(in transformational grammar) a rule that deletes repetitions of a verb, as in the sentence Bill voted for Smith, Sam for McKay, and Dave for Harris
2.
the act or practice of taking a gap year
gapping in American English
(ˈɡæpɪŋ)
noun
Linguistics
a rule of transformational grammar by which repeated instances of a verb are deleted from conjoined sentences, as in the deletion of brought from
Mary brought the bread, John the cheese, and Bill the wine.
Word origin
[gap + -ing1]-ing is a suffix of nouns formed from verbs, expressing the action of the verb or itsresult, product, material, etc. (the art of building; a new building; cotton wadding). It is also used to form nouns from words other than verbs (offing; shirting). Verbal nouns ending in -ing are often used attributively (the printing trade) and in forming compounds (drinking song). In some compounds (sewing machine), the first element might reasonably be regarded as the participial adjective, -ing, the compound thus meaning “a machine that sews,” but it is commonly taken as a verbalnoun, the compound being explained as “a machine for sewing”