shopping

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of shop

plural shoppings

1. uncountableusuallyThe process of buying goods or services, or searching for those suitable to buy.

   On Saturdays we usually do the shopping.

   3 more examples

   After a hard day's shopping, they had come home laden with bargains, and the dressing-room was strewed with Indian fans, ivory boxes, and lace.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Different Opinions”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 280

   Here I began my shopping, was interviewed by dressmakers, and naturally had much to do to habit myself for civilized life again.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 132

   Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

2. uncountableusuallyRecently bought goods.

   I carried three heavy bags of shopping up the stairs.

3. uncountableusuallyAn area's combination of stores and other infrastructure and products available for people who want to shop.

   Boston has good shopping.

4. uncountableusuallyPlacement in a workshop for overhaul.

   The five roller-bearing A1s are now averaging 120,000 miles between shopping; this figure is an improvement of about 50 per cent on the norm of other ex-L.N.E. Pacific types.

   1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The roller-bearing A1s”, in Trains Illustrated, page 643