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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
gerund
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He: True, in many cases you can get away with using a participle instead of a gerund.
▪ This particular passage focuses on the gerund.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gerund

Gerund \Ger"und\, n. [L. gerundium, fr. gerere to bear, carry, perform. See Gest a deed, Jest.] (Lat. Gram.)

  1. A kind of verbal noun, having only the four oblique cases of the singular number, and governing cases like a participle.

  2. (AS. Gram.) A verbal noun ending in -e, preceded by to and usually denoting purpose or end; -- called also the dative infinitive; as, ``Ic h[ae]bbe mete t[^o] etanne'' (I have meat to eat.) In Modern English the name has been applied to verbal or participal nouns in -ing denoting a transitive action; e. g., by throwing a stone.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
gerund

1510s, from Late Latin gerundium, from Old Latin gerundum "to be carried out," gerundive of gerere "to bear, carry" (see gest). In Latin, a verbal noun used for all cases of the infinitive but the nominative; applied in English to verbal nouns in -ing.

Wiktionary
gerund

n. 1 (context grammar English) A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently.) 2 (context grammar English) In some languages such as Italian or Russian, a verbal form similar to a present participle, but functioning as an adverb. ''These words are sometimes referred to as conjunctive participles.''

WordNet
gerund

n. a noun formed from a verb (such as the `-ing' form of an English verb when used as a noun)

Wikipedia
Gerund

Gerund ( or ) is a term for a verb form that functions as a noun. In English, the term has been applied to -ing forms in certain uses. Traditional grammar made a distinction within -ing forms between present participles and gerunds, a distinction that is not observed in such modern linguistically-informed grammars as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

Usage examples of "gerund".

As always when Gerund met her here, he was conscious of how Gyro, as she came down those steps, had to force her mind out from the cloister of Barbe Barber back into the external world.

By the time she reached Gerund, her eyes held that familiar expression of detached amusement with which she faced both life and her husband.

Gyro said, kissing Gerund on his mouth and putting her arms round him.

Galingua in which Gerund, Cyro, and most civilized people of the day thought and conversed.

Even so, I recognized him as Gerund Gyres from the photographs the police had circulated.

I must make is that you, Gerund Gyres, as I must call you, have committed murder: on your own admission, you killed my chief warder.

I hoped he might go to bring help, but if Gerund thought of that he gave no sign.

It was a building in the literal sense of the gerund, for it was always building itself out of impossibility.

Vanya repeated inwardly, outwardly speaking of nouns, gerund phrases, and verbs.

In Quenya as in English, gerunds and abstract nouns cannot always be clearly distinguished.

Thick with nouns, clotted with gerunds, Hurdhu was palatable alike to human brains and the pale harneys of ancipitals.

It is a melancholy fact that, after a thousand years of missionary effort, the vast majority of civilized men do not know that gerunds are found only in the singular number.

Future Periphrastic Conjugation and that ticklish difference between the Gerund and the Gerundive, which is vital.

In Quenya as in English, gerunds and abstract nouns cannot always be clearly distinguished.

It is a melancholy fact that, after a thousand years of missionary effort, the vast majority of civilized men do not know that gerunds are found only in the singular number.