hiding1
/ˈhʌɪdɪŋ
/noun informal
1A physical beating: they caught him and gave him a hiding...
- In 1956, it was called getting a thrashing, or a hiding - or just ‘getting it’.
- I don't drink because I see a lot of people, they get hidings from their husbands.
- I was always chicken when it came to getting hidings from my father.
Synonyms
beating, battering, thrashing, thumping, pounding, pummelling, drubbing, slapping, smacking, spanking, hammering, cuffing, thwacking, mauling, pelting;
flogging, flaying, whipping, caning, lashing, cudgelling, clubbing, birching
informal licking, belting, bashing, pasting, lathering, larruping, walloping, whacking, clobbering, tanning, biffing, bopping, horsewhipping
North American informal whaling
1.1A severe defeat: if they’d played badly they might have expected a hiding...
- Scotland suffered a humiliating hiding in this international friendly at Hampden Park today.
- A few results offered false hope - a victory on Boxing Day away to Motherwell, Livingston taking a hiding at Perth.
- At 20-3 down they were looking at a real hiding, but they found some passion.
Phrases
be on a hiding to nothing
Origin
Early 19th century: from hide2 + -ing1.
Rhymes
hiding2
/ˈhʌɪdɪŋ/noun [mass noun]
1The action of concealing someone or something.The house we lived in was brilliant for hiding: lots of dark corners, low shelves, heavy curtains and piles of coats or dressing up clothes stacked in a big old chest....
- You know, this life of hiding and lying is no fun.
- But of course a lot was being hidden, whoever was doing the hiding.
1.1The state of being hidden: the shipowner had gone into hiding...
- A woman has gone into hiding after the businessman husband who tried to kill her was freed on bail, eight months into a 12-year jail term.
- They say that African women in particular are desperate for asylum because of domestic violence in their home countries and that many have to go into hiding when they are deported.
- The couple then went into hiding in Sheffield, first at a bed and breakfast and then at Foxhill Road for a couple of months.
Synonyms
hidden, concealed, lying low, gone to ground, gone to earth, gone underground, in a safe house;
in seclusion, in retreat
British informal lying doggo
Origin
Middle English: from hide1 + -ing1.