pursuing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of pursue.

   The reporters spent months pursuing the corruption story.

   Pursuing a master's degree while working full time is exhausting.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. It is a participle in continuous tenses (were pursuing the story) and a gerund heading a noun phrase (Pursuing a degree is exhausting). Either way it keeps the verb's grip on a direct object: you pursue a goal, a career or a lead with no preposition in between. That bare object is the quickest test against the countable noun, which needs of: the pursuing of profit.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of chasing after a person or working steadily toward a goal.

   The relentless pursuing of profit left the company little regard for ethics.

   His lifelong pursuing of justice earned him respect across the courthouse.

   Similarpursuit, quest, seeking

   Note

   A full noun rather than a verb in disguise: it takes an article, adjectives and a plural. Edward Stephens's Infidelity Disarmed in a Reply to Lectures (1900) rhymes "erratic doings" with "whimsical pursuings". There the plural names a person's habitual chases and enthusiasms, the same ground that pursuits covers. Countable and open to description, it sits comfortably beside other plural -ing nouns such as doings and goings.

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