southing

American  

[sou-thing] / ˈsaʊ ðɪŋ /

noun

1. Astronomy.

   1. the transit of a heavenly body across the celestial meridian.

   2. south declination.

2. movement or deviation toward the south.

3. distance due south made by a vessel.

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southing British  

/ ˈsaʊðɪŋ /

noun

1. nautical movement, deviation, or distance covered in a southerly direction

2. astronomy a south or negative declination

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Etymology

Origin of southing

First recorded in 1650–60; south + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

Consequently the southing bergs must have piled up on the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts, as though Jack Frost and King Neptune, bored with spring gambling, had laid aside their sea dice.

From Time Magazine Archive

For if the passage had only given the meridian plane, but without permitting the astronomer to observe the southing of any fixed star, it would have subserved only one-half its purposes as a meridional instrument.

From The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879 by Various

The effect of the diurnal motion is conspicuous to every one, and explains the rising, southing, and setting of the whole visible firmament.

From Pioneers of Science by Lodge, Oliver, Sir

Curiously cut-out stool of one block of wood. 12th October, 1866.—We march westerly, with a good deal of southing.

From The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 by Waller, Horace

But the Old Man hung on to his canvas as the southing wind allowed us to go 'full and by' to the nor'-west.

From The Brassbounder A Tale of the Sea by Bone, David W.