get one's bearings

Idioms  

1. Also, find one's bearings. Figure out one's position or situation relative to one's surroundings. For example, She's still new to the company and needs time to find her bearings, or I'll be along soon; just wait till I get my bearings. Naturally, one can also lose one's bearings, as in After we missed the turnpike exit, we completely lost our bearings. These phrases use bearings in the sense of “relative position,” a usage dating from the 1600s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

get one's bearings

Conspiracy theories can be comforting, a way to get one’s bearings during rapid change in the culture or the economy, by providing narratives that bring order.

From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2021

There is not much on the bay, but enough to get one’s bearings as the sky grows dim.

From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2012

For the armchair strategist who cannot visit the battlefields, or for anyone who simply wonders where all the shooting was, detailed maps drawn at the time are the only satisfactory way to get one's bearings.

From Time Magazine Archive

Shelley A. Wilson Harford, Pa. Your Essay asserts that "it is difficult to get one's bearings in time if one stays too long on Oahu."

From Time Magazine Archive

"I quite understand how one needs permanent lodgings—the more quickly one can find them in a strange city, why, the quicker one is able to settle into life, get one's bearings in a foreign port."

From Violists by Richard McGowan

Related Words

• adapt
• adjust
• align
• conform