steadying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of steady.

   He kept steadying the camera as the wind picked up across the ridge.

   Steadying her nerves, she walked into the interview room.

   Note

   The -ing form carries both halves of the verb steady. Used transitively, it takes an object and means holding something still, literally or figuratively: steadying a camera, steadying one's nerves. Used intransitively, it needs no object and describes something settling of its own accord, as when a boat or a voice is steadying after a shake.

   The boat rocked hard, then began steadying as the swell died down.

   Her voice was steadying by the end of the speech.

2. 2
   adjective

   Tending to make something firm, stable, or calm; producing a stabilizing effect.

   Like ballast in a ship's hull that keeps it from rolling in heavy seas.

   She gripped his shoulder with a steadying touch before he stepped onto the stage.

   A few steadying breaths brought her heart rate back down before the dive.

   Similarcalming, reassuring, soothing

   Oppositeunsettling, disturbing

   Note

   A participle that has become a true adjective, and the test is grading: something can be more steadying, or the most steadying, which a verb form cannot be. It usually sits before a noun, as in a steadying hand or a steadying influence, but it also works after a linking verb: her presence was steadying. If an object follows, as in steadying the ladder, you are back with the verb form.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of bringing something to a stable, still condition; stabilization.

   Like dropping anchor to bring a drifting boat to rest.

   A moment's steadying of the camera produced a far sharper photograph.

   The steadying of the patient on the table is essential before any incision.

   Similarstabilization, balancing

   Oppositedestabilization

   Note

   The full noun, as opposed to the gerund, takes an article and an of-phrase, as in the steadying of the patient, and it can even go plural as steadyings. Compare steadying the patient, where the patient is a direct object and the word is still the verb form. The article and the of are the quickest way to tell which one you are reading.

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