pawing

pawing is the present participle and gerund of paw.

Meaning of paw

paw (third-person singular simple present paws, present participle pawing, simple past and past participle pawed)

(transitive) Of an animal, to dig through (something, such as a garbage can) with paws.
(transitive) Of an animal, to draw the forefoot along the ground; to beat or scrape with the forefoot.
- He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 39:21
(broadly, transitive) To touch (someone) in a sexual way.
- IronMan used to be good in this way, back in the '80s. […] They wouldn't subscribe to the old, "Let's put a male bodybuilder with silicone babes pawing him" cover that's mainstay now.1997 August 17, Robert Spector, misc.fitness.weights (Usenet)
Synonyms:

feel up, fiddle, fondle, grope, palpate, touch up
(broadly, transitive) To clumsily dig (through something).

Synonyms:

fumble, go through, rummage
(dated, transitive) To flatter.

pawing (plural pawings)

The act of one who paws.
- Firelight could be seen reflected on the ceiling of the drawing-room. Inside the deep stone porch, the heavy door was scarred by the pawings of many generations of dogs.1946, Mazo de la Roche, Return to Jalna

plural	pawings

What does pawing mean?: Pawing means the act of one who paws.
What is pawing the present participle and gerund of?: Pawing is the present participle and gerund of paw.
What part of speech is pawing?: Pawing is a noun.
What is the plural of pawing?: The plural of pawing is pawings.

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