gassing
part of speech
verb form (gas, gases/gasses, gassed, gassing); noun (gassing, gassings)
meaning for a pupil
1) (informal, UK, old-fashioned) Chatting or talking for a long time about not very important things; also boasting. tree →
2) Poisoning or killing with gas; an attack with poison gas. tree →
3) (US, informal) Filling a car with petrol, as in «gassing up». tree →
sense in the lessons
Sense 1 is old-fashioned chatty English: «stop gassing and get on with it». Sense 2 is a serious history word: poison gas was used in the First World War, and the Nazis murdered millions in gas chambers in the Holocaust. Sense 3 is American everyday talk.
examples
- Stop gassing and finish your homework! tree →
- The two old friends sat gassing over a cup of tea all afternoon. tree →
- Toad was gassing on about his adventures again. tree →
- Soldiers wore masks to protect them from gassing in the First World War. tree →
- We stopped to gas up the car on the way to Grandma's. tree →
- Rat was tired of Toad's endless gassing. tree →
note
Verb «gas» doubles the s: gassed, gassing. Sense 2 is very serious and sad; take care using it. Plural of the noun «gas» is «gases». «Gas» in the USA also means petrol.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «gassing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.