packing

noun

pack·ing | \ ˈpa-kiŋ

Definition of packing

1a : 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

There was a little too much talk of packing sidearms and confronting looters, and about which billionaire had donated the use of his airplane. — Emily Witt, The New Yorker, "A Haphazard Recovery in the Bahamas," 16 Sep. 2019 Available positions range from hourly packing and shipping jobs to salaried positions, such as software engineer. — Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, "Amazon hiring 30,000 people at Sept. 17 job fairs: Where is the closest event?," 9 Sep. 2019 While ideas such as packing or remaking the Supreme Court still reside well outside the political mainstream, ending the practice of gerrymandering has been a project of broad public interest for some time. — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, "The Grassroots Battle to Save Democracy," 5 Sep. 2019 Upgrading the playoffs to 14 teams would solve the problem of packing in more football. — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, "With NFL playoff qualifiers, more would be better," 4 Sep. 2019 For me, this could mean living out of a van or a small trailer, doing a long-term bike packing trip or, sure, buying a tiny or at least smaller home. — Alli Harvey, Anchorage Daily News, "10-day bike trip: Adventurous vacation, or test run for a simpler life?," 22 Aug. 2019 The third-gen handheld smartphone stabilizer has several new features, but the biggest is that the Osmo Mobile 3 folds up for easier packing. — Sean O'kane, The Verge, "DJI’s Osmo Mobile 3 is lighter, smaller, and folds up," 13 Aug. 2019 In keeping with Off-White's now-iconic typography that always includes quotation marks, Abloh's brand has launched five black travel pouches to help make your packing easier. — Meredith Carey, Condé Nast Traveler, "Off-White's Monochrome Pouches Are the Packing Cubes We Didn't Know We Needed," 13 Aug. 2019 He will be remembered for his superior packing skills, particularly his use of the half hitch. — courant.com, "Frederick Wohlgemuth," 11 Aug. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'packing.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.