steering

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The mechanism or equipment used to control the direction of a vehicle.

   Like the reins a rider uses to guide a horse left or right.

   The mechanic warned that the steering had worn out and needed replacing.

   Engineers redesigned the steering to give drivers better control at high speeds.

   Note

   Usually treated as a mass noun, it normally takes "the" and no plural: a driver breaks the steering, loses the steering, or has the steering checked. The plural steerings exists for the less common countable use. Keep it apart from the gerund. That form names the act of guiding a vehicle, while this noun names the apparatus that does the guiding.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of steer.

   He was steering carefully through the narrow channel as the fog rolled in.

   Steering the company through the financial crisis demanded steady nerves from the new director.

   Note

   A single -ing form does two jobs here. As a participle it builds the progressive (she was steering) and modifiers. As a gerund it names the activity. Because steer is transitive, intransitive and reflexive, the form can take an object (steering a herd, steering a committee toward a vote) or stand alone, as a boat does when it answers the helm. The act it names differs from the mechanical noun, which names the hardware.

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