fifthing

Verb

fifth (third-person singular simple present fifths, present participle fifthing, simple past and past participle fifthed)

1. To sing in the fifth voice in a polyphonic melody.
   • Another extension of strict organum is 'fifthing'. Fifthing is a note-against- note method of creating a two-part texture by improvising a second voice over the given tune, starting and ending each musical phrase at the octave and proceeding mainly in fifths above the tune at others times.1996, Music in Early English Religious Drama: Minstrels playing, page 510
2. (informal, transitive) To support something fifth, after four others have already done so.
   • A lisping young “Soundings,” or master’s assistant, sung out “I thecond the mothon,” instantly transferring his beer to our hero’s face. In short the resolution was thirded, fourthed, fifthed, and sixthed, all following suit with the swipes:[…]1854 January, “Tregonhorke’s First Trip in a Man-of-War”, in Hunt’s Yachting Magazine, volume the third, London: Hunt and Son, […]; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., […], page 14
3. (nonstandard, transitive) To divide by five.
   • 3/5 has been through fifthing. 2/3 has been through thirding. Therefore, 3/5 now needs thirding and 2/3 needs fifthing2006, Mathematics for Dyslexics: Including Dyscalculia, page 188

See all 14 meanings of fifth