bidding

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪdɪŋ/
• (US, Canada, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈbɪdɪŋ/, [ˈbɪɾɪŋ]

  • Audio (Chicago, Illinois):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdɪŋ

bidding

1. present participle and gerund of bid

bidding (plural biddings)

1. That which one is bidden to do; a command.

   Synonym: behest

   I still have lots of paperwork to do at the boss's bidding.

   • 1868, Fulwar William Fowle, Sermons preached in the cathedral church of Salisbury, page 172:

     Do their biddings, and they will lead you to "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report."

2. The act of placing a bid.
   • 1912, Rowland Prothero, 1st Baron Ernle, English Farming, Past and Present, page 322:

     Their biddings forced existing owners into ruinous competition; they mortgaged their ancestral acres to buy up outlying properties or round off their boundaries.