sharing

Pluralsharings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of share.

   The roommates are sharing the cost of groceries this month.

   Sharing the workload evenly, the team finished ahead of schedule.

   Note

   The verbal form keeps the grammar of the verb. It follows be in progressive tenses (they are sharing the cost), and as a gerund it takes a direct object (sharing the workload). That direct object is the quick test against the noun for the act, which needs of instead: the sharing of profits. The verb share itself once also meant to cut or cleave, a meaning now obsolete.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act by which something is divided among or given out to others.

   The sharing of profits among the partners followed a strict formula.

   A culture of sharing made the volunteers eager to pool their tools.

   Similardistribution, division, allocation

   Oppositehoarding

   Note

   As a mass noun it names the act in general: the sharing of profits, a culture of sharing. It also takes a plural, sharings, for single occasions of it. Rhonda Copelon, looking back on Roe v. Wade in 1983, recalls "tentative and explosive sharings in kitchens and CR groups." There each sharing is an exchange between people, not a portion handed out.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A thing held in common between people, or a portion belonging to each.

   Their childhood in the same small town was a sharing they never forgot.

   Friendship often rests on some quiet sharing of values and memories.

   Note

   Unlike most -ing nouns, this one can be counted. It takes a plural, and comparative linguistics uses it for features that language families hold in common. Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs, in Archaeology and Language I (1997), write that Indo-European "has sharings with Nakh-Daghestanian, Semitic, and Sumerian." In ordinary conversation, "something in common" or "a shared trait" usually does the same work.

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