Roding

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The circling flight and calls a male woodcock makes at dusk or dawn to mark its territory ; a river in Essex and east London that flows into the Thames
2. The territorial display flight over woodland performed by a male woodcock at twilight ; a watercourse in southeast England that joins the Thames
3. A male woodcock's evening or morning patrol flight over its breeding ground ; a stream in southeastern England that drains into the Thames estuary

Etymology: "Roding" is the present participle of "rode", the past tense of "ride". It has no history of its own beyond that: the verb "ride" descends from Old English "ridan", and the "-ing" ending is the ordinary way English forms a present participle from a verb.