volunteering

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of freely giving your time and effort to support a charity or community service.

   Like donating money to a good cause, except you give your hours and labor instead of cash.

   Years of volunteering at the shelter earned her the town's gratitude.

   Many companies now encourage volunteering by giving staff paid days off for it.

   Similarservice

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of volunteer.

   He is volunteering with a disaster relief team overseas this month.

   Dozens of students are volunteering at the free clinic during their break.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, not just charity work. Besides volunteering at a clinic, it can take an object: volunteering an answer, or, informally, volunteering a colleague for a job. A plant can even be volunteering when it springs up where nobody sowed it. With an object it is the verb at work. The noun for unpaid service names the activity itself and takes no object.

   She kept volunteering answers before the teacher had finished the question.

   Squash vines were volunteering all over the old compost heap.

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