Naut. [CROSS a. or adv.] The bearings of two or more points taken from a point of reference so as to give their angular distance from each other, or, when their positions are known, to plot the position of a ship on a chart.
1809. Visc. Valentia, Voy. India, etc. II. viii. 359. Its [the high land of Assab’s] distance was ascertained to be seventy miles, by a set of cross bearings taken from the island of Perim.
1857. R. Tomes, Amer. in Japan, xiii. 310. On taking the cross-bearings, it was found … that the ships had not shifted their places a mile.
