Gauging (9)
I believe the answer is:
measuring
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">gauging</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(thesaurus)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is the entire clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for measuring that I've seen before include "Quantifying" , "Ascertaining length, breadth, etc." , "Ascertaining size of" , "Determining the dimensions" .)