stoving

Pluralstovings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The process of heating or drying an item inside a stove.

   The factory uses stoving to cure the enamel on each body panel.

   After stoving, the varnish hardened into a glossy, durable layer.

   Similarbaking, curing, firing, drying

   Note

   Finishing schedules count it. Engineering (1961) specifies "stovings each of one hour at 200°C," so each bake is a unit with its own time and temperature. Without an article, the word names the method in general: parts are cured by stoving. With a number or a plural, it means individual cycles. Write two stovings when a coating needs repeated bakes, and plain stoving when describing the process.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of stove.

   The factory is stoving a fresh batch of enamel panels this afternoon.

   Crews were stoving the lacquered parts when the power failed.

   Note

   A participle that does double duty. With be it forms the progressive (crews were stoving the parts), and as a gerund it names the activity itself, which is where the noun for the heating process begins. It comes from the verb stove, "to heat or dry," and also carries that verb's rarer meaning "to jam or sprain." Keep it apart from stove as the past tense of stave, whose participle is staving.

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