protesting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of protest.

   Thousands of students were protesting against the new law downtown.

   Protesting the committee's decision, the union members gathered at city hall.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty: it is the verb's participle (they were protesting) and also a gerund naming the activity. The object pattern matters. Protesting a decision, with no preposition, means demonstrating against it and is North American usage, while protesting against something is the broader pattern. With a direct object it can also mean affirming, as in protesting one's innocence, the sense behind the noun of solemn avowals.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   An earnest or formal declaration, especially of objection or dissent.

   Their loud protesting at the meeting was noted in the minutes.

   No amount of protesting would reverse the board's ruling.

   Similarobjection, complaining

   Note

   Behind the plural noun lies the verb's older meaning of affirming, not objecting. In The Passionate Pilgrim of 1599, attributed to Shakespeare, a woman's "pure protestings" stand beside her faith, oaths and tears. Robert Jephson's The Law of Lombardy (1779) lists "protestings infinite" among a lover's sighs and flatteries. These protestings are vows of devotion, and the poets often suspect them of being hollow.

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