toing and froing
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]- present participle and gerund of to and fro
Noun
[edit]toing and froing (uncountable)
- The process of moving back and forth or alternating.
- 1987, Christina Hardyment, “Picking up Gold and Silver”, in Heidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe, Book Club edition, New York, N.Y.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 100:
- Sitting back on a bench in the sunshine, Tom and I began to catch up with each other while the girls arranged their surprises at the remotest picnic table in the lay-by. Genial lorry drivers, munching wurst high in their cabs, looking down on their secretive toing and froing with interest.
- 2019 July 10, Drachinifel, 35:45 from the start, in French Pre-Dreadnoughts - When Hotels go to War[1], archived from the original on 24 January 2023:
- After an awful lot of toing and froing on the design front, these ships would be completed with a top speed of 18 knots, courtesy of 17,500 horsepower, a main belt of 11 inches thickness, or 280 millimeters, again of cemented Harvey nickel steel which was face-hardened, and the belt was beginning to increase towards a more-recognizable belt-armor-deck-and-cellular-backing system, as seen in many other predreadnoughts, as opposed to the somewhat-eccentric previous extreme-tumblehome narrow-belt French designs of previous vessels.
- 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 79:
- Sitting on the dockside at Oban, watching the to-ing and fro-ing in the harbour on a perfect summer's eve, I reflect on a trip which has taken me through our busiest cities to traverse the country's main lines, as well as explore some of the furthest extremities that were literally out on a limb.