proceeding
noun/pɹəˈsiːdɪŋ/
Etymology By surface analysis, proceed + -ing.
1
The act of one who proceeds, or who prosecutes a design or transaction.
2
An event or happening; something that happens.
- I had a grandstand view of the proceedings.
- He had often painted himself at a mirror, a tortuous and fascinating proceeding, as every artist knows, and had been forced to admire the way in which he was made.1919, Rita Wellman, The Wings of Desire:
1 more example
- It was with feelings of no small astonishment, when the carriage drew up before the door with the red lamp, and the very legible inscription of ‘Sawyer, late Nockemorf,’ that Mr. Pickwick saw, on popping his head out of the coach window, the boy in the gray livery very busily employed in putting up the shutters—the which, being an unusual and an unbusinesslike proceeding at that hour of the morning, at once suggested to his mind two inferences: the one, that some good friend and patient of Mr. Bob Sawyer’s was dead; the other, that Mr. Bob Sawyer himself was bankrupt.1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 50, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
3
A published collection of papers presented at an academic conference, or representing the acts of a learned society.
Always in plural
4
Progress or movement from one thing to another.
- I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
5
A measure or step taken in a course of business; a transaction.
- an illegal proceeding
- a cautious or a violent proceeding
1 more example
- The proceedings of the high commission.1848, Lord Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second:
6
Law Any legal action, especially one that is not a lawsuit.
- December 7 2016, Kelly Phillips Erb writing in Forbes, House Says No To Renewed Efforts To Impeach IRS Commissioner Since impeachment is a legal proceeding, while anyone can make a motion to start the process, the Judiciary Committee determines whether there are sufficient grounds for impeachment.
- Derived terms
- misproceeding, special proceeding, title of proceeding