- present participle of coil.
coiling
Americannoun
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the act or process of arranging something, such as a cable, in the form of a coil or spiral, or of moving or growing in a pattern that resembles a coil or spiral.
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the installation of electromagnetic coils in the hull of a ship so that it can be demagnetized in order to escape detection by naval mines.
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Ceramics. a pottery technique in which the clay is rolled into a long, thin shape and coiled on itself in layers.
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Such coiling action often resolves in an explosive move.
From Barron's ● Jan. 26, 2026
She points out the spool of paper tickets in the box office, now coiling on the floor and ready to be counted.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2025
The study suggests that the development of the coiling and grasping trunk in Platybelodon allowed this group to survive in greater numbers in their open environments.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 28, 2023
The coiling composition grounded the visual building blocks and movement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2023
As the ball floated in the air, Penelope twisted her hips and back and swung her right arm back over her shoulder, coiling like a really pretty snake.
From "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
They were become gliding lengths of muscle as swift, as loathsome in their supple dartings and coilings as any snake lashing across the expanses of primeval jungle.
From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 by Various
It flowed beautifully over her pretty small ears, and she would tie its fair coilings with fillets of black or blue velvet that carried pretty buckles of silver and paste.
From The New Machiavelli by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Dark huddled coilings from the obscene depths, Black, formless shadow, Shadow.
From Young Adventure, a Book of Poems by Benét, Stephen Vincent
And so saying, she threw herself upon her knees before the new-comer, and clasped her arms around her with a rapidity and suppleness that almost resembled the coilings of a snake.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 by Various
Could it be that the impulses released by the Keeper's coilings passed through the Metal People of the pave on the upthrust Metal People of the crater rim who held the shields?
From The Metal Monster by Merritt, Abraham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
