shipping

Pluralshippings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The transport of goods from one location to another.

   Containerized shipping cut delivery times across the world dramatically.

   The company outsourced its shipping to a specialist logistics firm.

   Similartransport, freight, delivery, logistics

   Note

   The word began aboard ship rather than in a warehouse. Middle English schipping came from schippen, "to take ship, navigate," and before that from Old English scipian, "to equip, man a ship." In the commercial sense it often works as a modifier, as in a shipping hub. It now covers goods sent by any means of transport, not only by sea. The charge for sending is a separate use and should not be confused with this one.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The charge for sending an item or package through postal or carrier services.

   Customers often abandon their carts when shipping pushes the total too high.

   The seller waived shipping for the loyal customer as a goodwill gesture.

   Similarpostage, delivery, carriage

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The ships belonging to a particular nation, port, or industry, considered collectively.

   Allied shipping was the target of relentless submarine warfare.

   The strait remains one of the busiest channels for commercial shipping.

   Similarvessels, ships, fleet, tonnage

   Note

   Ships are counted here as a mass rather than one by one. Shakespeare's Antony burns his "overplus of shipping," and Defoe weighs "Numbers of Shipping, and of Men." As a collective noun it takes a singular verb: a 1950 railway writer has shipping of every sort that "chugs, hoots, glides or churns." When Frederick Douglass goes down to the New Bedford wharves for "viewing the shipping," he means the whole harbor's vessels seen as one scene.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of ship.

   The factory is shipping thousands of units ahead of the holidays.

   By noon they were shipping the last of the backlog.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. It is a participle in the progressive (they are shipping the order) and a gerund in noun positions (shipping it overnight costs extra). It carries every sense of the verb, including the product-release one. Because that verb works with either subject, a team can be shipping an update, and the update itself can be said to be shipping next week.

5. 5
   nounslanguncountable

   Among fans, the desire for two or more people or characters, real or fictional, to be in a romantic or sexual relationship.

   Online shipping of the two costars spiraled into endless fan art and theories.

   Half the convention panel turned into a heated debate about shipping.

   Note

   Fan slang with no boats in it: the word is a clipping of relationshipping, so it shares only its spelling with ships collectively. It is a mass noun for the activity in general, as in a debate about shipping, and it belongs to fan communities. Outside fan communities, it is easily misread as the freight sense, so context matters.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Conveyance or passage aboard a ship.

   The merchant secured shipping for his crates on the morning tide.

   Passengers sought shipping to the islands during the dry season.

   Similarpassage, transport

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Navigation; the directing of a vessel's course at sea.

   The pilot's skill in shipping carried the schooner safely into harbor.

   Sound shipping through the narrows required constant attention to the depths.

   Similarnavigation, seamanship, pilotage

   Note

   Of all the senses, this one stays closest to the word's root, the Middle English verb meaning "to take ship, navigate" behind the transport of goods. In The Taming of the Shrew, "God send 'em good shipping" is a blessing on travelers. It shows how the steering of a vessel shades into the hope of a safe voyage.

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