handling

• IPA^(key): /ˈhændl̩ɪŋ/, /ˈhændlɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ændl̩ɪŋ, -ændlɪŋ
• Hyphenation: hand‧ling

From Middle English handlinge, hondlunge, from Old English handlung (“handling”), equivalent to handle +‎ -ing. Cognate with Dutch handeling (“trade, operation, action”), German Handlung (“act, action”), Swedish handling (“act, deed, action”).

handling (countable and uncountable, plural handlings)

1. A touching, controlling, managing, using, take care of, etc., with the hand or hands, or as with the hands.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28:

     the heauens, and your faire handeling / Haue made you maister of the field this day

   • 1864, Oregon. Legislative Assembly. House of Representatives

     […] at San Francisco it is warehoused and reshipped to Liverpool, or other foreign market; and in exchange for this wheat, comes back the merchandise which has to pass through all these shipments, reshipments, warehousings, handlings, &c.

2. (obsolete) The mechanism for handling or manipulating something.
   • 1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

     In mortal terror of people forcing an entrance at such an hour, and in such a manner as to leave no doubt of their purpose, I would have turned to fly when first I heard the noise, only that I feared by any quick motion to catch their attention, as I also ran the danger of doing by opening the door, which was all but closed, and to whose handlings I was unaccustomed.

3. (art) The mode of using the pencil or brush; style of touch.
   • 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Critical Reviews:

     A miniature […] remarkable for its brilliancy of colour and charming freedom of handling.

4. A criminal offence, the trade in stolen goods.

From handle.

handling

1. present participle and gerund of handle

handling

1. action, act

From handle +‎ -ing.

handling f or m (definite singular handlinga or handlingen, indefinite plural handlinger, definite plural handlingene)

1. an act, deed
2. action
3. the plot or storyline, in a work of fiction
4. shopping; the action of visiting shops

• terrorhandling
• voldshandling

• “handling” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From handle +‎ -ing.

handling f (definite singular handlinga, indefinite plural handlingar, definite plural handlingane)

1. an act, deed
2. action
3. the plot or storyline, in a work of fiction
4. shopping; the action of visiting shops

• terrorhandling
• valdshandling

• “handling” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Unadapted borrowing from English handling.

handling n (uncountable)

1. baggage handling in the airport

• handling in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

handla +‎ -ing

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handling c

1. an act, a deed
2. an act, a document
3. action
4. the plot or storyline, in a work of fiction
5. shopping; the action of visiting shops

• terrorhandling