dead reckoning

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noun Navigation.

calculation of one's position on the basis of distance run on various headings since the last precisely observed position, with as accurate allowance as possible being made for wind, currents, compass errors, etc.

one's position as so calculated.

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Origin of dead reckoning

First recorded in 1605–15

Words nearby dead reckoning

deadpan, dead point, dead president, dead pulp, dead-reckon, dead reckoning, dead ringer, deadrise, dead run, Dead Sea, Dead Sea fruit

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use dead reckoning in a sentence

The cartoonist, better known as Charb, was shot dead Wednesday.
France Kills Charlie Hebdo Murderers|Nico Hines|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A policewoman was shot dead this morning while law enforcement searched for the Charlie Lebdo killers.
France Mourns—and Hunts|Nico Hines, Christopher Dickey|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Absent a body, no one can say with absolute certainty whether Castro is dead, even if all signs point in that direction.
An Informant, a Missing American, and Juarez’s House of Death: Inside the 12-Year Cold Case of David Castro|Bill Conroy|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead.
In the Middle East, the Two-State Solution Is Dead|Dean Obeidallah|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Yes, Byrd—dead four-and-a-half years now—was a Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan.
Steve Scalise and the Right’s Ridiculous Racial Blame Game|Michael Tomasky|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A little boy of four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.
Children's Ways|James Sully
When he plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the dead and stood transfigured before you.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
To-day I'm more dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday that lasted four hours.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
It is a fearsome thing for a man to be left alone in the dead of night with a young baby.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
If they are Ancients and dead then let them be buried and left to the archæological excavator.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

British Dictionary definitions for dead reckoning

dead reckoning

noun

a method of establishing one's position using the distance and direction travelled rather than astronomical observations

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