In archaeology and geology, dating is working out how old something is. Radiocarbon dating, the dating of the site, dating techniques.
Radiocarbon dating measures the decay of carbon-14 and works back about fifty thousand years; potassium-argon and uranium-lead dating reach much further. Relative dating puts things in order without giving an age, and absolute dating gives a number. The everyday sense of dating is going out with somebody romantically — a dating app, they have been dating a year — and is much the commoner meaning outside a laboratory.
1noundatingWorking out how old something is.
“Tree-ring dating showed that the old barn was built in the 1600s.”
2nounromanticallyGoing out with somebody romantically.
“They had been dating for about a year before anybody noticed.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
dating is a way of establishing age or a relationship.