[f. SOUND v.2]
1. The action or process of sounding or ascertaining the depth of water by means of the line and lead; an instance of this.
1336. [implied in SOUNDING-LINE].
1352. Excheq. Acc. Q. R. 20, No. 27 (Pub. Rec. Office). De ijs. iijd. pro cordis emptis minutis per vices, Anglice lyne pro soundings et toppeline pro eadem.
1485–. [implied in SOUNDING-LEAD].
1631. Markham, Country Contentm., I. xi. (ed. 4), 76. That in the sounding of Lakes or Riuers, he may know how many foot or inches each … contayneth.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. 50. Taking your sounding from Beef-Island shore.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., When the Seamen try the Depth of the Water with a Line and Plummet, they call it Sounding.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v., Sounding with the hand-lead … is generally performed by a man who stands in the main-chains to windward.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea (Low), 4. Nor have any reliable soundings yet been made in water over five miles deep.
1880. W. B. Carpenter, in 19th Cent., No. 38. 594. At each of the observing stations a sounding was taken for the determination of the exact depth.
transf. 1891. A. M. Clerke, in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Instit., 106. M. Celoria … obtained for a ‘mean sounding,’ at the north pole of the milky way, almost identically the same number [of stars] given by Herschel’s great reflector.
b. fig. Investigation. To take soundings, to try to find out quietly how matters stand.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 156. To himselfe so secret and so close, So farre from sounding and discouery, As is the bud bit with an enuious worme.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 217. Old Dan bears you no malice, I’d lay fifty pounds on it! But, if you like, I’ll just step in and take soundings.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 9 Nov., 4/1. The Liverymen afterwards decide the selection. Soundings may have been taken beforehand.
2. A place or position at sea where it is possible to reach the bottom with the ordinary deep-sea lead (see quot. 1867). Chiefly pl. a. In prepositional phrases, as in or into, off (the) soundings.
The form sowdyng of the earliest examples also occurs in 1495 under SOUNDING-LEAD.
sing. 14[?]. Sailing Directions (Hakl. Soc., 1889), 21. And ye gesse you ij. parties ovir the see … ye must north and by est till ye come into Sowdyng. Ibid. Than go north till ye come into sowdyng of woyse [= ooze].
pl. 1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 18. A shallow water, deepe water, soundings, fadome by the marke.
1694. Narborough, Voy., I. 18. The Sea-Water is changed whiter than the usual colour, whence I conjecture, I must be in Soundings.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. vi. 347. We … frequently brought to, to try if we were in soundings.
1790. Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., I. 174. At this time a French squadron was cruizing in the soundings.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxii. We were soon out of soundings, and well into the Bay of Biscay.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., To be in soundings … is limited in common parlance to parts not far from the shore, and where the depth is about 80 or 100 fathoms.
b. In other uses. To strike soundings (see quot. 1863).
1701. Penn, in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 69. We were but twenty-six days from land to soundings.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. vi. 59. We had soundings which continued all along the coast of Patagonia.
1802. Schomberg, Naval Chronology, I. 132. He … sailed with the rest for England. On the 23d of October the admiral struck soundings in 90 fathoms.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxvi. A large homeward-bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings.
1863. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 359. To strike soundings, is to find bottom with the deep-sea-lead on coming in from sea. A vessel is then in soundings.
c. spec. with the. Such places in the mouth of the English Channel. ? Obs.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 39/1. A little off the Soundings she met with ill weather.
1693. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 51. Alymer, after seen the Streights fleet past the soundings, goes on some other design.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack, xi. We had tolerable weather … till we came into the soundings, so they call the mouth of the British Channel.
[1897. Laughton, in Dict. Nat. Biog. LII. 160/2. On 22 Oct. the fleet came into the soundings.]
d. U.S. (See quot.) rare–1.
1804. C. B. Brown, trans. Volney’s View Soil U.S., 174. On each side, it forms eddies or counter-currents, which, aided by the depositions of the rivers, forms the muddy stratum or deposit, termed soundings.
3. pl. The depths of water in the sea, esp. along the coast, in a harbor, road, etc., or (rarely) in a river, ascertained by sounding with the line and lead; also, the entries in a log-book, etc., giving these, together with particulars relating to the nature of the bottom reached by the lead.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., a iiij b. The Soundinges … ought the Hydrographer … to haue certainly knowen.
c. 1595. Capt. Wyatt, Dudley’s Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 38. I must confess that the Captaine did not make anie publike declaracion how hee fownde the sowndings.
1661. E. Hickeringill (title), Jamaica Viewed: with all the Ports, Harbours, and their several Soundings.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. viii. 216. A plan of the road … where the soundings are laid down.
1774. M. Mackenzie, Maritime Surv., 79. The Survey of the Coast … and the Soundings near it.
1841. Capt. B. Hall, Patchwork, II. i. 4. The leadsman … singing out the soundings to the anxious pilot.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 341. From the state of the soundings at the present day,… the river in Strabo’s time must have entered the sea [etc.].
4. Surg. The action of examining with a sound or probe. Also attrib., as † sounding-iron.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., lf xiii a/1. The soundinge Iron … is verye conveniente to sound, & serche for bullettes … in a vvounde.
1695. New Light Chirurgery put out, 36. He will not allow Sounding by Probe.
1830. S. Cooper, Dict. Pract. Surg. (ed. 6), 816. The manner of searching for the stone, or as it is now more commonly expressed of sounding.
5. attrib., chiefly in sense 1, as sounding-machine, -plumb, -plummet, -rod, -ship, -twine.
Also sounding-apparatus, -bottle, etc. (1875– in Knight, Dict. Mech., and later Dicts.).
1555. Eden, Decades, III. VI. (Arb.), 163. He coulde at no tyme touche the grounde with his soundynge plummet.
1575. Gascoigne, Posies, Wks. 1907, I. 355. (The sounding plumbe) in haste poste hast must raunge, To trye the depth and goodnesse of our gate.
1611. Cotgr., Sonde, a Mariners sounding plummet.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 18. The [sounding] Rod was marked out in Feet and Inches painted.
1832. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), I. 232. It is quite a new thing for a ‘sounding ship’ to beat a regular man-of-war.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 148/2. A sounding-rod of iron … was dropped into it, which rebounding several feet, proved that the solid rock had been reached.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 289. Massey’s Patent Sounding-Machine is an instrument which ascertains the depth of water, and registers it by means of an index. Ibid., Sounding Rod. AA slight bar of iron marked with a scale of feet and inches, used to ascertain the depth of water that may happen to be in a vessel’s hold.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. vi. 71. A five-sinnet line of Maury’s sounding-twine.
1894. Times, 18 Sept., 10/4. Sir William Thomson’s sounding machine was on the vessel aft, but witness used the deep sea lead by the direction of the captain.
