FINISHING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does finishing mean? 

• FINISHING (noun)
  The noun FINISHING has 2 senses:

1. a decorative texture or appearance of a surface (or the substance that gives it that appearance)

2. the act of finishing

  Familiarity information: FINISHING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FINISHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A decorative texture or appearance of a surface (or the substance that gives it that appearance)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

coating; finish; finishing

Context example:

when the finish is too thin it is difficult to apply evenly

Hypernyms ("finishing" is a kind of...):

decorativeness (an appearance that serves to decorate and make something more attractive)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "finishing"):

glaze (a coating for ceramics, metal, etc.)

shoeshine (a shiny finish put on shoes with polish and buffing)

Derivation:

finish (provide with a finish)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of finishing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

finish; finishing

Context example:

the speaker's finishing was greeted with applause

Hypernyms ("finishing" is a kind of...):

closing; completion; culmination; mop up; windup (a concluding action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "finishing"):

close; closing curtain; finale; finis (the concluding part of any performance)

Derivation:

finish (come or bring to a finish or an end)

 Context examples 

We are just finishing our lesson.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Your personal creativity is ruled by the fifth house too, so you may be finishing up a vital creative project and are ready to show it to the world.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Haythorne, finishing his mug of coffee, grunted uninterestedly and lighted his pipe.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

In this condition, he felt more incapable of finishing the Memorial than ever; and the harder he worked at it, the oftener that unlucky head of King Charles the First got into it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“I’m just finishing the finishing touches. Want to see it work?”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

About a week has passed, and I am now finishing this statement under the influence of the last of the old powders.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

For years there was no such glutton to take punishment and no more finishing hitter than Harrison, though he was always, as I understand, a slow one upon his feet.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For then his brother's bow must have given the finishing stroke to what the ill-humour of his mother and sister would have begun.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“Let me have the pleasure of finishing that speech to your ladyship,” said he.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days—my hair standing on end the whole time.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)