paling

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of pale

plural palings · alternative pailing

1. A pointed stick used to make a fence.

   The boys continued hitting the tennis ball with pailings snatched from a fence […]

   1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 20, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 117

   1 more example

   The smell of the damp eucalypt palings that clad the walls exhaling their aromatic resin into the house, mingling with the fragrance of the myrtle burning in the fireplace.

   1997, Richard Flanagan, chapter 6, in The Sound of One Hand Clapping, New York: Grove Press, published 2014

2. A fence made of palings.

   The park paling was still the boundary on one side, and she soon passed one of the gates into the ground.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 12, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   1789, Alderman Le Mesurier), addressing the House of Commons, in The Parliamentary Register,ᴴᵃⁿˢᵃʳᵈ London: John Debrett, Volume 26, p. 172, Gentlemen must have observed that many of the nurserymen’s plantations were wide and extensive, some of them covering several acres; and that their palings and fences were for the most part low, and might be so weak and out of repair, as to afford a very insufficient security against the inroads of robbers and spoilers.

   The wide doors and windows of the restaurant stood open, beneath large awnings, to a wide pavement, where there were other plants in tubs, and rows of spreading trees, and beyond which there was a large shady square, without any palings, and with marble-paved walks.

   1878, Henry James, An International Episode

3. CaribbeanA fence made of galvanized sheeting.

   He worked badly. He had to paint a large sign on a corrugated iron paling. Doing letters on a corrugated surface was bad enough; to paint a cow and a gate, as he had to, was maddening.

   1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, London: André Deutsch, Part One, Chapter 3, p. 118

plural Palings

1. A surname.