praying

Pluralprayings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of pray.

   The monks spent hours praying in silence each evening.

   She found comfort in praying during the worst of the crisis.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It builds the progressive (she is praying for rain) and serves as a gerund (praying brought her comfort). It carries the verb's living senses of worship, of humbly begging someone, and of hoping hard for an outcome (praying it holds). The archaic, formal "please" use of pray is an adverb with no -ing form, so praying never means "please."

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A single occasion on which someone offers up a prayer to God or another object of worship.

   He offered a brief praying before setting out on the long journey.

   Her morning praying lasted only a few minutes but settled her nerves.

   Similarprayer, devotions, invocation

   Note

   A countable noun built from the verb, and it takes a plural. John Walford's Memoirs of the Life and Labours of the Late Venerable Hugh Bourne (c. 1854–1855) reports that "the prayings did not stop for the preachings." Unlike the verb's -ing form, it takes an article and adjectives (a brief praying) rather than an object. The plural treats each bout of prayer as a separate event.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2