sailing
/ˈseɪ.lɪŋ/
sailing is the present participle and gerund of sail.
Noun
sailing (countable and uncountable, plural sailings)
- Motion across a body of water in a craft powered by the wind, as a sport or otherwise.
- Navigation; the skill needed to operate and navigate a vessel.
- The time of departure from a port.
- A scheduled voyage by a ferry or ship.
- 'Then I should like a full list of the warships in Pentland Harbour, recent sailings, and those expected, please. The "Navy List" I suppose you have here?'1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
- New ships were built to the order of the Great Eastern Railway, and the service frequency increased, until March 1879, saw a sailing every weekday to Rotterdam, and a thrice-weekly service to Antwerp.1951 November, K. Westcott Jones, “Parkeston Quay and the Antwerp Continental Service”, in Railway Magazine, page 760
Meaning of sail
Verb
sail (third-person singular simple present sails, present participle sailing, simple past and past participle sailed)
- To be impelled or driven forward by the action of wind upon sails, as a ship on water; to be impelled on a body of water by steam or other power.
- Fair ship, that from the Italian shore,
Sailest the placid ocean-plains
With my lost Arthur’s loved remains,
Spread thy full wings, and waft him o’er.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
- Fair ship, that from the Italian shore,
- To move through or on the water; to swim, as a fish or a waterfowl.
- To ride in a boat, especially a sailboat.
- To set sail; to begin a voyage.
- We sail for Australia tomorrow.
- To move briskly and gracefully through the air.
- As is a winged messenger of heaven, […] / When he bestrides the lazy pacing clouds, / And sails upon the bosom of the air.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- To move briskly but sedately.
- The duchess sailed haughtily out of the room.
Adjective
sailing (not comparable)
- Travelling by ship.
Forms of sailing
| plural | sailings |
|---|
Origin of sailing
From Middle English saylinge, seilinge, variants of sailende, seilende; equivalent to sail + -ing. Cognate with Dutch zeilend (“sailing”).
From Middle English seyling, sayling, from Old English seġling, seġlung (“sailing”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglingu, *seglungu, from Proto-Germanic *siglingō (“sailing”); equivalent to sail + -ing. Cognate with Middle Low German sēgelinge (“sailing”), Swedish segling (“sailing”), Icelandic sigling (“sailing”).
Words formed from sailing
- sailingly
- boardsailing
- clear sailing
- daysailing
- land sailing
- nonsailing
- oblique sailing
- plain-sailing
- plain sailing
- plane sailing
- rhumb sailing
- sailing boat
- sailing dinghy
- sailing-ice
- sailing-master
- sailing ship
- sailing vessel
- sailing yacht
- smooth sailing
- stadium sailing
- Thames sailing barge
- traverse sailing
Phrases with sailing
Words that rhyme with sailing
Questions about sailing
- What does sailing mean?
- Sailing means travelling by ship.
- What is sailing the present participle and gerund of?
- Sailing is the present participle and gerund of sail.
- What part of speech is sailing?
- Sailing can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce sailing?
- Sailing is pronounced /ˈseɪ.lɪŋ/.
Words near sailing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sailing (page history and authors); sail (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sailing.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sailing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sailing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.