pearling

pearling is the present participle and gerund of pearl.

Noun

pearling (countable and uncountable, plural pearlings)

The process by which grain is pearled.
- The barley underwent three pearlings in a pearler.
The process of hunting for pearls.
- fishing and pearling craft

pearl (third-person singular simple present pearls, present participle pearling, simple past and past participle pearled)

(figuratively, sometimes, transitive) To set or adorn with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl.
- Syed Omar began to walk to the airport. Sweat pearled his tough brown skin, his fat bounced in rhythm.1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 600
(transitive) To cause to resemble pearls in shape; to make into small round grains.
- to pearl barley
(transitive) To cause to resemble pearls in lustre or iridescence.
- A Teaching Company Scheme developing new technology for pearling light bulbs was established in October […]1993, New Scientist, volume 139, page 62
(intransitive) To resemble pearl or pearls.
(intransitive) To bead; to form droplets.
- I'm left here with the memory of all their shining words, like drops of water pearling on the window-pane2007, Angela Patten, Reliquaries, Salmon Publishing, →ISBN, page 5
(intransitive) To hunt for pearls
- to go pearling

plural	pearlings

What does pearling mean?: Pearling means the process by which grain is pearled.
What is pearling the present participle and gerund of?: Pearling is the present participle and gerund of pearl.
What part of speech is pearling?: Pearling is a noun.
What is the plural of pearling?: The plural of pearling is pearlings.

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