towering

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊəɹɪŋ/

towering

1. present participle and gerund of tower

towering (comparative more towering, superlative most towering)

1. Very tall or high, so as to dwarf anything around it.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   • 1964, Look, volume 28, page 338:

     She is a towering girl with a husky baritone voice and a friendly and flamboyant style.

   • 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0-2 Fulham”, in BBC:

     And it was not until Ryan Shawcross's towering header was cleared off the line by Danny Murphy on the stroke of half-time that Stoke started to crank up the pressure and suggest they were capable of getting back into the match.

towering (plural towerings)

1. The act or condition of being high above others.
   • 1829, John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors:

     Gaiety seldom fails to give some pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or despair.

   • 1787, Robert Burns, letter to a friend:

     But I am an old hawk at the sport; and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as brought my bird from the aerial towerings, pop down at my foot like Corporal Trim's hat.

• tower over
• towering inferno