westing

American  

[wes-ting] / ˈwɛs tɪŋ /

noun

1. Navigation. the distance due west made good on any course tending westward; westerly departure.

2. Surveying. a distance west from a north-south reference line.

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westing British  

/ ˈwɛstɪŋ /

noun

1. nautical movement, deviation, or distance covered in a westerly direction, esp as expressed in the resulting difference in longitude

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Etymology

Origin of westing

First recorded in 1620–30; west + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

West of the Rockies is out-of-bounds for U. S. fireflies�either because the mountains are too high for westing wanderers to get over, or because the Pacific Coast climate does not suit them.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sun was already westing toward evening, and the trees where they were had plunged them into a partial dude.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

His own courage and resolution however never failed, and he still made the best of his way to the southward, seizing every opportunity of making westing.

From Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1 by Grey, George

And they came to the Straits, and worked in, and made their westing day by day, while little Priss, 63 wide-eyed on the deck, watched the gaunt cliffs past whose wave-gnawed feet they stole.

From All the Brothers Were Valiant by Williams, Ben Ames

We have made about eighty miles of westing since we got on our course, and we are now just on the longitude of the westermost point of the islands.

From Maori and Settler A Story of The New Zealand War by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)