Other forms: packings
Packing is putting goods safely into their outer wrapping for storage or transport. The packing department, packing materials, packing and dispatch.
In shipping, packaging and packing are distinguished — the packaging is what the customer sees, the packing is what protects it in the box. Bubble wrap, foam and packing peanuts are the materials. Packing also means filling a suitcase before a journey: do your packing, still packing. Note packed, meaning full — the train was packed — and send somebody packing, which means to dismiss them abruptly.
1nounpackingPutting goods safely into their outer wrapping.
“Packing is done overnight and the vans leave at six.”
synonyms: packaging
2nounfillingFilling a case before a journey.
“She left the packing until the morning of the flight.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
packing is a way of preparing goods.
Also accepted in games: packaging
The verb pack came into English in the thirteenth century from Dutch or Low German trading language, along with much of the vocabulary of ports and warehouses. It has meant loading goods for transport from the beginning.
Middle English
pakkynge
English, today
packing
From Middle English pakkynge; equivalent to pack + -ing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA