summering

Pluralsummerings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   An occasion of spending the summer in a particular place, as for a vacation or for cooler weather.

   Each summering on the coast left them tanned and rested.

   Their summering in Maine was the highlight of the year.

   Similarvacation, holiday

   Note

   Once it takes a plural, the word stops being a verb form and becomes a countable noun: each season spent away is one summering. Perry D. Westbrook's Mary Ellen Chase (1965) describes city folk returning to their home villages "for their summerings," which frames the summer stay as something that recurs year after year. Treat it like visit or holiday: a summering, two summerings.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of summer.

   The wealthy families summering on the island rarely mixed with the year-round residents.

   She spent her childhood summering at her grandmother's farm in the valley.

   Note

   The -ing form of an intransitive verb, so it takes no object. People summer somewhere, and the place follows as a phrase: summering on the island, summering at a farm. The same spelling serves as a participle (families summering there) and as a gerund (she loved summering in the valley). Unlike the countable noun, neither use takes a plural.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2