Word.ws English Dictionary

petaling

petaling is the present participle and gerund of petal.

Meaning of petal

Verb

petal (third-person singular simple present petals, present participle (US) petaling or (UK) petalling, simple past and past participle (US) petaled or (UK) petalled)

  1. (ambitransitive) To spread out from, like the petals of a flower
    • anger against the men who had burdened her body with a lead shield of detestation for its blood, let loose without her will and its need against which she clenched her knees to her growing breasts, trying to clasp deep away from her hand that new soft wedge of hair, those lips that petaled out to...1980, Thomas Alan Broughton, Winter Journey, page 133

See all 5 meanings of petal

Phrases with petaling

Questions about petaling

What is petaling the present participle and gerund of?
Petaling is the present participle and gerund of petal.

Words near petaling in the dictionary

  1. petalichthyids
  2. petaliferous
  3. petalification
  4. petaliform
  5. petaline
  6. petaling
  7. Petaling Jaya
  8. petalism
  9. petalisms
  10. petalite
  11. petaliter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: petaling (page history and authors); petal (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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Cite this entry: “petaling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/petaling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.