Gunning

How to spell gunning

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gunning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gunning mean?

1. verbAggressively pursuing a goal, position, or person, often to defeat or replace them.
2. verbPressing hard on the accelerator to make an engine run fast.

Gunning in a sentence

• A rival agency has been gunning for our biggest account all year.

• He kept gunning the engine while we waited at the lights.

• She is clearly gunning for the manager's job now that he is retiring.

• The driver was gunning the motor to free the wheels from the mud.

Where does gunning come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is the present participle of the verb 'gun', which itself comes from the noun for a firearm. The noun is recorded in English from the early 1300s as 'gunne', and the most colourful explanation traces it to a feminine personal name, the Old Norse 'Gunnhildr' (from 'gunnr' and 'hildr', both meaning 'war' or 'battle'), which medieval soldiers seem to have applied as a nickname to a large stone-throwing engine of war. Over time the word narrowed from siege engines to hand-held firearms, and from the noun grew a verb meaning 'to shoot'. From there English developed two lively modern uses: 'gunning' an engine, meaning to push the throttle hard as if firing it, and 'gunning for' someone, meaning to pursue them aggressively. The doubled 'n' in the spelling follows the regular rule that a short stressed vowel before a single final consonant doubles that consonant when '-ing' is added, the same pattern seen in 'running' and 'winning'.

How the word is built

• gun (root: firearm; also to rev or pursue aggressively)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)