going.
present participle and gerund of go
Meaning & usage
present participle and gerund of go
I'm afraid I must be going.
Attending or visiting (a stated event, place, etc.) habitually or regularly.
Where this word comes from
Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanend (“going”), Dutch gaand (“going”), German gehend (“going”), Danish gående (“going”), Swedish gående (“going”). Noun and adjective from Middle English going, goyng, gaing, gayng, equivalent to go + -ing. Compare German Gehung, Old English gang (“a going”). More at gang.
A departure.
The suitability of ground for riding, walking etc.
The going was very difficult over the ice.
Progress.
We made good going for a while, but then we came to the price.
Conditions for advancing in any way.
Not only were the streets not paved with gold, but the going was difficult for an immigrant.
Course of life; behaviour; doings; ways.
The whereabouts (of something).
I can't find my sunglasses; you haven't seen the going of them, have you?
The horizontal distance between the front of one step in a flight of stairs and the front of the next.
Each step had a rise of 170 mm and a going of 250 mm.
Where this word comes from
Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanend (“going”), Dutch gaand (“going”), German gehend (“going”), Danish gående (“going”), Swedish gående (“going”). Noun and adjective from Middle English going, goyng, gaing, gayng, equivalent to go + -ing. Compare German Gehung, Old English gang (“a going”). More at gang.
Likely to continue; viable.
He didn't want to make an unsecured loan to the business because it didn't look like a going concern.
Current, prevailing.
The going rate for manual snow-shoveling is $25 an hour.
Available.
He has the easiest job going.
Where this word comes from
Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanend (“going”), Dutch gaand (“going”), German gehend (“going”), Danish gående (“going”), Swedish gående (“going”). Noun and adjective from Middle English going, goyng, gaing, gayng, equivalent to go + -ing. Compare German Gehung, Old English gang (“a going”). More at gang.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.