🏎️ Up-and-down motion 🐬 Leaping movement

porpoising

8.4

A fast racing car's quick up-and-down movement that makes control hard

noun
/ˈpɔːrpoʊsɪŋ/

Specialized

: oscilación

Engineers worked overnight to fix the porpoising problem before the next race.

Examples

Drivers complained that porpoising made it difficult to control the vehicle at high speeds.
The car experienced severe porpoising during the race.
The new race car design reduced porpoising on the straight sections of the track.
Many drivers complained about porpoising at high speeds.
During the race, the car exhibited severe porpoising, bouncing rapidly as it approached high speeds.
The driver lost control of the vehicle due to porpoising, causing it to repeatedly rise and fall on the track.
As the speed increased, the porpoising became more pronounced, leading to a challenging driving experience.

Synonyms

pitching

vsporpoising

2 6.1

A sudden up-and-down movement of a ship or plane

is a faster high speed up and down motion seen in racing

Antonyms

stability

363 3.1

Being steady and not likely to change

How Bouncy

porpoising

Specialized

8.4

bouncing

18 1.6

vibration

73 3.2

Surface Forms

porpoising singular

porpoisings plural

Morphology

porpoising = porpoise (semi-transparent) = porpoise + ing

Formally 'porpoise' + '-ing' is clear, but the motorsport sense is a metaphorical and specialized extension that may not be immediately obvious to learners.

Etymology

Porpoising comes from the sea animal porpoise, which makes quick 'up-and-down' jumps out of the water, so when a race car or other vehicle bounces in the same rapid way people call that motion porpoising.