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

See Examples For:

sounding line

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

From Overland by De Forest, J. W. (John William)

Indeed it was some time before its bottom could be reached by any sounding line.

From Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)

The buoy to which the sounding line had been lashed had not yet been recognized.

From From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon by Verne, Jules

Wednesday, August 26, the sounding line forewarned the reefs of Sable Island.

From Canada: the Empire of the North Being the Romantic Story of the New Dominion's Growth from Colony to Kingdom by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)

As I was desirous to recover the long lost bottom of Walden Pond, I surveyed it carefully, before the ice broke up, early in '46, with compass and chain and sounding line.

From Walden by Thoreau, Henry David