reproducing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of reproduce.

   The bacteria are reproducing faster than the antibiotics can destroy them.

   The aging printer kept reproducing each page with faded ink.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive (the bacteria are reproducing), and elsewhere it acts as a gerund, filling noun slots such as the subject or the object of a preposition. Whether it needs an object depends on the meaning. Copying, recreating and recalling always take one, as in reproducing each page, while breeding can stand alone.

2. 2
   nounnonstandarduncountableplural

   The act or process of producing copies of something, or of generating new offspring among living organisms.

   The reproducing of rare paintings demands skilled hands and great patience.

   Strict laws govern the reproducing of copyrighted works without consent.

   Similarcopying, duplication, replication

   Note

   As a noun it is usually uncountable: the reproducing of rare paintings. Its plural, reproducings, is nonstandard. It turns up mostly in academic prose that piles up -ing nouns side by side. Heidi Nast and Steve Pile's Places Through the Body (2005) lists "exchanges, circulations, consumings, refusals, and reproducings of all kinds." In everyday writing, reproductions is the safer way to count instances.

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