pointing

English

Etymology

point +‎ -ing

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɪntɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪntɪŋ
• Hyphenation: point‧ing

Noun

pointing (countable and uncountable, plural pointings)

1. The action of the verb to point.
   • 1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning:

     For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning.

2. (usually singular or collective) Mortar that has been placed between bricks to hold them together. This is not strictly speaking correct word to use in this context, mortar would be the correct word, or joint filling. (or perhaps applies in the US only) This term is often misused as meaning mortar or joint filling, as 'repointing' is the action of making good and repairing of joints between stone.
3. The act or art of punctuating; punctuation.
4. The rubbing off of the point of the wheat grain in the first process of high milling.
5. (art) The act or process of measuring, at the various distances from the surface of a block of marble, the surface of a future piece of statuary; also, a process used in cutting the statue from the artist's model.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “pointing”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Derived terms

• Earth-pointing
• Sun-pointing

Verb

pointing

1. present participle of point

References

• “pointing”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “pointing”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• opting in, pitoning