slipping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of slip.

   He noticed his grades slipping after he stopped studying.

   The climber felt his grip slipping on the wet rock.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. In "his grip was slipping" it builds the progressive, and in "slipping on ice is easy" it works as a gerund. Either way it carries every use of slip: losing footing, making an error, letting a secret out, or passing something covertly (slipping him a note). Once it takes "the" or a plural, slippings, it has become the noun for a skid.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of sliding or skidding out of place; a sudden loosening or loss of grip.

   The slipping of the clutch caused the engine to rev without moving the car.

   Geologists tracked the slow slipping of rock along the fault line.

   Similarsliding, skidding, movement

   Note

   On the railways the noun names a specific problem: a locomotive losing its grip on the rails. A 1956 Railway Magazine article discussed eliminating it by treating the rails, and R. C. Riley in 1960 describes "a brief bout of slipping" that the driver blamed on autumn leaves. The noun is usually uncountable (a bout of slipping), though the plural survives in the pairing "slippings and slidings."

Showing meanings only. Show all 2