signifying

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of signify

   Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

plural signifyings

1. signification

   For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning.

   1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning