packing

From Middle English pakkynge; equivalent to pack (“verb and noun senses”) +‎ -ing.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpakɪŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpækɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækɪŋ

• Audio (US):

  (file)

packing

1. present participle and gerund of pack

packing (plural packings)

1. The action of the verb.
   1. The action of putting things together, especially of putting clothes into a suitcase for a journey.
   2. (sciences, mathematics) The spatial arrangement of objects, items or constituent parts.
   3. The gathering of birds, animals etc. into a pack.
   4. (rugby) The forming of players into a scrum.
2. As a concrete noun.
   1. Material used to fill in the space around something, especially to make a piston etc. watertight or airtight.
      • 1913, Captain R. F. Scott, Scott's Last Expedition Volume I‎^[1]:

        A kind of fine Norwegian hay, used as packing in the finnesko to keep the feet warm and to make the fur boot fit firmly.

   2. Material used to wrap a product for sale etc.; packaging.
      • 2013, Eugene L. Magad, Total Materials Management, →ISBN, page 375:

        Among the inner packings in use are expanded polystyrene (popcorn), plastic-encapsulated air (air bubbles), various types of paper products, foam-in-place, molded polystyrene, and corrugated partitions (egg crating).

   3. A fee charged to cover the costs of packaging.
   4. Special material used to fill containers or vessels for certain chemically related applications.

      Packing in a packed bed, or a column such as a distillation column or a chromatography column

3. Clipping of meatpacking.

packing (comparative more packing, superlative most packing)

1. (slang) Having a large penis.