Word.ws English Dictionary

rationing

rationing is the present participle and gerund of ration.

Noun

rationing (countable and uncountable, plural rationings)

  1. A ration.
  2. Controlled distribution of scarce resources such as food or fuel; used typically in wartime.
    • The drastic rationing of paper enforced by the paper control, has made it necessary for us to adapt ourselves to the altered conditions.1940 July, “Notes and News: Paper Control and the "Railway Magazine"”, in Railway Magazine, page 417
    • After petrol rationing ended in 1952, the BTC was aware that more swingeing cuts had to be made, and a sinister message was conveyed by the loss of the meandering 38-mile route from Blisworth to Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1952, and the 25-mile Abergavenny-Merthyr Heads of the Valleys line in...2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51

Meaning of ration

Verb

ration (third-person singular simple present rations, present participle rationing, simple past and past participle rationed)

  1. (transitive) To supply with a ration; to limit (someone) to a specific allowance of something.
    • We rationed ourselves to three sips of water a day until we were rescued.
  2. (transitive) To portion out (especially during a shortage of supply); to limit access to.
    • By the third day on the raft, we had to ration our water.
  3. (transitive) To restrict (an activity etc.)
    • I've rationed myself to one cup of coffee a day.

See all 4 meanings of ration

Forms of rationing

pluralrationings

Words formed from rationing

Questions about rationing

What does rationing mean?
Rationing means a ration.
What is rationing the present participle and gerund of?
Rationing is the present participle and gerund of ration.
What part of speech is rationing?
Rationing is a noun.
What is the plural of rationing?
The plural of rationing is rationings.

Words near rationing in the dictionary

  1. rationer
  2. rationers
  3. rationes
  4. rationes decidendi
  5. rationes formales
  6. rationing
  7. rationings
  8. rationless
  9. rationment
  10. rations
  11. ratios

Source and license

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