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

See Examples For:

southing

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

We may as well make a little southing while we can,” he said.

From Masters of the Wheat-Lands by Bindloss, Harold

The seed-time sacrifice was linked up with the southing or northing of some prominent star.

From A Short History of the World by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

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

From The Age of Erasmus Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London by Allen, P. S. (Percy Stafford)

We were obliged to stand a long way to the westward, and went to the northward of Juan Fernandez above a degree, before we had a wind that we could make any southing with.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Kerr, Robert