toning

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The improvement of muscle firmness and tone through regular exercise.

   Regular toning helped her regain muscle definition after the injury.

   The program combines running with toning for balanced fitness.

   Similarconditioning

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tone.

   The artist is toning the canvas with softer shades before adding detail.

   Athletes spend months toning their bodies before competition.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb. An artist toning a canvas changes its color, an athlete toning a body makes it firmer, and a speaker toning words gives them an affected voice. Each use takes a direct object. The silent e of tone drops before -ing. As a gerund it shades into the nouns, a painter's toning and toning as exercise, which need no object.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   An artist's use of color and tonal value in a picture, considered as an overall effect.

   Critics praised the painting's subtle toning of greens and browns.

   The portrait's gentle toning gives it a dreamlike quality.

   Similarcoloring, shading, tonality

   Note

   The word reaches beyond the canvas to the tints a material shows. In that use it often turns plural and takes of, as when slate is described as silvery-grey with tonings of pink, burgundy and tan. Here it means hints or streaks of color over a base shade. It is a word for describing stone, tile or fabric as readily as a painting.

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