Definition of "surpassing"

surpassing

verb
1. present participle and gerund of surpass
adjective
comparative more surpassing, superlative most surpassing
1. Becoming superior to others; becoming excellent; exceptional; exceeding.
  Quotations
  "Yet once again," exclaimed he, passionately, "let me gaze on that beautiful and beloved face! let me see if sorrow has cast a shadow on its surpassing loveliness! I will not let her know how near I am, and how wretched! No, in secret and in silence will I look upon her once more; and then, farewell for ever!"
  1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Past”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 87
noun
plural surpassings
1. The act or process by which something is surpassed; a bettering.
  Quotations
  In both of these surpassings, the human being, in being freed, is freed both to be itself and to be beyond itself; but the second orients us more fully towards being free beyond self-determination.
  2001, William Desmond, Ethics and the Between, page 347