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hithering and thithering

hithering and thithering is the present participle and gerund of hither and thither.

Meaning of hither and thither

Verb

hither and thither (third-person singular simple present hithers and thithers, present participle hithering and thithering, simple past and past participle hithered and thithered)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To move here and then there; to move in different directions.
    • I have been too long waiting for certainties; hithering and thithering being a condition under which I find it almost impossible to write, or indeed to do anything except fret myself to fiddlestrings.1837 August 29 (date written), Jane Welsh Carlyle, “Letter 21: To T[homas] Carlyle, Scotsbrig”, in Alexander Carlyle, editor, New Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle […], volume I, London...

See all 3 meanings of hither and thither

Questions about hithering and thithering

What is hithering and thithering the present participle and gerund of?
Hithering and thithering is the present participle and gerund of hither and thither.

Words near hithering and thithering in the dictionary

  1. hither and thither
  2. hither and yon
  3. hither and yonder
  4. Hither Green
  5. hithered and thithered
  6. hithering and thithering
  7. hithermost
  8. hithers and thithers
  9. hitherside
  10. hitherto
  11. hithertofore

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hithering and thithering (page history and authors); hither and thither (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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