receiving

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of receive.

   The charity is receiving donations from across the country.

   He spent the morning receiving deliveries at the warehouse.

   Note

   The same spelling does two jobs. After a form of be it is the participle of an ongoing action: the charity is receiving donations. As a gerund it acts as a noun but still takes a direct object the way a verb does: receiving guests is an art. It carries every meaning of receive, including the legal one in receiving stolen goods. With the and of, it becomes the noun of the act.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act by which something is taken in or accepted; reception.

   The receiving of the shipment was logged at the warehouse entrance.

   Diplomatic protocol governs the receiving of foreign dignitaries.

   Similarreceipt, reception, acceptance

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted and made plural. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–10) speaks of "poor returns for rich receivings," weighing what is taken in against what is given back. Reception covers the same ground. Receiving as a full noun sounds more deliberate, suited to procedure or to rhetoric that sets giving against getting.

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