westing

Pluralwestings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The distance a point lies west of a reference line on a map or chart.

   Each station's westing was recorded alongside its northing in the survey log.

   Plotting the westings let the team see how far the trail drifted toward sunset.

   Oppositeeasting

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The distance covered in a westward direction, especially by a ship or aircraft.

   The captain logged sixty miles of westing by nightfall.

   Contrary currents cost the vessel much of its hard-won westing.

   Oppositeeasting

   Note

   A navigator's word for ground gained toward the west. A vessel makes westing, logs it, and can lose it again to contrary winds or currents. Unlike the map-grid distance, which fixes where a point sits, this one measures movement. It adds up over a voyage and is reckoned as distance made good, not miles sailed.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of west.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is intransitive. To west is to move westward and, above all, said of the sun, to set, so a moon westing is a moon going down. The -ing form also works as a gerund. The same spelling serves as a countable noun with the plural westings, for distance made westward. The verb form never takes a plural.

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