# log

Pronunciation: US say "LAWG" /lɔɡ/; UK say "LOG" /lɒɡ/

## Noun

1. A large piece of a tree trunk or branch, either fallen or cut, especially for use as timber or firewood.
   - Simple: A thick piece of a tree trunk or big branch, used for building or burning.
   - _She split each log into kindling for the stove._
   - _Trucks hauled freshly cut logs from the forest to the sawmill._
2. An official or systematic record of events in the order they happen, such as a ship's or aircraft's journey or a computer's activity.
   - Simple: A written record of what happens and when, like on a ship or a computer.
   - _The maintenance log shows every repair made to the elevator since 2019._
   - _She reviewed her workout logs to track her progress over the year._
5. A logarithm, the power to which a base must be raised to produce a given number.
   - Simple: The power a base number, such as 10, must be raised to in order to give another number.
   - _To solve the equation, take the log of both sides._
   - _The decibel scale uses logs to compress a huge range of sound intensities._
6. Anything having a roughly cylindrical shape, like a section of tree trunk.
   - Simple: Something long and round, shaped like a piece of tree trunk.
   - _Chill the cookie dough in a log and slice off rounds as needed._
   - _The gym mats were rolled into tight logs and stacked along the wall._
10. A cake rolled around a sweet filling such as cream or jam, then sliced to serve.
   - Simple: A sweet cake rolled up around a soft filling, shaped like a tree trunk.
   - _The bakery's yule log sold out before noon on Christmas Eve._
   - _He sliced the log to reveal a neat spiral of raspberry filling._
11. A piece of feces.
   - Simple: A rude word for a long piece of poop.
   - _He flushed twice, but the log refused to go down._
   - _The campsite outhouse was swarming with flies and full of ancient logs._
12. A difference of one unit in the base-10 logarithm of a quantity: equivalently, one order of magnitude.
   - Simple: A change by a factor of ten, counted as one step on a base-10 scale.
   - _Researchers reported a reduction of four logs in viral load after treatment._
   - _Each log on the dilution scale corresponds to a tenfold change in concentration._
13. A floating device, usually wooden, dropped into the water to estimate a vessel's speed as it moves through the sea.
   - Simple: A wooden float that sailors drop into the sea to measure how fast a ship is moving.
   - _The mate streamed the log astern and counted the knots as the line ran out._
   - _Before modern instruments, navigators relied on a log to gauge how quickly they were sailing._

## Verb

3. To make or add an entry recording (something) in a log or logbook.
   - Simple: To write something down in a record or notebook.
   - _Air traffic controllers log each handoff as it occurs._
   - _The technician logged the outage in the maintenance record at 3:14 a.m._
4. To cut down trees in an area and cut them into logs for timber.
   - Simple: To cut down trees and cut them up for wood.
   - _The company plans to log the hillside next spring._
   - _Crews log here only in winter, when the frozen ground protects the soil._
9. To cut (felled trees) into logs.
   - Simple: To cut fallen trees into shorter pieces of wood.
   - _After the ice storm, neighbors spent the weekend logging the downed maples into firewood lengths._
   - _Crews fell the trees in the morning and log them into twelve-foot lengths by afternoon._
7. To travel a particular distance or at a particular speed, or to accumulate an amount of time doing something, as recorded in a log.
   - Simple: To travel a certain distance or at a certain speed, or spend a certain time, as shown in a record.
   - _By season's end, the trucker had logged over a hundred thousand miles._
   - _Long-haul pilots log hundreds of flight hours every year._
8. To disconnect from an online video game; to log out.
   - Simple: To leave an online game by signing out.
   - _She logged right before the boss fight, leaving the team short a healer._
   - _Don't log yet, because we need you for one more round._

## Verb

14. To move back and forth or from one side to another, as a rocking object does. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To sway gently back and forth, the way something rocks.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A blockhead: a dull-witted person regarded as hopelessly slow to understand.
- (noun) A heavy longboard, favored by surfers for long, smooth glides rather than sharp turns.
- (noun) A measure of timber length that counts each 16 feet as one unit, especially when measuring tree trunks.
- (noun) Vulgar slang for the penis.
- (noun) A weight or block fastened near the free end of a hoisting rope to keep the rope from being drawn through the sheave.
- (noun) An ancient Hebrew unit of liquid volume, equal to roughly one-third of a liter.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4, 6, 9–11, 13** — The word appears in Middle English as logge, and its first record is the Anglo-Latin loggum. Its origin is uncertain. Most likely it comes from Old Norse lóg or lág ("felled tree, log"), derived from liggja ("to lie"), in which case Norwegian låg ("fallen tree") and Dutch loog ("wood, timber") are relatives. Another possibility is that it came straight from Norwegian låg by way of the timber trade, but the vowel lengths in the two languages do not quite agree.
**Meanings 2–3, 7** — The word is short for logbook, which joined log (the piece of wood) with book. The name comes from the chip log, a wooden float once used to measure how fast a ship was going.
**Meaning 8** — An ellipsis of log out, itself derived from etymology 2.
**Meanings 5, 12** — A clipping of logarithm.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/log (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).