signifying

Etymology

verb

1. present participle and gerund of signify
   Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Macbeth (c. 1603), Act V, Scene V

noun

1. signification
   For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning. 1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning