sounding line


noun
  1. a line weighted with a lead or plummet (sounding lead ) and bearing marks to show the length paid out, used for sounding, as at sea.

Origin of sounding line

1
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50

Words Nearby sounding line

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sounding line in a sentence

  • The lieutenant wanted two men to keep it out in the current while he used the sounding line and recorded results.

    Overland | John William De Forest
  • For some days the sounding-line reached the bottom, and the soil which it brought up indicated land to be at no great distance.

  • They had many things in the boat but lost only two billies, two pannikins, a sounding line and Hamilton's hat, knife and pipe.

    The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
  • On a trial trip we had found a depth of 130 feet not far from the shore, so we made ready a sounding line 490 feet long.

  • At the ninth sounding-station the red metal disc of the current-meter became entangled in the sounding-line.

British Dictionary definitions for sounding line

sounding line

noun
  1. a line marked off to indicate its length and having a sounding lead at one end. It is dropped over the side of a vessel to determine the depth of the water

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012