beans, which gives climbing plants something to grow up, and the boatman's poling of a boat. It usually takes an of-phrase naming what is poled, and that phrase tells you which job is meant. Without one, the surrounding context has to do the work.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A pole or plank used to hold up the side earth when excavating a tunnel, ditch, or similar opening.

   As the tunnel advanced, miners drove a fresh poling against the exposed clay.

   A loose poling let a stream of gravel spill onto the workers below.

   Note

   Unlike its neighbors, this noun names a thing rather than an activity, so it counts freely: a poling, a row of polings. The shift from the act of supporting to the support itself follows a familiar pattern in -ing nouns, as with a lining or a railing. Here it is the timber holding back the earth as the digging goes on.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The operation of dispersing wormcasts across garden walks by means of poles.

   The head gardener scheduled poling each morning to keep the walks neat.

   A light poling cleared the casts before the lawn was rolled.

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