sounding line

American  

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.

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sounding line British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of sounding line

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50

Example Sentences

Here the sounding line concludes; a little further on, the well-knit sentence; and yet a little further, and both will reach their solution on the same ringing syllable.

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

The operating of the sounding line and of the electric light was therefore entirely independent of that of the dredges.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 by Various

The story told me in my boyhood does not say how much sounding line was brought.

From Inca Land Explorations in the Highlands of Peru by Bingham, Hiram

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

From The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 by Mawson, Douglas, Sir

Nevertheless, as the bottom might happen to rise sharply instead of following the slope of the coast, we did not venture to proceed out the sounding line in hand.

From An Antarctic Mystery by Hoey, Frances Cashel