Word.ws English Dictionary

bidding

UK/ˈbɪdɪŋ//ˈbɪdɪŋ/

bidding is the present participle and gerund of bid.

Noun

bidding (plural biddings)

  1. That which one is bidden to do; a command.
    • I still have lots of paperwork to do at the boss's bidding.
    • Do their biddings, and they will lead you to "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report."1868, Fulwar William Fowle, Sermons preached in the cathedral church of Salisbury, page 172
    Synonyms:
    behest
  2. The act of placing a bid.
    • Their biddings forced existing owners into ruinous competition; they mortgaged their ancestral acres to buy up outlying properties or round off their boundaries.1912, Rowland Prothero, 1st Baron Ernle, English Farming, Past and Present, page 322

Meaning of bid

Verb (1)

bid (third-person singular simple present bids, present participle bidding, simple past bid or bade or (archaic) bad, past participle bid or bade or (archaic) bad or bidden)

  1. (transitive) To issue a command; to tell.
    • He bade me come in.
  2. (transitive) To invite; to summon.
    • She was bidden to the wedding.
  3. (transitive) To utter a greeting or salutation.
    • Portia: If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I / can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his / approach; […]c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (obsolete) To proclaim (a bede, prayer); to pray.
    • All night she spent in bidding of her bedes, / And all the day in doing good and godly deedes.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Verb (2)

bid (third-person singular simple present bids, present participle bidding, simple past and past participle bid)

  1. (intransitive) To make an offer to pay or accept a certain price.
    • Have you ever bid in an auction?
  2. (transitive) To offer as a price; to tender.
    • She bid £2000 for the Persian carpet.

See all 15 meanings of bid

Synonyms of bidding

Forms of bidding

pluralbiddings

Words formed from bidding

Phrases with bidding

Words that rhyme with bidding

Questions about bidding

What does bidding mean?
Bidding means that which one is bidden to do; a command.
What is bidding the present participle and gerund of?
Bidding is the present participle and gerund of bid.
What part of speech is bidding?
Bidding is a noun.
How do you pronounce bidding?
Bidding is pronounced /ˈbɪdɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of bidding?
The plural of bidding is biddings.

Words near bidding in the dictionary

  1. biddeth
  2. biddi-biddi
  3. Biddie
  4. biddies
  5. biddin'
  6. bidding
  7. bidding box
  8. bidding boxes
  9. bidding defiance to
  10. bidding down
  11. bidding in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bidding (page history and authors); bid (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-bidding.wav.

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