[f. SOUND v.2]
1. a. One who sounds the depth of water, etc.
1575. Gascoigne, Posies, Wks. 1907, I. 356. And whyles I hearken what the Saylers saye, The sownder sings, fadame two full no more.
a. 1668. Davenant, Philosopher’s Disquisition, v. Wks. (1673), 326. It is a Plummet to so short a Line, As sounds no deeper then the sounders Eies.
b. One who sounds the intentions, opinions, etc., of a person or persons. rare–1.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1371/1. For that himselfe would not be seene to be a sounder of men, least he might be discouered, and so indanger himselfe and the enterprise.
2. An apparatus for sounding the sea.
1811. Naval Chron., XXV. 221. This sounder shews, with sufficient accuracy, the perpendicular depth of water.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 832/1. Sounder. Sir William Thomson’s apparatus for deep-sea sounding while the ship is in motion.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 2 Dec., 8/1. Whilst sounding on this ledge the sounder struck ground at 550 fathoms.
3. A surgical sound.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 1926/1. Sims’s uterine repositor consists of a short metallic sounder, rotatable on a long shaft.
