landing

Plurallandings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of coming down onto a surface, as of an airplane or any descending object.

   The crew prepared the cabin for landing as the plane began its descent.

   The probe's landing on the comet's surface marked a scientific milestone.

   Similartouchdown

   Oppositetakeoff

   Note

   The word shows its parts plainly: land plus -ing, a verb turned into a noun for the act itself. Its natural opposite is takeoff, and together the two frame any flight, whether an airliner's or a space probe's. It counts like any other event, so you can have a smooth landing, a hard landing, or two landings in one day.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A level area at the top of a flight of stairs, or one connecting two flights.

   The staircase turned at a wide landing lit by a tall window.

   A small table stood on the landing between the first and second floors.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A place on a shoreline where a boat comes to shore.

   The old stone landing had served the village ferry for a century.

   Passengers gathered at the landing as the steamboat approached.

   Similarquay, jetty, pier, wharf, dock

   Note

   Harbor vocabulary that names a spot by what happens there. A landing is where boats come in to shore, and the word covers anything from an old stone edge to a ferry stop. It shares an idea with the staircase landing: both are level places where a movement pauses, one at the water's edge and one between flights of stairs.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of land.

   The pilot is landing the jet despite a strong crosswind.

   Landing on a moving carrier deck demands precise timing.

   Note

   As a verb form, it keeps the verb's power to take an object, and the nouns lack that power. You can be landing a plane, landing a fish on deck, or, informally, landing a suspect. Compare the noun of arrival, which needs "of" to show what came down: the landing of the plane. Without an object, the -ing form simply means coming down or coming ashore.

5. 5
   nouncountableplural

   The quantity of fish caught in a specific area or on a particular fishing trip.

   The day's landing filled three crates with fresh herring.

   Officials recorded the landing at the dock before the catch went to market.

   Similarcatch, haul

   Note

   A catch word that nearly always works in the plural. Landings are the fish brought ashore and counted, and the plural treats them as a running tally rather than a single haul. Mark Kurlansky's Cod (1997) shows the typical setting, where a huge quantity of landings sends fish prices crashing. In ordinary talk, catch is the plainer word; landings suits markets, prices and totals.

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