releasing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of release.

   The agency kept releasing updates throughout the crisis.

   Releasing the prisoners required a signed court order.

   Note

   One -ing form does two jobs here. After a form of be it builds the progressive (they are releasing the figures). On its own it works as a noun that still takes a direct object (releasing the prisoners). That object is the test that separates it from the countable noun, which needs of. The full range of release carries over, from releasing a film to the public to releasing a legal claim.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act or process by which something is set free, sent out, or made available.

   The releasing of the annual report drew sharp attention from investors.

   Gradual releasing of water from the dam eased pressure downstream.

   Similardischarge, publication, freeing, issuance

   Note

   Counting is what this noun can do and the verbal form cannot: releasings, one act after another. The New South Wales Legislative Assembly's Votes and Proceedings of 1938 pairs importations of eggs with releasings of fry, treating each stocking of young fish as a separate event. Like the verbal form, it names the action, but here the action is a countable thing that takes articles and a plural.

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