zeroing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The action of setting a measurement, instrument, or counter to zero, or the outcome of that adjustment.

   Like resetting a stopwatch to 0:00 so the next timing starts clean.

   Proper zeroing of the balance is essential before any precise measurement.

   The technician confirmed the zeroing had held throughout the long experiment.

   Similarcalibration, taring

   Note

   Once it takes an article or an of-phrase, the word has become a true noun: the zeroing of the balance, not zeroing the balance. It can also be counted, with the plural zeroings for repeated adjustments. That is the practical test against the verbal gerund, which takes a direct object instead. The noun names the adjustment, or the state it leaves behind, as a thing in itself.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of zero.

   Engineers spent the morning zeroing the sensors against a known reference.

   He kept zeroing the counter every time a new batch began.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every verbal meaning of zero: setting an amount to nothing, making something vanish, and adjusting an instrument until its variance is acceptably small. In the first meaning the verb is transitive and takes a direct object (zeroing the counter). As a gerund it keeps that object, so the action stays verb-like even when it fills a noun's slot in the sentence.

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