weaving

Pluralweavings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The process of making cloth on a loom by interlacing lengthwise and crosswise threads.

   The museum offers classes in weaving every spring.

   Traditional weaving requires hours of careful work at the loom.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of weave.

   He spent the afternoon weaving baskets beside the fire.

   The artisans were weaving intricate patterns into the rug.

   Note

   The form does double duty. After be it makes the progressive, and it covers both halves of weave: transitive, with an object (weaving baskets, weaving patterns into a rug), and intransitive, for twisting movement (a motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic). As a gerund it keeps its object directly (weaving baskets takes patience). That is how to tell it from the craft noun, which needs of: the weaving of baskets.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An unsteady motion that shifts back and forth or from side to side.

   The car's weaving across lanes alarmed the other drivers.

   After the long shift, a slight weaving in her steps showed her exhaustion.

   Similarswerving, swaying, zigzagging

   Note

   Here the word leaves the loom behind and follows anything that will not hold a straight line: a car drifting across lanes, a tired walker, a drunk. It is countable, and the plural suits a run of lurches. David Madsen's Black Plume (1980) describes "drunken weavings" that somehow leave a carried tray perfectly level. It names the turning-and-twisting motion behind the participle in "weaving through traffic."

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A piece of fabric produced by interlacing threads on a loom.

   She bought a colorful weaving at the craft fair.

   The gallery displayed a large weaving made by Andean artisans.

   Similartextile

   Note

   The countable partner of the craft itself: once the cloth is finished it becomes a weaving, and it takes a plural. The word is at home in galleries and art criticism, where a weaving is an object to be looked at. Holland Cotter, writing in 2007 on Lenore Tawney, describes her "small-scale weavings influenced by American Indian, Peruvian and African art."

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