ONCOMING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does oncoming mean? 

• ONCOMING (noun)
  The noun ONCOMING has 1 sense:

1. the beginning or early stages

  Familiarity information: ONCOMING used as a noun is very rare.

• ONCOMING (adjective)
  The adjective ONCOMING has 1 sense:

1. moving toward one

  Familiarity information: ONCOMING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ONCOMING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The beginning or early stages

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

oncoming; onset

Context example:

the onset of pneumonia

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

start (the beginning of anything)

• ONCOMING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Moving toward one

Similar:

moving (in motion)

 Context examples 

He knew not how nor why, yet he got his feel of the oncoming event from the gods themselves.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The oncoming Harrison caught the kick squarely in the pit of the stomach, groaned involuntarily, and doubled up and sank backward to the deck.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As a protective measure, the spacecraft used its large, dish-shaped high-gain antenna (13 feet or 4 meters across) as a shield, orienting it in the direction of oncoming ring particles.

(Cassini Spacecraft Dives Between Saturn and Its Rings, NASA)

But because no spacecraft had ever passed through the region before, Cassini engineers oriented the spacecraft so that its 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) antenna pointed in the direction of oncoming ring particles, shielding its delicate instruments as a protective measure during its April 26 dive.

(Cassini Finds 'The Big Empty' Close to Saturn, NASA)

He dared not risk a fight with this young lightning-flash, and again he knew, and more bitterly, the enfeeblement of oncoming age.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

We lay in the midst of an unearthly quiet, while all about us were signs and omens of oncoming sound and movement.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

White Fang bristled and snarled and snapped in the face of the open-mouthed oncoming wave of dogs, and went down and under them, feeling the sharp slash of teeth in his body, himself biting and tearing at the legs and bellies above him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)