commanding

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈmændɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɑːndɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧mand‧ing

commanding

1. present participle of command

commanding (comparative more commanding, superlative most commanding)

1. Tending to give commands, authoritarian.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 19, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

2. Impressively dominant.

   a commanding structure

3. (of a place or position) Dominating from above, giving a wide view
   • Rail, issue 857, July 18-July 31 2018, article on Severn Bridge Junction signal box at Shrewsbury:

     On the top floor is the lever frame where signalmen are afforded an uninterrupted and commanding view of the junction below, and of Shrewsbury station's five working platforms.

• (tending to give commands) bossy, imposing
• See also Thesaurus:bossy

commanding (plural commandings)

1. The act of giving a command.
   • 2006, William E. Mann, Augustine's Confessions, page 172:

     God could then have dispelled their ignorance by revealing to them that He had issued those commands; the fact of the occurrence of the earlier commandings would be the content of the revelation.