north by west

American

noun

Navigation, Surveying.

a point on the compass 11°15′ west of north. NbW

north by west British

noun

one point on the compass west of north, 348° 45′ clockwise from north

"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

adjective

in, from, or towards this direction

"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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Very deliberately the small boat was hoisted to the davits; the big craft began to move, swinging her nose north by west, the spray breaking under the bows.

From The Moonlit Way by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)

Dunkeld�, a small town of Scotland, on the Tay, about 14 miles north by west of Perth; pop.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 1: Deposition to Eberswalde by Various

At 10.27 made a quarter of a mile north by west.

From Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria In search of Burke and Wills by Landsborough, William

At sunset the southernmost bore from south to south-west by west and the northernmost from north by west half west to north-east half east.

From A Voyage to the South Sea For The Purpose Of Conveying The Bread-Fruit Tree To The West Indies, Including An Account Of The Mutiny On Board The Ship by Bligh, William

The night the Tasmania was wrecked, the captain had given the course north by west, sixty-seven degrees.

From How to Succeed or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune by Marden, Orison Swett

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023