childing
Syllables: child·ing/ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪŋ/
childing is the gerund of child: the act or process of child.
childing is the present participle and gerund of child.
Adjective
childing (not comparable)
- Able to bear children; fertile; also, pregnant, or in the process of childbirth, or having just given birth to a child.
- With fire and sword the country round / Was wasted far and wide, / And many a childing mother then, / And new-born baby died; / But things like that, you know, must be / At every famous victory.1798, Robert Southey, “The Battle of Blenheim”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Southey. […], volume VI, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], published...
- Synonyms:
- fecund, fruitful, in delivery, in labour, postnatal, postpartal, postpartum, post-partural
- Of a flowering plant: producing younger florets around an older flower.
- [page 323] Bellis minor hortenſis prolifera. Double double Daiſies or childing Daiſies. […] The chiefeſt variety conſiſteth in this, that is beareth many ſmall double flowers, ſtanding vpon very ſhort ſtalkes round about the middle flower, […] [page 324] The French call them Paſquettes, and...1629, John Parkinson, “Bellis. Daisie.”, in Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. […], London: […] Hvmfrey Lownes and Robert Yovng […], →OCLC, pages 323–324
- Fruitful; productive.
- The Spring, the Sommer, / The childing Autumne, angry Winter change / Their wonted Liueries; and the mazed worlde, / By their increaſe, now knowes not which is which; […]c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
Meaning of child
Noun
child (plural children or (dialectal or archaic) childer)
- A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).
- Go easy on him: he is but a child.
- Synonyms:
- kid
- A youth aged 1 to 9 years, whereas neonates are aged 0 to 1 month, infants are aged 1 to 12 months, and adolescents are aged 10 to 20 years.
- One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; one's offspring; a son or daughter.
- My youngest child is forty-three this year.
- Synonyms:
- descendant
- The thirteenth Lenormand card.
- A person considered a product of a place or culture, a member of a tribe or culture, regardless of age.
- the children of Israel
- Anything derived from or caused by something.
- Poverty, disease, and despair are the children of war.1991, Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
Synonyms of childing
- delivery
- parturition
- fecund
- fruitful
- in delivery
- in labour
- postnatal
- postpartal
- postpartum
- post-partural
Antonyms
Origin of childing
From Middle English childynge, childinge [and other forms], from childen (“to give birth to a child”) + -ynge, -ynge (suffix forming gerunds from verbs). Equivalent to child + -ing.
From late Middle English childynge (“pregnant”), from childen (“to give birth to a child”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming the present participles of verbs, which were often used as adjectives); equivalent to child (verb) + -ing (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having a specified characteristic, nature, or quality’, and forming the present participles of verbs).
Questions about childing
- What does childing mean?
- Childing means able to bear children; fertile; also, pregnant, or in the process of childbirth, or having just given birth to a child.
- What is childing the gerund of child: the act or process of?
- Childing is the gerund of child: the act or process of child.
- What part of speech is childing?
- Childing is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce childing?
- Childing is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪŋ/ (UK).
Words near childing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: childing (page history and authors); child (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)-Vealhurl-childing.wav.
Cite this entry: “childing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/childing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.