Word.ws English Dictionary

compromising

compromising is the present participle and gerund of compromise.

Adjective

compromising (comparative more compromising, superlative most compromising)

  1. Willing or able to make a compromise.
    Synonyms:
    transigent
  2. That compromises somebody or something, especially someone's reputation; socially damaging.
    1. (broadly) Embarrassing; scandalous; suggestive; incriminating.
      • A compromising photograph of the president was sold to the newspapers.

Meaning of compromise

Verb

compromise (third-person singular simple present compromises, present participle compromising, simple past and past participle compromised)

  1. (ambitransitive) To bind by mutual agreement.
    • Laban and himself were compromised / That all the eanlings which were streaked and pied / Should fall as Jacob's hire.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]...
  2. To adjust and settle by mutual concessions; to compound.
    • The controversy may easily be compromised.a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC
  3. (intransitive) To find a way between extremes.
  4. To pledge by some act or declaration; to endanger the life, reputation, etc., of, by some act which can not be recalled; to expose to suspicion.
    • to pardon all who had been compromised in the late disturbances1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
  5. (transitive) To cause impairment of.
  6. (transitive) To illegally expose.
    • He compromised dozens of United States Government classified documents […]2001 February, Stefan A. Pluta, “United States of America v. Robert Philip Hanssen: Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, Arrest Warrant and Search Warrants”, in United States District Court...

See all 11 meanings of compromise

Noun

compromising (plural compromisings)

  1. The act by which something is compromised.
    • There hath been much of treason,
      And much of violence and shame,
      To the old worship of that spring-life season;
      And compromisings of a sacred claim!1835, Leigh Hunt, The Monthly Repository, volume 9, page 793

Synonyms of compromising

Forms of compromising

Adjective
comparativemore compromising
superlativemost compromising
Noun
pluralcompromisings

Words formed from compromising

Phrases with compromising

Questions about compromising

What does compromising mean?
Compromising means willing or able to make a compromise.
What is compromising the present participle and gerund of?
Compromising is the present participle and gerund of compromise.
What part of speech is compromising?
Compromising can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near compromising in the dictionary

  1. compromiseless
  2. compromiser
  3. compromisers
  4. compromises
  5. compromises to a permanent end
  6. compromising
  7. compromising to a permanent end
  8. compromisingly
  9. compromisings
  10. compromissary
  11. compromission

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compromising (page history and authors); compromise (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: “compromising.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/compromising. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.