heeling

Pluralheelings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of heel.

   The yacht was heeling steeply as the afternoon breeze freshened.

   Heeling a young retriever takes patience and consistent practice.

   Note

   One -ing form doing two jobs. It is a progressive verb (the dog is heeling at her side) and a gerund naming an activity (heeling a young retriever). As a gerund it can still take a direct object, because heel in its training sense is transitive: to make an animal follow at one's heels. That object is the surest way to tell it from the noun for a tilt, which takes an article and a plural, heelings.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A leaning to one side; a tilt, as when a boat inclines under the force of the wind.

   Like a tray of glasses tipping when you carry it unevenly.

   The yacht's heeling increased alarmingly as the squall hit.

   A slight heeling to port suggested the cargo below had shifted.

   Similartilt, list, lean, listing

   Note

   A sailor's word for the sideways lean of a hull, an inclination across the vessel rather than along it. Wind pressure, a hard turn or unevenly stowed cargo can each produce it, and the hull's righting moment works against it. The noun can be counted as well as massed. The Nautical Magazine of 1871 praises a "stiff ship" sailing on a wind "without perceptible heelings," meaning individual lurches, not a general lean.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2