speeding

Pluralspeedings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The offense of driving a vehicle faster than the posted legal speed limit.

   He was fined for speeding through a school zone.

   Speeding remains one of the most common traffic violations.

   Note

   The name of the offense, and like many offense names it is uncountable. One is fined, stopped or ticketed for speeding, never for "a speeding." It grew from the gerund of the verb form, so a phrase like "he admitted to speeding" can be read either way. As a noun, though, it can stand as a subject: Speeding remains common.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a vehicle or motorist, moving faster than the legal speed limit.

   Officers pulled over the speeding sedan after a short pursuit.

   The camera photographed a speeding truck on the bridge.

   Note

   Here the speed is measured against the law rather than the eye. A speeding motorist need not look fast, only be over the limit. In official and news prose it often stands before words naming the offender, as in repeat speeding offenders, and there it shades into the noun for the offense. Context usually settles whether the plain "fast" meaning or this one is intended.

3. 3
   adjective

   Traveling very quickly; moving at high speed.

   The speeding sled shot down the icy slope toward the trees.

   She dodged the speeding cyclist on the narrow path.

   Similarrushing, fast

   Oppositeslow

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of speed.

   The express was speeding through small towns without stopping.

   He admitted to speeding on the empty country road.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. After a form of be it is a participle (the express was speeding through town). After a preposition or a verb like admit it is a gerund (he admitted to speeding). It can carry any meaning of speed: going fast, breaking the limit, hastening something (speeding the repairs), being high on amphetamines, and even the archaic senses of prospering and of aiding.

5. 5
   adjective

   Intoxicated by amphetamines, the stimulant drugs known as speed.

   He was clearly speeding, pacing the room and unable to sit still.

   Half the crowd was speeding by the time the second band played.

   Similarwired, high, buzzing

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Drug slang, formed from speed as the street name for amphetamines. It describes a person rather than a vehicle, which keeps it apart from the motion senses. Patti Smith's Just Kids (2010) recalls "a speeding Edie Sedgwick" setting her room on fire. Like the verb it comes from, it is slang and belongs in informal talk. In careful prose, "high on amphetamines" says the same thing without any risk of being read as "moving fast."

6. 6
   nouncountable

   An instance of acceleration; a noticeable speeding up of motion or pace.

   Sensors detected a brief speeding of the engine before it stalled.

   There was a slight speeding of the music as the dancers picked up energy.

   Similaracceleration, quickening

   Oppositedeceleration, slowing, slowdown

   Note

   A countable noun with a plural, speedings, that likes to travel with its opposite. Oliver Sacks's Awakenings (1973) describes Parkinsonism as "odd speedings and slowings." Roger North's The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North (1826) lists "speedings, delayings" among a lawsuit's procedural orders, where the word means hastening a case rather than moving fast.

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