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The most-approximate translation is "to tolerate;" but gedoging is a deliberate, intentional tolerance engineered by concensus at bureaucratic level.
Gedoogbeleid is toleration by policy. If there is a social matter that will not allow a concrete solution, the Dutch will "gedoog" it. They will allow a flexibility in enforcement.
Gedoging may be explicit, passive, or selective. An explicit gedoogbeschikking specifies which non-legal behaviors are okay to tolerate as a professionial decision. This will be in a written, public-available document. In passive gedoging, an administrative body may be aware of a violation but have a tacit policy against enforcement. At operational level, the ability to selectively gedoog a matter allows law officers flexibility in enforcement as a way to to minimize negative effects. Here, the priority is harm reduction - mitigation of unwanted behaviors or disturbance to the local environment that may be induced by strict enforcement.
Examples of official tolerance policies are those concerning streetwalking* and "soft drugs." The Dutch acknowledge, after debate, that sometimes eradication of a problem is impractical and that the concept of "problem" may be a matter of interpretation. Predisposed morality is a factor, but only one of many.
A behavior that has been gedoogd is not legal, exactly — but it's not illegal
either, and eradication is not an official goal.
* Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands; regulated and often unionized. Streetwalking is illegal. However, on the perimeter of a few large cities is a site called the tippelzone where some illegal activities are tolerated.