strengthening

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The process by which something is made stronger.

   The strengthening of the dam was completed well ahead of schedule.

   Years of careful strengthening left the steel framework far more durable.

   Similarreinforcement, fortification, bolstering, toughening, consolidation

   Oppositeweakening, erosion, deterioration

   Note

   Engineers use the noun for remedial work on a structure, often with no article at all. Railway Magazine in 1954 wrote of the Coquet Viaduct's failing arch brickwork that "strengthening must be undertaken." Used this way it names the job as a whole, and it pairs naturally with verbs like undertake. The plural strengthenings is there when separate pieces of such work need counting.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of strengthen.

   The coach spent the offseason strengthening the team's defense.

   Regular practice is strengthening her confidence on stage.

   Note

   An -ing form doing two jobs: after be it makes the progressive, and on its own it heads a gerund clause (strengthening the levees took a year). Because strengthen is both transitive and intransitive, the progressive can take an object or stand alone. A team is strengthening its defense, or a currency is simply strengthening. With a direct object it is still a verb; with of it has become the noun for the process.

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