giddying
giddying is the present participle and gerund of giddy.
Meaning of giddy
Verb
giddy (third-person singular simple present giddies, present participle giddying, simple past and past participle giddied)
- To make (someone or something) dizzy or unsteady; to dizzy.
- A nevv faſhion of apparrell creepeth no ſooner into vſe, but preſently he blameth and diſpraiſeth the olde, and that vvith ſo earneſt a reſolution, and vniverſall a conſent, that you vvould ſay, it is ſome kinde of madnes, or ſelfe-fond humor, that giddieth his vnderſtanding.1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Ancient Customes”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 161
- To become dizzy or unsteady.
- Giddied, he gave up a moment's purchase of ground.1981, Nadine Gordimer, July’s People, 1st UK edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], →ISBN, page 98
- To move around something or spin rapidly; to reel; to whirl.
- [B]y chance, a sudden north-wind fetch'd, / With an extreme sea, quite about again / Our whole endeavours, and our course constrain / To giddy round, and with our bow'd sails greet / Dreadful Maleia, calling back our fleet / As far forth as Cythera.1614–1615, Homer, “The Ninth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615...
- Synonyms:
- vertiginate
Adjective
giddying (comparative more giddying, superlative most giddying)
- Causing giddiness.
- Whilst the youngster’s ambition by soaring too high, / And daring to Phœbus to venture too nigh, / From the giddying height came tumbling full fast, / Till the waves of the sea entomb’d him at last.1805, John Wilson Croker, The History of Cutchacutchoo, page 31
- the sort […] that creeps into the maiden heart like the giddying worm into the sheep’s brain—making crooked seem straight to their eyes1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 4, in The Mayor of Casterbridge, volume 2, page 53
Forms of giddying
| comparative | more giddying |
|---|---|
| superlative | most giddying |
Words formed from giddying
Questions about giddying
- What does giddying mean?
- Giddying means causing giddiness.
- What is giddying the present participle and gerund of?
- Giddying is the present participle and gerund of giddy.
- What part of speech is giddying?
- Giddying is an adjective.
Words near giddying in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: giddying (page history and authors); giddy (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:
Cite this entry: “giddying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/giddying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.