squaring

Pluralsquarings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of square.

   The carpenter spent the morning squaring the timber against the frame.

   Squaring both sides of the equation removed the square root.

   Note

   One spelling carries every sense of the verb, and the surrounding words decide which. A carpenter squares timber against a frame, a rower squares the oars at right angles to the water, and a mathematician squares a term. The silent e of square drops before -ing. In figurative use the sense is reconciling or fitting, as in squaring a plan with the budget, and its partner preposition is with.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or process of making something square in shape, or of multiplying a quantity by itself.

   The squaring of the foundation ensured that all four walls met at right angles.

   Each squaring of the input value sharply increased the program's running time.

   Note

   Mathematics counts it: each application is one squaring, so the plural squarings comes naturally there. Repeated squarings of 3 run 9, 81, 6561, which is three steps to a large number. In carpentry the word usually stays uncountable and takes of, as in the squaring of the foundation. That of-construction also tells it apart from the verbal -ing form, which takes its object directly.

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