Word.ws English Dictionary

sanding

sanding is the present participle and gerund of sand.

Noun

sanding (countable and uncountable, plural sandings)

  1. The act or process by which something is sanded; the application of sandpaper, etc.
  2. A type of dancing where the floor is covered in sand. See Sanding (dance).
  3. The process of testing the surface of gilding, after it has been fired, with fine sand and water.
  4. The process of burying oysters in sand.
  5. The process of applying sand to rails in railway track to aid adhesion.
    • Sanding is by steam, and is fitted to the front of the leading coupled wheels, and to front and rear of the driving wheels.1951 June, “British Railways Standard Class "5" 4-6-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 400
    • Next day further heavy sanding of the lines was carried out by standard Class "3" 2-6-2 tank No. 82028 from the Scarborough end and Class "4" 2-6-4 tank No. 42084 from Whitby.1959 April, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 224–225
  6. A coating of sugar crystals on confectionery, especially on jellies.
    • sugar sanding
    • sour sanding

Meaning of sand

Verb

sand (third-person singular simple present sands, present participle sanding, simple past and past participle sanded)

  1. (transitive) To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it.
  2. (transitive) To cover with sand.
    • Sudden stopping, which could be effected easily by sanding the rails and reversing the driving-gear, was dangerous, because the train might telescope and overwhelm the engine.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 141
  3. (historical, transitive) To blot ink using sand.
    • The officer wrote until he had finished, read over to himself what he had written, sanded it, and handed it to Defarge, with the words "In secret."1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

See all 15 meanings of sand

Forms of sanding

pluralsandings

Origin of sanding

From sand + -ing.

From Middle English sanding, sandyng, equivalent to sand + -ing.

Words formed from sanding

Phrases with sanding

Questions about sanding

What does sanding mean?
Sanding means the act or process by which something is sanded; the application of sandpaper, etc.
What is sanding the present participle and gerund of?
Sanding is the present participle and gerund of sand.
What part of speech is sanding?
Sanding is a noun.
What is the plural of sanding?
The plural of sanding is sandings.

Words near sanding in the dictionary

  1. sandilla
  2. sandillas
  3. sandily
  4. Sandin
  5. sandiness
  6. sanding
  7. sanding down
  8. sanding gear
  9. sanding machine
  10. sanding machines
  11. sanding off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sanding (page history and authors); sand (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:

Cite this entry: “sanding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sanding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.