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

All accumulated dissatisfactions, weariness of the world, ennui, vague disgust, a multitude of suppressed desires gush forth, like subterranean waters, under the sounding line that for the first time brings them to light.

From The Ancient Regime by Durand, John

The slight inclination of the low lands of Georgia and Carolina is continued under water till the sounding line attains a depth of about fifty fathoms.

From The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, Issue 160, April, 1904 by Various

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)

A single bleached specimen, agreeing with this description excepting in having five instead of three or four plaits on the columella, was brought up by the sounding line.

From Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by King, Phillip Parker

In fact, nothing delayed immediate departure but the consideration that two miles of sounding line were still to be hauled up from the ocean depths.

From All Around the Moon by Roth, Edward