scoring

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The earning of points, goals, or runs in a sport or contest.

   His scoring throughout the tournament earned him the MVP award.

   The team's scoring dropped sharply after their best player was injured.

   Similaroutput, production

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The task of recording points or results as they are earned in a sport or contest.

   Accurate scoring is essential in events decided by narrow margins.

   Electronic systems have replaced manual scoring in most professional sports.

   Similarscorekeeping, judging, marking

   Note

   Here the work belongs to the official, not the player: the scoring of a tennis match is the referee's job of keeping the tally. It is easily confused with the points a player wins, and the surrounding phrase usually tells them apart. The scoring of a match or contest points to the record-keeping, while his scoring or the team's scoring means the points they put up.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of score.

   The striker is scoring at an impressive rate this season.

   Scoring the music for the film took the composer nearly six months.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb, from cutting a groove to recording a tally, earning points or winning money by gambling. The final e of score drops before -ing. When the form takes a direct object, as in scoring a basket, it is still the verb. When it takes of or a possessive, it has become a noun, such as the noun for points won.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a person or thing that scores points.

   The forward converted every scoring opportunity in the final.

   Their most reliable scoring threat sat out the playoffs with an injury.

   Similarattacking, offensive

   Oppositedefensive

   Note

   An adjective that does most of its work in front of a noun: a scoring opportunity, a scoring threat. It is not compared directly, so degree goes on a word placed before it, as in the highest-scoring team or a low-scoring game. Those compounds take a hyphen before a noun and stay open after one, as in a team that is highest scoring.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The action of pressing or scratching a line into paper or other material to make it fold more easily.

   Proper scoring along the spine lets the cover fold cleanly.

   The bookbinder demonstrated scoring before creasing the heavy stock.

   Note

   A craft word drawn from the oldest, physical side of score, which means to cut a notch or groove. In paper and board work, the line is pressed or lightly cut so the sheet bends cleanly along it instead of splitting. A bookbinder scores first and creases or folds afterward, which is why the two words are not interchangeable.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A deep scratch or furrow gouged in rock by a glacier or by some similar force.

   Geologists traced the glacial scoring across the exposed bedrock.

   The scoring in the limestone revealed the direction of ancient ice flow.

   Similarstriation, grooving, gouging

   Note

   Geology uses the same cutting idea as the paper-folding sense, with ice doing the cutting. The word works as a mass noun for a marked surface, as in glacial scoring across the bedrock. It is also countable, with the plural scorings naming individual grooves. Because the grooves run the way the ice moved, their direction is evidence in itself.

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