handling

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A touching, controlling, managing, using, taking care of, etc., with the hand or hands, or as with the hands.

   “baggage handling”

   “the heauens, and your faire handeling / Haue made you maister of the field this day”

   “1864, Oregon. Legislative Assembly. House of Representatives […] at San Francisco it is warehoused and reshipped to Liverpool, or other foreign market; and in exchange for this wheat, comes back the merchandise which has to pass through all these shipments, reshipments, warehousings, handlings, &c.”

2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The mechanism for handling or manipulating something.

   “In mortal terror of people forcing an entrance at such an hour, and in such a manner as to leave no doubt of their purpose, I would have turned to fly when first I heard the noise, only that I feared by any quick motion to catch their attention, as I also ran the danger of doing by opening the door, which was all but closed, and to whose handlings I was unaccustomed.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The mode of using the pencil or brush; style of touch.

   “A miniature[…]remarkable for its brilliancy of colour and charming freedom of handling.”

4. (countable, uncountable)A criminal offence, the trade in stolen goods.

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of handle