packing

packing is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 3 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Any material used to pack, fill up, or make close. Specifically (Mach.): A substance or piece used to make a joint impervious; as: (a) A thin layer, or sheet, of yielding or elastic material inserted between the surfaces of a flange joint. (b) The substance in a stuffing box, through which a piston rod slides. (c) A yielding ring, as of metal, which surrounds a piston and maintains a tight fit, as inside a cylinder, etc.
  2. 2.(Masonry) Same as Filling. [Rare in the U. S.]
  3. 3.A trick; collusion. [Obs.] Bale. Cherd packing (Bridge Building), the arrangement, side by side, of several parts, as bars, diagonals, a post, etc., on a pin at the bottom of a chord. Waddell. -- Packing box, a stuffing box. See under Stuffing. -- Packing press, a powerful press for baling cotton, wool, hay, etc. -- Packing ring. See Packing, 2 (c), and Illust. of Piston. -- Packing sheet. (a) A large cloth for packing goods. (b) A sheet prepared for packing hydropathic patients.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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