going

Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go +‎ -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanend (“going”), Dutch gaand (“going”), German gehend (“going”), Danish gående (“going”), Swedish gående (“going”).

Noun and adjective from Middle English going, goyng, gaing, gayng, equivalent to go +‎ -ing. Compare German Gehung, Old English gang (“a going”). More at gang.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡəʊɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊɪŋ/, /ˈɡɔɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: go‧ing
• Rhymes: -əʊɪŋ

going

1. present participle and gerund of go
2. (in combination) Attending or visiting (a stated event, place, etc.) habitually or regularly.

   theatre-going, church-going, movie-going

going (countable and uncountable, plural goings)

1. A departure.
   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:

     Māna-Yood-Sushāī was before the beginning of the gods, and shall be after their going. […] After the going of the gods there will be no small worlds nor big.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     But he found it strange to think […] of all these little things that cluster round the comings, and the stayings, and the goings, that he would know nothing of them, nothing of what they had been, as long as he lived, […]

2. The suitability of ground for riding, walking etc.

   The going was very difficult over the ice.

3. Progress.

   We made good going for a while, but then we came to the price.

4. (figurative) Conditions for advancing in any way.

   Not only were the streets not paved with gold, but the going was difficult for an immigrant.

5. (in the plural) Course of life; behaviour; doings; ways.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 34:21:

     His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.

6. (in the phrase "the going of") The whereabouts (of something).

   I can't find my sunglasses; you haven't seen the going of them, have you?

7. The horizontal distance between the front of one step in a flight of stairs and the front of the next.

   Each step had a rise of 170 mm and a going of 250 mm.

• hard going, going, going, gone

going (not comparable)

1. Likely to continue; viable.

   He didn't want to make an unsecured loan to the business because it didn't look like a going concern.

2. Current, prevailing.

   The going rate for manual snow-shoveling is $25 an hour.

3. (especially after a noun phrase with a superlative) Available.

   He has the easiest job going.

   • 2013, Natalie Dormer, interview on, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson:

     Craig: Did you look at Tudor life? did you do a lot of studying about that?
     Natalie: Yeah, I was really geeky about it, I read every single book that was going.

• going to

• “going”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• oggin