bearing

The Sailor's Word-Book

An arc of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compass, or resulting from finical proportion. There is the true or astronomical bearing, and the magnetic bearing. It is also the situation of any distant object, estimated with regard to the ship's position; and in this sense the object must bear either ahead, astern, abreast, on the bow, or on the quarter; if a ship sails with a side wind, a distant object is said to bear to leeward or to windward, on the lee quarter or bow, or on the weather quarter or bow.

Related Words

Bearing
·noun Patient endurance; suffering without complaint. II. Bearing ·noun Purport; meaning; intended ...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
Bearing cloth
·- A cloth with which a child is covered when carried to be baptized. ...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
Bearing rein
·- A short rein looped over the check hook or the hames to keep the horse's head up; — called in th...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
Bearing ring
·add. ·- In a balloon, the braced wooden ring attached to the suspension ropes at the bottom, functi...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
Roller bearing
·add. ·- A bearing containing friction rollers. ...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
Rush-bearing
·noun A kind of rural festival at the dedication of a church, when the parishioners brought rushes t...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
gold-bearing
verbal adj. auriferous. 1890. `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 13: «A new line of gold-bearing quartz...

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris
bearing binnacle
A small binnacle with a single compass, usually placed before the other. In line-of-battle ships it ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
bearing backstays aft
To throw the breast backstays out of the cross-tree horns or out-riggers and bear them aft. If not d...

The Sailor's Word-Book
line of bearing
A previously determined bearing given out by a commander-in-chief, as well as line-of-battle. "From ...

The Sailor's Word-Book