[f. LAND v. + -ING1.] I. The action of the verb LAND.
1. The action of coming to land or putting ashore; disembarkation.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 312/1. Londynge fro schyppe and watur, applicacio.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 9/2. They take landing within the dominion of king Goffarus.
1655. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 308. Att his landing att Towre wharfe.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 264. There is Water enough for Boats and Canoes to enter, and smooth landing after you are in.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. vii. 355. The Commodore … was saluted at his landing by eleven guns.
1798. Dk. Clarence, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), III. 10, note. The French cannot effect a landing in Ireland.
1855. Stanley, Mem. Canterb., i. (1857), 3. There are five great landings in English history, each of vast importance.
b. Arrival at a stage or place of landing, e.g., on a staircase.
1705. Addison, Trav. Italy, 433. A Stair-Case … where … the Disposition of the Lights, and the convenient Landing are admirably well contriv’d.
c. Coming to ground at the end of a leap.
1881. Times, 14 Feb., 4/2. The taking off at the jumps was awkward, and the landing more ugly still.
2. a. Landing up: blocking up of a watercourse by earth or mud. b. Earthing up of plants.
1692. Ray, Dissol. World, III. v. (1732), 352. This Landing up and Atterration of the Skirts of the Sea.
a. 1806. Abercrombie, in Loudon, Gardening, III. i. (1822), 723. Give them [celery-plants] a final landing-up near the tops.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 4. Celery, that wanted landing.
3. Angling. (See LAND v. 3.)
1884. Public Opinion, 5 Sept., 302/1. His attention is fixed upon … the skilful ‘landing’ of his fish.
4. Mining. (See quot. 1860 and LAND v. 1 b.)
1860. Eng. & For. Mining Gloss., S. Staffs. Terms, Landing, the banksman receiving the loaded skip at surface.
II. Concrete senses.
5. A place for disembarking passengers or unlading goods; a landing-place.
1609. Daniel, Civ. Wars, VII. xxxvi. Defend all landings, barre all passages.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 100. Amending the landing at the Edystone. Ibid. As my proposed materials would not swim, a safe landing became a still more important object.
b. ‘The platform of a railway station’ (Simmonds, Dict. Trade, 1858). ? Obs.
6. A platform in which a flight of stairs terminates; a resting-place between two flights of stairs.
1789. P. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 122. A resting-place, or landing, should be contrived after 9, 11, or at the utmost 13 steps.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, ii. He took to pieces the eight day clock on the front Landing.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 308. The ablution rooms … must be placed on the landings.
1882. Macm. Mag., XLVI. 441/1. The five bedrooms all opened on a square landing.
b. Stone used in or suitable for the construction of staircase landings.
1847. Smeaton, Builder’s Man., 190. 6-in. rubbed York landing.
1858. Skyring’s Builders’ Prices (ed. 48), 84. 3 inch Portland balcony bottoms, or landings.
1886. Mod. Newspaper Advt., All kinds of flags, steps, landings,… &c.
7. Various technical senses (chiefly U.S.). a. (See quot. 1844.) b. Lumbering. A place where logs are landed and stored. c. ‘A platform of a furnace at the charging height’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875). d. Boat-building. = LAND sb. 9 c (q.v.). e. Mining. A place at the mouth of a shaft for the landing of kibbles or other receptacles (Cent. Dict.). f. Fortif. ‘The horizontal space at the entrance of a gallery or return’ (Ibid.).
1844. Gosse, in Zoologist, II. 706. Every extensive planter, whose estate borders on the river [Alabama], has what is called a landing; that is a large building to contain bales of cotton.
1868. J. M. Tuttle, in Harper’s Mag., XXXVI. 420/1. We emerged from the thick timber into an opening through which ran Tibbet’s Brook. Here was what was called the ‘landing.’… We could see thousands of logs that had been cut and hauled from the surrounding forests.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, Landing, a level stage for loading or unloading coals upon.
8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) landing-pier, -quay, -stairs, -steps, (sense 3) landing-gaff, -hook, -ring; landing charges, rates (Ogilvie), ‘charges or fees paid on goods unloaded from a vessel’ (Webster, 1864); landing floor = sense 6; landing-stage, a platform, often a floating one, for the landing of passengers and goods from sea-vessels; landing-strake Boat-building, ‘the upper strake but one’ (Weale’s Rudim. Nav., 128); landing-surveyor, a customs officer who appoints and superintends the landing waiters; landing-waiter, a customs officer whose duty is to superintend the landing of goods and to examine them. Also LANDING-NET, -PLACE.
1856. Capern, Poems (ed. 2), 143. A cautious footfall stealing Gently o’er the *landing-floor.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. ii. 330. A young Angler should be furnished … with … *Landing-Hook,… Shot and Floats of divers Sorts.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Landing-pier, Landing-stage.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 45. Broad *landing quays covered with cranes lined the river bank.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 51. *Landing Rings, Gaffs, Nets, &c.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., liv. An old *landing-stage.
1868. Less. Mid. Age, 269. On Monday morning, in a thick white fog, I entered a little steamer at the landing-stage at Liverpool.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, viii. The steps … form a *landing-stairs from the river.
1887. Spectator, 21 May, 692/1. Jack is going to sea, and his friends are on the landing-stairs to take leave of him.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xxii. 239. He … advanced foremost on the *landing-steps.
1864. Mrs. Lloyd, Ladies Polc., 28. A little natural pier, in which landing-steps had been cut.
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs, 126. Sail-cloth and Sails are required to be stamped in the presence of a *Landing-surveyor and Landing-waiter, on the common quay.
1797. Monthly Mag., III. 480. Mr. J. Brook, *landing waiter of the custom-house.
