rocking

1. 1
   adjective

   Shaking, swaying, or moving back and forth from side to side.

   The rocking carriage gradually lulled the baby to sleep.

   Passengers gripped their seats as the rocking train sped around the bend.

   Similarrolling

   Oppositesteady, still

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of rock.

   He was rocking gently in the old chair on the porch.

   The earthquake left tall buildings rocking for several seconds.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb, gentle or violent, with an object or without: rocking a cradle, a boat rocking in a swell. It also covers distressing someone and doing well, which is where it comes close to the "excellent" adjective. To tell them apart, look at position. The verb follows be (the party is rocking). The adjective stands before a noun and can be graded (more rocking, most rocking).

3. 3
   adjectivecolloquial

   Very good; excellent.

   The band put on a rocking show that kept everyone dancing.

   She found a rocking little café tucked away downtown.

   Similarexcellent, great, awesome, terrific, fantastic

   Oppositelame, dull

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The swaying, to-and-fro movement of an object as it tips back and forth.

   The constant rocking of the ship made several passengers ill.

   A baby often settles at the rhythmic rocking of a parent's arms.

   Similarswaying, rolling, sway, roll, motion

   Note

   A noun that takes a plural: one long rocking, or many small rockings. John Wesley's A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation (1823) warns of branches "too much exposed to the rockings of the wind," where the plural captures repeated gusts rather than a single motion. Use the uncountable form for the motion in general (the rocking of the ship) and the plural for a series of separate swings.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The roughening of a copper plate with a rocker, done in preparation for mezzotint engraving.

   The rocking left the plate evenly textured before the design was burnished in.

   Hours of patient rocking prepared the surface for a deep mezzotint black.

   Note

   An engraver's term named for its tool. The rocker is a toothed blade that is rocked back and forth across copper until it raises a uniform burr over the whole face. That burr is what lets the plate print a rich, even black. The design is then burnished in, so in mezzotint rocking always comes first and the lighter tones are worked back out of the dark.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The motion by which a design on a hardened steel mill is rolled onto a copper cylinder.

   The rocking transferred the engraved design onto the copper cylinder under heavy pressure.

   A single pass of rocking laid the full pattern onto the roller.

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