southing

[ sou-thing ]

noun
  1. Astronomy.

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

    • south declination.

  2. movement or deviation toward the south.

  1. distance due south made by a vessel.

Origin of southing

1
First recorded in 1650–60; south + -ing1

Words Nearby southing

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use southing in a sentence

  • His cell looked South, and thus he could study the movements of the moon and the planets, and note the southing of the stars.

    The Age of Erasmus | P. S. Allen
  • After the gale blew itself out, a fresh breeze succeeded, which enabled them rapidly to run down their southing.

    South American Fights and Fighters | Cyrus Townsend Brady
  • But after a few weeks of content the southing spirit again seized upon the old male who had hitherto been the unquestioned leader.

    Kings in Exile | Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts
  • With a southing wind blowing stiff from the icy Antarctic wastes, they “put it to her!”

    The Viking Blood | Frederick William Wallace
  • On the 31st, to my mortification, the river held so much to the northward, that we undid almost all our southing.

British Dictionary definitions for southing

southing

/ (ˈsaʊðɪŋ) /


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

  2. astronomy a south or negative declination

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