seizing

Pluralseizings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of seize.

   Regulators were seizing control of the failing bank that afternoon.

   By seizing the opportunity early, the company outpaced its rivals.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs. After be it forms progressive tenses (were seizing control), and on its own it acts as a gerund that still takes a direct object (seizing the opportunity). Once it takes the and of, as in the seizing of power, it has become the noun for the act. The verb's binding meaning, to make fast with turns of small line, lies behind the rope lashing.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of grabbing or taking possession of something.

   The sudden seizing of power by the military shocked the nation.

   Their seizing of the disputed land sparked a long legal battle.

   Similarcapture, takeover, appropriation, confiscation, grab

   Oppositesurrender, release

3. 3
   nouncountableplural

   Something that has been taken or grabbed; an item taken into possession.

   The seizing remained in government custody for several years.

   Customs officers stored the seizing in a secure facility.

   Similarhaul

   Note

   The plural is where this noun usually lives: pirates bury their seizings, much as a shop counts its takings or a gambler its winnings. The singular reads more naturally as the act of taking, so reach for the plural when you mean the haul itself. Around ships and rigging, check the context, since seizings there are just as likely to be small-cord lashings.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A type of lashing or binding made with a small cord.

   A neat seizing prevented the rope ends from fraying.

   The rigger applied a seizing where the two lines crossed.

   Similarlashing, binding, whipping

   Note

   Here the noun names the result of the verb seize in its binding meaning, to make something fast with turns of small line. Ahab's order in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), "Cut your seizings and draw the poles," shows it in use: the lashings that hold the harpoon irons to their poles. It counts like any noun: a seizing, two seizings.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A temporary lashing of small cord around the ends of a rope that holds a knot in place and keeps it from slipping or collapsing.

   The climber added a seizing to keep the bowline from working loose.

   Without a seizing, the heavy load made the knot slip free.

   Similarlashing, binding

6. 6
   adjective

   Grabbing the attention; striking or impressive.

   The novel opens with a seizing image of a city on fire.

   Critics praised the film's seizing visual style.

   Similararresting, striking, gripping, compelling, riveting

   Oppositedull, bland, unremarkable, forgettable

   Note

   The adjective grows from the verb's sense of having a sudden, powerful effect, as with a sight that seizes you. Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace (1977) speaks of "a world of seizing visual beauty." It usually sits before its noun, like striking, and it compares with more and most (a more seizing image) rather than with -er and -est.

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