# rocking

Pronunciation: say "ROK-ing" US /ˈɹɑkɪŋ/, UK /ˈɹɒkɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Shaking, swaying, or moving back and forth from side to side.
   - Simple: Moving gently back and forth, or from one side to the other.
   - _The rocking carriage gradually lulled the baby to sleep._
   - _Passengers gripped their seats as the rocking train sped around the bend._
3. Very good; excellent. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Very good, exciting, or really enjoyable.
   - _The band put on a rocking show that kept everyone dancing._
   - _She found a rocking little café tucked away downtown._

## Verb

2. Present participle of rock. — present participle and gerund of rock
   - Simple: Present participle of rock. Use this form for an action happening right now.
   - _He was rocking gently in the old chair on the porch._
   - _The earthquake left tall buildings rocking for several seconds._

## Noun

4. The swaying, to-and-fro movement of an object as it tips back and forth.
   - Simple: The slow back-and-forth or side-to-side movement of something.
   - _The constant rocking of the ship made several passengers ill._
   - _A baby often settles at the rhythmic rocking of a parent's arms._
5. The roughening of a copper plate with a rocker, done in preparation for mezzotint engraving.
   - Simple: The roughing up of a copper plate with a special tool, done before making a kind of print.
   - _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._
6. The motion by which a design on a hardened steel mill is rolled onto a copper cylinder.
   - Simple: The rolling movement that copies a design from a steel roller 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._

## Origin

Formed from the word "rock" combined with the suffix "-ing".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/rocking (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).