boarding

American  

[bawr-ding, bohr-] / ˈbɔr dɪŋ, ˈboʊr- /

noun

1. wooden boards collectively.

2. a structure of boards, as in a fence or a floor.

3. the act of a person who boards a ship, train, airplane, or the like.

   an uneventful boarding.

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boarding British  

/ ˈbɔːdɪŋ /

noun

1. a structure of boards, such as a floor or fence

2. timber boards collectively

3. 1. the act of embarking on an aircraft, train, ship, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      a boarding pass

4. a process used in tanning to accentuate the natural grain of hides, in which the surface of a softened leather is lightly creased by folding grain to grain and the fold is worked to and fro across the leather

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Other Word Forms

• preboarding adjective

Etymology

Origin of boarding

First recorded in 1525–35; board + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

Six others were rescued, with one of them taken to hospital requiring urgent care, after migrants got into difficulty boarding a boat near Calais on Wednesday morning.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

She attended Choate Rosemary Hall, an exclusive boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, and went to Barnard College in New York.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

He conceived the social experiment based on a combination of his curiosity about people, the influence of “Lord of the Flies” and “Robinson Crusoe,” and his boarding school experience.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026

NEW YORK—The JetBlue agent scanned my boarding pass for Flight 1107 to London and welcomed me to the airline’s version of the lie-flat life.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

Her seven rooms were always crammed to the gills, with as many as twenty-one men boarding at a time and five to six new referrals every day.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

Related Words

• catch
• climb on
• enter
• get on
• hop on