sheltering

Pluralshelterings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of shelter.

   The refugees were sheltering in an abandoned warehouse near the border.

   Sheltering from the howling wind, the climbers waited out the blizzard.

   Note

   The -ing form works in both directions the verb does. With an object it means protecting someone else, as in a family sheltering refugees. Without one it means taking cover yourself, usually followed by from for the danger or in for the place. The same spelling serves the progressive (they were sheltering) and the gerund (sheltering strangers was risky).

   The family spent the war sheltering refugees in their attic.

   Sheltering strangers was a risk the villagers willingly accepted.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A protective structure beneath which a person takes cover; a shelter.

   The shepherds erected a simple sheltering against the bitter mountain wind.

   An old wooden sheltering stood at the edge of the field, offering refuge during sudden storms.

   Similarrefuge, hut, lean-to, shed

   Note

   A countable noun with a plural, shelterings. That plural is what separates it from the verb's -ing form: the gerund names the act of taking cover, while this noun names the thing you take cover under. The structure need not be built by people. The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales in 1892 describes larvae living beneath shelterings formed of coccid remains, a covering made from the remains of scale insects.

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