incoming

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English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From in (adverb) +‎ coming (adjective).[1]

Adjective

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incoming (not comparable)

  1. Coming (or about to come) in; arriving.
    Incoming tides cause a tidal bore in many rivers.
    • 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 3, 5:
      In dense fog at about 10.25 p.m. on the night of October 25, two tank barges carrying petroleum [...] missed the entrance to the docks at Sharpness and were carried up the River Severn by the incoming tide. They collided with one of the piers of the Severn Bridge, carrying the Berkeley Road-Lydney branch of the Western Region, and as a result of the collision both tankers blew up.
    • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:
      The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.
    • 2015 February 1, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary‎[1], archived from the original on 14 May 2024:
      "We landed in their killbox?" "We did. I am sor... No, belay that. Heads down! Cavalry incoming!"
  2. Succeeding to an office.
    The incoming prime minister gave a press conference.
Antonyms
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Translations
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Interjection

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incoming

  1. (military) A warning that something is coming towards the addressee, especially enemy artillery fire.

Etymology 2

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From Middle English incomming, in comyng, in-comyng, incomyng, in-comynge, incomynge, inne comyng, yn comyng, equivalent to in (adverb) +‎ coming (noun).[2][3]

Noun

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incoming (countable and uncountable, plural incomings)

  1. (countable) The act of coming in; arrival.
  2. (uncountable, military) Enemy fire directed at oneself.
    • 1977, Moyers S. Shore, The Battle for Khe Sanh:
      Volume, however, was only part of the story because the incoming was almost always the heavier stuff. The hill received little 60mm or 82mm mortar fire but a deluge of 120mm mortar and 100mm artillery rounds.
    • 1992, Michael R. Conroy, Don't tell America!, page 120:
      I'll never forget the sight of those cannoneers standing at their guns firing back while the incoming was hitting all over. That was artillery's mission.
    • 2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 11:05 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN)‎[2], archived from the original on 4 December 2022:
      Things had improved a little bit compared to the Eastern Solomons, and three dozen F4F Wildcats on combat air patrol were vectored onto the oncoming hostiles, but once that initial task was accomplished, things began to collapse back into the cacophony and chaos that was all too familiar to those aboard the Enterprise, meaning that the end result was round about the same, the Japanese aircraft screaming into their attack runs on Hornet about the same time as most of the Wildcats managed to sort themselves out to begin their own attacks on the incoming.

References

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  1. ^ “incoming, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ “incoming, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  3. ^ “incǒming(e, ger.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Anagrams

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