stabling

Pluralstablings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A building, shed, or room used to house horses and cattle.

   The estate's stabling could shelter a dozen horses and several head of cattle.

   After the fire, the rancher rebuilt the stabling at the edge of the field.

   Similarbarn, stalls

   Note

   Most often a mass noun for stable accommodation taken as a whole, rather than a single building. Anna Sewell's Black Beauty (1877) passes "a great deal of stabling," and Lord Ribblesdale in 1897 forgets "how much stabling there is." It pairs naturally with much, a lot of and plenty of. The countable plural stablings exists too, but the measured, uncountable use is the characteristic one.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of stable.

   The ranch hands are stabling the cattle before the blizzard arrives.

   He spent the evening stabling the racehorses after their long journey.

   Note

   Besides putting horses away, the verb has a railway life: to stable a train is to park it, and the gerund names that routine. Railway Magazine wrote in 1956 of roads provided "for stabling of electric rolling stock after inspection." As a gerund it takes an of-phrase like any verbal noun. As a participle it builds progressives such as is stabling, whether the thing put away is a mare or a rail car.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2