sinning

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of committing a sin, of doing what religious or moral law forbids.

   Constant sinning weighed heavily on her conscience as the years passed.

   The preacher warned that unrepentant sinning would bring the village to ruin.

   Similarwrongdoing, transgression, iniquity

   Note

   The noun proper can be counted and qualified in ways the gerund cannot. It takes a plural, sinnings, and an adjective in front. Thomas Brooks's A Word in Season to this Present Generation (1675) warns that "high sinnings do greatly dishonour God." There the plural treats sins as separate acts that can each be weighed. To speak of single acts like this, use the noun and not the bare gerund.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of sin.

   The congregation believed they were sinning by working on the Sabbath.

   She felt she was sinning against her own family every time she lied to them.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final n, as short verbs ending in a single consonant do: sin, sinning. With a form of be it builds the progressive (was sinning); on its own it names the activity as a gerund (sinning by working). The verb takes no direct object, so the person wronged is introduced with against. Unlike the countable noun, the gerund has no plural.

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