barnstorming

barnstorming is the present participle and gerund of barnstorm.

Noun

barnstorming (countable and uncountable, plural barnstormings)

The act of one who barnstorms, or travels making political speeches.
- He'd been to plenty of barnstormings, but he had been one of those who watched, mainly because he could ill afford to spend the dollar or two the pilot charged for the ride.2002, William V. Reynolds, Call of the Pines, page 122
- Testy voters have peppered GOP lawmakers at town halls, and tens of thousands continue to turn out for a barnstorming tour by Sen. Bernie Sanders.2025 April 7, Simon Montlake, Caitlin Babcock, Ali Martin, Cameron Pugh, Jingnan Peng, “Is the anti-Trump ‘resistance’ starting to find its voice again?”, in The Christian Science Monitor
Aviation stunts performed for a public audience.

barnstorm (third-person singular simple present barnstorms, present participle barnstorming, simple past and past participle barnstormed)

(intransitive) To travel around the countryside making political speeches etc.
- A pair of red boxing gloves dangles in the cabin of John N. Turner's plane as he barnstorms across Canada campaigning for the general election Nov. 21.1988 July 11, John F. Burns, “Once on the Ropes, Canadian Liberal Surges Back”, in The New York Times
(US, intransitive) To appear at fairs and carnivals in exhibitions of stunt flying, sporting events, or theater.
(US, intransitive) Of a sports team, to travel from town to town performing in front of small crowds.
- He also noted that “we’re in the business of promoting the game” in the United States, which is a task surely helped by the national team’s barnstorming persona.2013 June 17, Sam Borden, “To U.S. Soccer Team, Home Field Is an Ever-Changing Thing”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

barnstorming

(especially) Highly theatrical.
- The packed opening night of Twain’s first UK tour since 2004 is an impressively barnstorming, thigh-slapping, eye-searing revue that marries her bulletproof back catalogue with a cautious sprinkle of new material.2018 September 20, Graeme Virtue, “Shania Twain review – barnstorming, thigh-slapping spectacular”, in The Guardian

plural	barnstormings

What does barnstorming mean?: Barnstorming means highly theatrical.
What is barnstorming the present participle and gerund of?: Barnstorming is the present participle and gerund of barnstorm.
What part of speech is barnstorming?: Barnstorming can be an adjective or a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: barnstorming (page history and authors); barnstorm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “barnstorming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barnstorming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.