Biding

//ˈbaɪdɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An awaiting; expectation.

    "I was biding time. And my biding was making me bitter."

  2. 2
    Residence; habitation. archaic

    "For they brought us to their bidings about two miles from the harborough, where wee saw their women and lodging, which is nothing but the skin of some beast layd upon the ground : and over them in stead of houses, is nothing but five or sixe sticks layd acrosse, which stand upon two forkes with stickes on the ground and a fewe boughes layd on it."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of bide form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
awaitliveput up withabideabideabide with

Example

More examples

"Tom and Mary remained at a distance, observing and biding their time."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English biding, bydyng, equivalent to bide + -ing.

Etymology 2

From bide + -ing.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.