Pushing

How to spell pushing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pushing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pushing mean?

1. verbPressing against something or someone in order to move it away or forward.
2. verbApproaching a particular age, number, or limit.

Pushing in a sentence

• He was pushing the heavy cart up the loading ramp.

• Her grandfather is pushing ninety but still tends the garden daily.

• The crowd kept pushing toward the only open exit.

• The delivery van is pushing two hundred thousand miles on the clock.

Where does pushing come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'push', which came into English in the 1300s from the Old French 'pousser', meaning 'to push, thrust, or drive'. The French verb descended from the Latin 'pulsare', 'to beat, strike, or push', itself a frequentative form of 'pellere', meaning 'to drive or set in motion'. That same Latin root sits behind a whole family of English words such as 'pulse', 'compel', 'expel', and 'repel', all of which carry a sense of driving or forcing. The spelling settled with the simple '-sh' ending, and adding '-ing' is regular: the final consonant is not doubled because it follows the unchanging stem 'push'. The literal Latin idea of 'driving forward' still lives on in the figurative use of 'pushing' an age or a limit.

How the word is built

• push (to press or shove)
• -ing (present participle suffix)