Word.ws English Dictionary

propelling

propelling is the present participle and gerund of propel.

Meaning of propel

Verb

propel (third-person singular simple present propels, present participle propelling, simple past and past participle propelled)

  1. (transitive) To provide an impetus for motion or physical action; to cause to move in a certain direction; to drive or push forward.
    • When it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon its tail.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter V, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
    Synonyms:
    impel
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To provide an impetus for nonphysical change; to cause to arrive to a certain situation or result.
    • I can discern your nature and see that even without any arguments (logoi) from me it will propel you to what you say you are drawn towards,2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 265e

Noun

propelling (plural propellings)

  1. An act of driving or urging onward; propulsion.
    • And, in proportion as one feels this power (love born of God) he feels the urgings, promptings, and propellings, to contend for and win Christ: […]1901, Rebecca Anna Phillips, Led by a Way I Knew Not

Forms of propelling

pluralpropellings

Phrases with propelling

Questions about propelling

What does propelling mean?
Propelling means an act of driving or urging onward; propulsion.
What is propelling the present participle and gerund of?
Propelling is the present participle and gerund of propel.
What part of speech is propelling?
Propelling is a noun.
What is the plural of propelling?
The plural of propelling is propellings.

Words near propelling in the dictionary

  1. propellerhead
  2. propellerheads
  3. propellerless
  4. propellerlike
  5. propellers
  6. propelling
  7. propelling pencil
  8. propelling pencils
  9. propellings
  10. propellor
  11. propellor head

Source and license

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