wearing

Etymology

adj

1. (not comparable) Intended to be worn.
   Clothes used to be called wearing apparel.
2. Causing tiredness; trying to a person's patience.
   [The biography] also displays a rather wearing fidelity to chronology that gives rise to too many summer holidays at the beginning of the book and too many royalty statements towards the end. 17 August 2014, Jonathan Beckman, “Chasing Lost Time: the Life of C K Scott Moncrieff, Soldier, Spy and Translator by Jean Findlay, review, pp. R24–R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)
3. Causing erosion.
4. That wears (deteriorate through use), and may eventually wear out.
   Comparison of the four bogie designs shows that the Rugby-built A.E.I. bogie has the least number of components and a minimum of metallic wearing surfaces. 1960 December, “The first hundred 25 kV a.c. electric locomotives for B.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 727

noun

1. The mechanical process of eroding or grinding.
2. The act by which something is worn.
   formal crown-wearings
3. That which is worn; clothes; garments.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of wear