proclaiming

Pluralproclaimings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of proclaim.

   The town crier was proclaiming the new law in the market square.

   Proclaiming victory too early cost the candidate the election.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it builds the progressive (was proclaiming the new law). Without an auxiliary it works as a noun but keeps its verbal object, so proclaiming victory can stand as the subject of a sentence. It carries every sense of proclaim, including the dated, historical use for bringing something under emergency powers by official proclamation.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A public announcement or declaration, often an official one, or the act of making it.

   The queen's proclaiming of peace was met with cheers across the city.

   Open proclaimings of support for the rebel general were reported to the governor within days.

   Similarproclamation, declaration, announcement, pronouncement

   Note

   A countable noun in its own right: it has a plural, proclaimings, which a gerund cannot take. That plural separates it from the verbal -ing form. The noun takes of before what is declared, as in Ford Madox Ford's Privy Seal (1907), with its "dangerous proclaimings of loyalty." The verb form would instead take a direct object: proclaiming loyalty.

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