packing

noun

pack·​ing ˈpa-kiŋ 

1

a

: the action or process of packing something

also : a method of packing

b

: the processing of food and especially meat for future sale

2

: material (such as a covering or stuffing) used to protect packed goods (as for shipping)

also : material used for making airtight or watertight

packing for a faucet

3

US politics : a form of gerrymandering in which election districts are drawn in such a way that voters likely to support the opposing party are concentrated into a single district to limit the influence of their votes in other districts

… it calculates the impact of the two mechanisms that create gerrymandering. The first of these is "packing," which means one side's votes have been overconcentrated so they win by huge margins in a small number of districts (creating a surplus of votes).

—G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young

compare cracking sense 2

Examples of packing in a Sentence

We finished all our packing yesterday.

I used some old newspapers for packing.

Recent Examples on the Web

Adapters are near the top of most international travel packing lists, right below your passport and above underwear and comfortable shoes. —Catherine Garcia, theweek, 4 Nov. 2024

First-time cruisers can make lots of rookie mistakes, from packing way too much stuff to timing their travel into the port city all wrong. —Terri Peters, Southern Living, 2 Nov. 2024

Dropbox lays off 20% of workforce More than 500 people were sent packing at cloud storage provider Dropbox this week as the San Francisco company transitions to…well, perhaps not greatness, but certainly discipline. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 31 Oct. 2024

The tree came in a classic brown packing box and did not include a bag or anything to store it in for the future. —Kristi Kellogg, Architectural Digest, 23 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing packing

• court packing
• packing crate
• packing peanuts
• packing them in
• send packing

Medical Definition

packing

noun

pack·​ing ˈpak-iŋ 

1

: the therapeutic application of a pack

hemorrhage … could not be controlled by suture or packing

—The Journal of the American Medical Association

2

: the material used in packing