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

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

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

Statius, perhaps, heats himself, as he proceeds, to exaggerations somewhat hyperbolical; but undoubtedly Virgil would have been too hasty, if he had condemned him to straw for one sounding line.

From Lives of the Poets, Volume 1 by Johnson, Samuel

In a moment more young Somers was in the conning tower, and Jack, sounding line in hand, was out on the platform deck, where Lieutenant Danvers followed him.

From The Submarine Boys' Lightning Cruise The Young Kings of the Deep by Durham, Victor G.

An instrument for measuring depths, esp. one for taking soundings without a sounding line.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah