pointing

English

Etymology

From point +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɪntɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪntɪŋ
• Hyphenation: point‧ing

Noun

pointing (countable and uncountable, plural pointings)

1. The action of the verb to point.
   • 1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning:

     For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning.

2. The filling of joints in brickwork or masonry with mortar.
   • 2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The Southeastern Commercial Restoration Award: Appledore”, in RAIL, number 946, pages 56–57:

     The necessary works were extensive and included replacing missing and damaged slates and other roof repairs (in order to make the building watertight), pointing and drainpipe replacement, and extensive replacement of rotten floorboarding.

3. (usually singular or collective, sometimes proscribed) Mortar that has been placed between bricks to fill the gap.
4. The act or art of punctuating; punctuation.
5. The rubbing off of the point of the wheat grain in the first process of high milling.
6. (art) The act or process of measuring, at the various distances from the surface of a block of marble, the surface of a future piece of statuary; also, a process used in cutting the statue from the artist's model.
7. (countable, music, Anglicanism) In Anglican chant, the placement of marks in the text to indicate the syllables on which the chant should progress to the next note.

   Psalm pointings sometimes differ between psalters.

8. Synonym of nikud.
   • 2015, Alexander Beider, Origins of Yiddish Dialects, Oxford University Press, page 245, note 45:

     In this chapter, for any word from the Hebrew component of Yiddish, the spelling of the corresponding Hebrew etymon is given, with the diacritical signs corresponding to its vowels according to the Tiberian pointing.

Derived terms

• bone pointing
• definition by pointing
• Earth-pointing
• finger-pointing
• pointing device
• pointing mark
• pointing stick
• pointing-stock
• pointing-trowel
• point-to-pointing
• Sun-pointing
• tuck pointing
• vowel pointing

Translations

action of the verb to point

• German: Zeigen n, Hinweisen (de) n

filling of gaps in brickwork or masonry with mortar

• German: Verfugen n, Ausfugen n

mortar that has been placed between bricks or stones to fill the gaps

• German: Fugenmörtel m, Fugenmasse f

Verb

pointing

1. present participle and gerund of point

Translations

present participle of point

• German: zeigend (de), hinweisend (de)

References

• “pointing”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “pointing”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “pointing”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• opting in, pitoning