towering
/ˈtaʊəɹɪŋ/
towering is the present participle and gerund of tower.
Meaning of tower
Verb
tower (third-person singular simple present towers, present participle towering, simple past and past participle towered)
- To be very tall; to reach a high height.
- The office block towered into the sky.
- To be high or lofty; to soar.
- My lord protector's hawks do tower so well.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- To soar into.
- Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid aerial sky1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...
- Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
Adjective
towering (comparative more towering, superlative most towering)
- Very tall or high and dwarfing anything around it.
- So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- She is a towering girl with a husky baritone voice and a friendly and flamboyant style.1964, Look, volume 28, page 338
Noun
towering (plural towerings)
- The act or condition of being high above others.
- Gaiety seldom fails to give some pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or despair.1829, John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors
- But I am an old hawk at the sport; and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as brought my bird from the aerial towerings, pop down at my foot like Corporal Trim's hat.1787, Robert Burns, letter to a friend
Forms of towering
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more towering |
| superlative | most towering |
| Noun | |
| plural | towerings |
Words formed from towering
Phrases with towering
Questions about towering
- What does towering mean?
- Towering means very tall or high and dwarfing anything around it.
- What is towering the present participle and gerund of?
- Towering is the present participle and gerund of tower.
- What part of speech is towering?
- Towering can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce towering?
- Towering is pronounced /ˈtaʊəɹɪŋ/.
Words near towering in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: towering (page history and authors); tower (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-towering.wav.
Cite this entry: “towering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/towering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.