sizing

SaySYZ-ing/ˈsaɪzɪŋ/

5 meanings of sizing

Practice

1
verb
Present participle and gerund of size.
The mill is sizing the yarn to make it stronger before weaving.
Sizing the canvas evenly keeps the paint from soaking through.
Note
Behind the participle stands a verb whose working senses all concern dimension. To size is to adjust something to a given size, to rank men by height in the ranks, to sift ore into fine and coarse parts, or to separate proteins by molecular weight. As a gerund, sizing names the process itself, as in the sizing of the ranks. It also carries the colloquial sense of estimating, as when someone is sizing a room by eye.
2
noununcountable
A weak glue used across various trades and crafts to seal or stiffen surfaces.
Before gilding the frame, the craftsman applied a coat of sizing.
The fabric was stiffened with sizing during the finishing stage.
Note
The trade name for a thin glue, and one with a shorter twin: size names the same substance, and the two words can be used interchangeably. Here the glue's weakness is the point. A dilute coat seals a porous surface or stiffens it without building up a thick layer. Unlike the gelatinous glue for canvas, this sense is not tied to one material or one craft.
3
noununcountable
A glue of jelly-like consistency, frequently prepared from animal skins, that is applied to canvas, paper, plaster, or wood as a glaze or sealant.
Renaissance painters prepared their panels with a layer of sizing.
The conservator warmed the sizing until it became a smooth, pourable liquid.
4
noununcountable
A paste.
He mixed the sizing until it reached a smooth, spreadable consistency.
A little sizing on the back kept the label flat against the jar.
Similarpaste, glue

Less common meaning

5
noundatedUKuncountable
Food and drink ordered from the buttery by a student at Cambridge.
He ordered bread and ale as his sizing from the buttery.
Each undergraduate settled his sizing with the college accounts at term's end.
Note
A piece of old Cambridge University vocabulary, tied to the buttery, the college room that supplied food and drink. A student's sizing was whatever he ordered from it. The usage is dated, so it belongs in writing about the university's past. In present-day English, sizing usually means the glue for canvas and paper or the act of measuring something.

sizing is a form of size

size, verb: To adjust something to a particular set of dimensions. Full entry

Forms: sizesizes he/she/itsizing -ing formsized past tense, past participle
Spelling: size → sizing: drop the e, add -ing

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