packing

American  

[pak-ing] / ˈpæk ɪŋ /

noun

• packings
  plural

1. the act or work of a person or thing that packs.

2. the preparation and packaging of foodstuffs, especially to be sold at wholesale.

3. the way in which something is packed.

4. an act or instance of transporting supplies, goods, etc., on the backs of horses, mules, or persons.

5. material used to cushion or protect goods packed in a container.

6. material, often in the form of a grease-impregnated fibrous ring, compressed inside a stuffing box or the like to prevent leakage around the moving shaft of an engine, pump, or valve.

7. Printing. rubber, paper, or other material fastened to the tympan or cylinder of a press to provide pressure to produce a printed impression.

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packing British  

/ ˈpækɪŋ /

noun

1. 1. material used to cushion packed goods

   2. ( as modifier )

      a packing needle

2. the packaging of foodstuffs

3. med

   1. the application of a medical pack

   2. gauze or other absorbent material for packing a wound

4. printing sheets of material, esp paper, used to cover the platen or impression cylinder of a letterpress machine

5. any substance or material used to make watertight or gastight joints, esp in a stuffing box

6. engineering pieces of material of various thicknesses used to adjust the position of a component or machine before it is secured in its correct position or alignment

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Usage

What is packing? Packing is the act of grouping items into a container, especially for storing or moving the items. Packing can also describe the container or wrapping itself used to pack items. Example: The packing on this Christmas gift is too hard to get off!

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underpacking
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• packings
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of packing

1350–1400; Middle English pakking (gerund). See pack ¹, -ing ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

packing packings

Longtime folks like Sens. Gary Peters, Dick Durbin, and more are packing it in.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026

A packing list, the indictment said, showed they were shipped from the Los Angeles area to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Work on their Texas property was finally completed in November, although Biles and Owens didn’t officially move in until February, after packing up their Chicago residence following the end of the Bears’ season.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

In Gmail, Siri compiled a packing checklist from a school email.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

I didn’t intervene or stop them from packing.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

In 1773 physicist and mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange found that the arrangement along a triangular lattice is optimal—so long as you only consider ordered packings.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 6, 2023

In geometry, he made key discoveries in the study of symmetries, sphere packings, lattices, polyhedra and tilings, including properties of quasi-periodic tilings as developed by Roger Penrose.

From Nature ● May 22, 2020

His archives contain all sorts of investigations of possible packings and their properties, together with actual cardboard polyhedra, still ready to assemble:

From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2017

After making physical models of tetrahedrons and demonstrating the packing patterns, she convinced Dr. Lagarias that her packings were as dense as she had said they were, and finally published her findings a year ago.

From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2010

If the cut is unavoidably too large, packings of tin strip must be forced in with the rail on the outside.

From Things To Make by Archibald Williams

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