tending
- 1Present participle and gerund of tend.
He spent the morning tending the wounded after the battle.
Tending a wood fire through the night kept the cabin warm.
Note
One -ing form carries both halves of tend: the caretaking verb (tending the wounded, tending a fire) and the verb of leaning or inclination, which pairs with toward or to. As a gerund it can even take a plural. R. Grathoff's The Structure of Social Inconsistencies (1970) speaks of "the mutual tendings of all individuals… toward each other." With toward or to, read it as inclination; with a direct object, read it as care.
Prices have been tending upward all year.
The committee is tending toward a compromise.
tending is a form of tend
tend, verb: To be likely to do something, or to have a particular habit or leaning. Full entry
- Spelling
- tend → tending: add -ing
Use it in a sentence
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