Word.ws English Dictionary

bootblacking

bootblacking is the present participle and gerund of bootblack.

Meaning of bootblack

Verb

bootblack (third-person singular simple present bootblacks, present participle bootblacking, simple past and past participle bootblacked)

  1. (transitive) To shine shoes.

See all 2 meanings of bootblack

Noun

bootblacking (uncountable)

  1. The practice of shining shoes; shoe-shining.
    • A smell of scent soap and bootblacking[.]1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 7

Questions about bootblacking

What does bootblacking mean?
Bootblacking means the practice of shining shoes; shoe-shining.
What is bootblacking the present participle and gerund of?
Bootblacking is the present participle and gerund of bootblack.
What part of speech is bootblacking?
Bootblacking is a noun.

Words near bootblacking in the dictionary

  1. bootays
  2. bootblack
  3. bootblacked
  4. bootblacker
  5. bootblackers
  6. bootblacking
  7. bootblacks
  8. bootblock
  9. bootblocks
  10. bootboard
  11. bootboards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bootblacking (page history and authors); bootblack (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.

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