notching

notching is the present participle and gerund of notch.

Noun

notching (plural notchings)

A notched mark or pattern.
- She looked up into his face and he into hers, and he saw her light-struck green eyes and the delicate notchings of her crow's feet.2003, John Hough, The Last Summer, page 136
A method of joining framing-timbers, by halving, scarfing, or caulking.

notch (third-person singular simple present notches, present participle notching, simple past and past participle notched)

(transitive) To cut a notch in (something).

Synonyms:

indent
(transitive) To record (a score or similar) by making notches on something.
- The tribe's hunters notch their kills by notches on each's axe's handle.
(transitive) To join by means of notches.
(informal, transitive) To achieve (something); to add to one's score or record of successes.
- The team notched a pair of shutout wins on Sunday.
Synonyms:

notch up
(transitive) Synonym of nock (“to fit (an arrow) to a bow”).
- Notching an arrow on the string of his tried and unerring bow, he raised his sinewy arms […]1885, John Niles Hubbard, An Account of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, Or Red Jacket, and His People, 1750-1830, page 31
Synonyms:

nock
(transitive) To change in small graduations.
- to notch back a salary

plural	notchings

What does notching mean?: Notching means a notched mark or pattern.
What is notching the present participle and gerund of?: Notching is the present participle and gerund of notch.
What part of speech is notching?: Notching is a noun.
What is the plural of notching?: The plural of notching is notchings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: notching (page history and authors); notch (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “notching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/notching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.