▪ I. landing, vbl. n.
(ˈlændɪŋ)
[f. land v. + -ing1.]
I. The action of the verb land.
1. a. The action of coming to land or putting ashore; disembarkation.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 312/1 Londynge fro schyppe and watur, applicacio. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. I. 9/2 They take landing within the dominion of king Goffarus. 1655 Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 308 Att his landing att Towre wharfe. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 264 There is Water enough for Boats and Canoes to enter, and smooth landing after you are in. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. vii. 355 The Commodore..was saluted at his landing by eleven guns. 1798 Duke of Clarence in Nicolas Disp. (1845) III. 10 note, The French cannot effect a landing in Ireland. 1855 Stanley Mem. Canterb. i. (1857) 3 There are five great landings in English history, each of vast importance. |
b. Arrival at a stage or place of landing,
e.g. on a staircase.
| 1705 Addison Trav. Italy 433 A Stair-Case..where..the Disposition of the Lights, and the convenient Landing are admirably well contriv'd. |
c. Coming to ground at the end of a leap.
| 1881 Times 14 Feb. 4/2 The taking off at the jumps was awkward, and the landing more ugly still. |
d. The (or an) action of approaching and alighting on the ground or some other surface after a flight.
happy landings!: see
happy a. 3.
| 1784 [see land v. 8 b]. 1909 Flight 13 Feb. 93/1 (heading) Flight ‘landings’. 1912 Aeroplane 19 Dec. 621/2 Major Cameron and Capt. Salmon with Mr. Barnwell and, later, Mr. Knight up behind, put in large number [sic] of straights each making very good flights and landings. 1916 H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks 49 You can..imagine what a difference that would make where forced landings are concerned! 1923 H. G. Wells Men like Gods i. iii. 37 The aeroplanes made an easy landing. 1927 G. Aston Navy of To-Day v. 31 The airman, and the airman's home, the aircraft carrier, must steam head to wind..when the airmen want to accomplish ‘landings’ on her deck. 1936 Discovery Aug. 238/1 The camera is raised during take-offs and landings. 1956 [see emergency 5 b]. 1967 D. P. Davies Handling Big Jets iii. 30 For take-off and landing the weight should be known to within 5,000 lb. 1969 Times 21 July 1/1 The landing, in the Sea of Tranquillity, was near perfect and the two astronauts on board Eagle reported that it had not tilted too far to prevent take-off. 1974 Daily Tel. 21 Feb. 17/7 He [sc. a balloonist] has food and water for 10 days and the gondola is equipped with floatation devices to keep it upright if he is forced to make a water landing. |
2. a. landing up: blocking up of a watercourse by earth or mud.
b. Earthing up of plants.
| 1692 Ray Dissol. World iii. v. (1732) 352 This Landing up and Atterration of the Skirts of the Sea. a 1806 Abercrombie in Loudon Gardening iii. i. (1822) 723 Give them [celery-plants] a final landing-up near the tops. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro'M. 4 Celery, that wanted landing. |
3. Angling. (See
land v. 3.)
| 1884 Public Opinion 5 Sept. 302/1 His attention is fixed upon..the skilful ‘landing’ of his fish. |
4. Mining. (See
quot. 1860 and
land v. 1 b.)
| 1860 Eng. & For. Mining Gloss., S. Staffs. Terms, Landing, the banksman receiving the loaded skip at surface. |
II. Concrete senses.
5. a. A place for disembarking passengers or unlading goods; a landing-place.
| 1609 Daniel Civ. Wars vii. xxxvi, Defend all landings, barre all passages. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §100 Amending the landing at the Edystone. Ibid., As my proposed materials would not swim, a safe landing became a still more important object. 1832 S. Cumings Western Pilot 49 There is a pretty good landing at the upper end of the town. 1867 J. N. Edwards Shelby xx. 366 The next day the brigade moved to the river near Gaines Landing. 1895 M. A. Jackson Mem. Stonewall Jackson (ed. 2) xii. 211 Just before reaching the landing I stopped to look back. |
b. ‘The platform of a railway station’ (Simmonds
Dict. Trade 1858). ?
Obs. 6. a. A platform in which a flight of stairs terminates; a resting-place between two flights of stairs.
| 1789 P. Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 122 A resting⁓place, or landing, should be contrived after 9, 11, or at the utmost 13 steps. 1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz ii, He took to pieces the eight day clock on the front Landing. 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 308 The ablution rooms..must be placed on the landings. 1882 Macm. Mag. XLVI. 441 The five bedrooms all opened on a square landing. |
b. Stone used in or suitable for the construction of staircase landings.
| 1847 Smeaton Builder's Man. 190, 6-in. rubbed York landing. 1858 Skyring's Builders' Prices (ed. 48) 84, 3 inch Portland balcony bottoms, or landings. 1886 Mod. Newspaper Advt., All kinds of flags, steps, landings,..&c. |
7. Various technical senses (chiefly
U.S.).
a. (See
quot. 1844.)
b. Lumbering. A place where logs are landed and stored.
c. ‘A platform of a furnace at the charging height’ (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875).
d. Boat-building.
= land n.1 9 c (
q.v.).
e. Mining. A place at the mouth of a shaft for the landing of kibbles or other receptacles (
Cent. Dict.).
f. Fortif. ‘The horizontal space at the entrance of a gallery or return’ (
Ibid.).
| 1844 Gosse in Zoologist II. 706 Every extensive planter, whose estate borders on the river [Alabama], has what is called a landing; that is a large building to contain bales of cotton. 1868 Harper's Mag. XXXVI. 420 We emerged from the thick timber into an opening through which ran Tibbett's Brook. Here was what is called the landing..we could see thousands of logs that had been hauled. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Landing, a level stage for loading or unloading coals upon. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 1)
landing area,
landing fee,
landing field,
landing ground,
landing-leg,
landing-pier,
landing-quay,
landing site,
landing-stairs,
landing-steps,
landing-tower,
landing vehicle; (sense 3)
landing-gaff,
landing-hook,
landing-ring;
landing beam Aeronaut., a radio beam to guide aircraft when landing;
landing card, a card issued to a passenger on an international flight or voyage, which is surrendered on arrival;
landing charges,
rates (Ogilvie), ‘charges or fees paid on goods unloaded from a vessel’ (Webster, 1864);
landing craft, a naval vessel with a shallow draught designed for landing troops, tanks, etc., in an amphibious assault; hence
transf. in
Astronaut., the section of a spacecraft which is used for the final descent to the surface of a planet or moon;
landing flap Aeronaut., a flap that can be lowered to increase the lift and the drag and so make possible lower speeds for take-off and landing;
landing floor = sense 6;
landing gear, (
a)
Aeronaut., the structure underneath an aircraft that is designed to support it on the ground and to absorb the shock of landing (in modern aircraft made to be retracted in flight); (
b) the retractable support at the front of a semi-trailer that supports it when not attached to the tractor;
landing light, (
a) a light on the runway of an aerodrome to guide an aircraft in a night landing; (
b) a light attached to an aircraft to illuminate the ground for a night landing;
landing pad, (
a) a small area of an aerodrome or heliport, used for the landing and taking off of helicopters; (
b) a cushioned or strengthened foot which supports a hovercraft, spacecraft, or the like when stationary on the ground;
landing ship (tank(s)), a large landing craft for the transport of tanks and other vehicles;
landing speed, the speed at which an aircraft lands (see also
quot. 1911);
landing-stage, a platform, often a floating one, for the landing of passengers and goods from sea-vessels;
landing-strake Boat-building, ‘the upper strake but one’ (Weale's
Rudim. Nav. 128);
landing strip = air-strip (
air n.1 B. III. 7);
landing-surveyor, a customs officer who appoints and superintends the landing waiters;
landing ticket = landing card;
landing-waiter, a customs officer whose duty is to superintend the landing of goods and to examine them;
landing wire,
Aeronaut., a wire on a biplane or light monoplane that is designed to take the weight of a wing when the aircraft is on the ground. Also
landing-net, -place.
| 1910 R. Ferris How it Flies xx. 464 *Landing area, a piece of land specially prepared for the alighting of aeroplanes without risk of injury. 1951 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 23 Landing area, the part of the movement area primarily intended for the take-off and landing of aircraft. 1974 G. Mitchell Javelin for Jonah ix. 115 You may go ahead with the new landing-areas for jump and pole. |
| 1929 *Landing beam [see beam n.1 24 b]. 1933 Flight 1 June 524 A pointer on a simple instrument showed him any deviation from the landing beam. 1945 Aeronautics Feb. 30 (heading) Diagram showing the aircraft..entering the landing beam. |
| 1932 G. Greene Stamboul Train i. i. 3 The purser took the last *landing card..and watched the passengers cross the grey wet quay. 1950 P. Bottome Under Skin ii. 18 Got your landing card ready, and your passport? 1966 ‘W. Haggard’ Power House vi. 58 He could be asked for a landing card and as a through-booking he didn't have one. 1973 Times 13 Dec. 11/2 He included landing cards among the paraphernalia of controls. |
| 1940 W. S. Churchill Second World War (1949) II. 593 Great efforts should be made to produce the *landing-craft as soon as possible. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 18 Apr. 32 Two landing craft were sent ashore with reconnaissance parties. 1943 Landing craft [see assault n. 8]. 1953 Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. XII. 275 The landing craft (a small supplementary vehicle designed for vertical descent with rocket braking, carried to the destinaton by the parent spaceship). 1957 P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound vii. 144 Landing-craft of all kinds poured out their cargo upon the beaches. 1966 D. Holbrook Flesh Wounds 93 Three thousand landing craft were ready to move out of all the ports all along the coast, from Falmouth to Harwich. 1969 Times 21 July 8/2 At 1,500 ft., the astronauts slowed the landing craft and brought it gently down four miles off the scheduled target in the Sea of Tranquillity. |
| 1922 Flight XIV. 660/1 No extra *landing fee will be charged in respect of test flights before departure. 1972 Times 11 Feb. 1/1 Strong opposition has come from the airlines to a new system of landing fees which is to be introduced at Heathrow. |
| 1921 Aeronautics 13 Jan. 26/1 The improvement of *landing fields and equipment. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. I. 97 The emergency landing fields, which were set aside by the Royal Air Force for special purposes, were usually grass covered. |
| 1936 Technical Rep. Aeronaut. Res. Comm. 1934–35 I. 30 Now that so many aeroplanes are being fitted with *landing flaps it is important to permit the flap to extend along the whole span. 1940 War Illustr. 19 Jan. 620 With wheels and landing flaps lowered, the pilot makes his approach. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIV. 517/1 Structurally, the aileron is similar to the landing flap. |
| 1856 E. Capern Poems (ed. 2) 143 A cautious footfall stealing Gently o'er the *landing-floor. |
| 1911 Rep. & Mem. Advisory Comm. Aeronaut. No. 59. Nov. 103 The efficiency of *landing gear on various sorts of ground may be tried. 1931 Flight 9 Jan. 30/1 The landing gear is designed to give very smooth landing and taxying characteristics. 1931 J. E. Younger Airplane Construction & Repair iii. 48 Some airplanes are designed with landing gears which fold up into the fuselage and hence offer no direct wind resistance. 1951 Amer. Speech XXVI. 308/2 Landing gear, a strong support that holds up the front end of a semi-trailer when it is not attached to a tractor. 1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 97 Landing gear, the retractable supports on a trailer that prop up the front end when the trailer is unhitched from the tractor. 1971 Physics Bull. Apr. 217/1 Steels with improved fracture properties needed in nuclear submarines and aircraft landing gear are also under development. |
| 1912 Aeroplane 12 Dec. 584/1 The great deterrent at present is the lack of proper *landing grounds. 1920 Landing ground [see flying school (flying vbl. n. 3)]. 1943 T. S. Eliot in Ld. Sempill et al. Friendship, Progress, Civilisation 20 To descend from this flight into generalities on to the particular landing-ground of the present occasion. 1961 L. van der Post Heart of Hunter i. v. 80 The great pan..had a floor so wide, level and firm that..the biggest aircraft could land on it. I myself had used it as a landing-ground many times. |
| 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. ii. 330 A young Angler should be furnished..with..*Landing-Hook,..Shot and Floats of divers Sorts. |
| 1951 Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. X. 101 In the case of a Moonflight..this means a vertical descent using reverse rocket braking in conjunction with a radar-altimeter and *landing-legs. 1969 Sun 22 July 1/2 The Eagle, leaving its spidery landing-legs behind, soared away. |
| 1917 Flight 4 Jan. 18/1 A new system, called ‘Triplex glass *landing lights’, proved to be inferior to petrol flares. 1920 Proc. Air Conf., London 11 Aerodromes will be equipped..as night flying is practicable. Permanent electric landing lights..are being installed. 1922 Flight XIV. 519/2 Lighting Set (including navigation lights, landing lights and illumination of instruments). 1937 Times 16 Apr. 9/3 They see no reason why they should confuse coloured Véry lights or landing lights in the air. 1942 R.A.F. Jrnl. 3 Oct. 7 From beneath him a landing light groped downwards. 1969 I. Kemp Brit. G.I. in Vietnam iii. 69 He..switched on his landing light, illuminating three paratroopers standing on the landing zone signalling us in. 1973 Times 11 Apr. 3/7 They used landing lights to make three trips and everyone on board was winched to safety. |
| 1958 World Helicopter Apr. 6/1 Our cover picture shows one of Sabena's fleet of 12-passenger Sikorsky S.58's making a landing at the heliport on the strip between the two 80 ft. diameter *landing pads. 1961 New Scientist 2 Mar. 528/3 The actual landing pad need still be no more than 150 ft square. 1967 Gloss. Terms Air-Cushion Vehicles (B.S.I.) 6 Landing pads, strong points, protruding below the rigid bottom of an ACV, which support the vehicle when at rest on land. 1969 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 23 Mar. 10/1 The first landing pad for the young [helicopter] company was a patch of open land way down Shelbourne Street, at that time the outskirts of Victoria. 1969 Times 17 May 8/5 Its landing pads are 37 in. across, each of them fitted with a probe which can sense the surface. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Landing-pier, Landing-stage. |
| 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 45 Broad *landing quays covered with cranes lined the river bank. |
| 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 51 *Landing Rings, Gaffs, Nets, &c. |
| 1943 Life 11 Oct. 34/2 The first is the LST (*Landing Ship, Tank), 327 ft. long and displacing 5,500 tons. 1944 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 27 Oct. 1943–11 Apr. 1944. 166 (caption) Landing Ship Tanks. These two landing ships tanks close inshore at Bougainville are unloading supplies and equipment for the U.S. Marines and army troops. 1944 Daily Tel. 11 July, It [sc. the port of Cherbourg] will be open shortly for craft of the L.S.T. type (landing ship tanks). 1945 T. Blore Turning Point—1943 vi. 51 Cedric and I put off in a motor fishing vessel to find our Tank Landing Ship. 1951 W. S. Churchill Second World War (1952) V. ii. 26 The ‘landing-ship, tank’..had first been conceived and developed in Britain in 1940. 1961 B. Fergusson Watery Maze iv. 106 Rear-Admiral Burrough, with the cruiser Kenya and four destroyers, was to escort the two landing ships. 1966 D. Holbrook Flesh Wounds 93 Paul's Squadron embarked on its Landing Ship Tank late on the 3rd June. |
| 1969 Times 4 Feb. 13/4 The eastern end of the planned Apollo *landing site. 1972 Nature 3 Mar. 3/1 The landing site of Luna 20 was some 120 km north of the region from which Luna 16 recovered specimens. |
| 1911 R. M. Pierce Dict. Aviation 144 *Landing-speed.., the speed with which a landing or descent to the earth is made, as by a man falling from a height. 1937 New Republic 19 May 35/1 The modern air liner's landing speed has gone up as designers have boosted its top speed by refining line and form. 1961 P. W. Brooks Mod. Airliner iii. 75 Wheel brakes..now became a necessity because of the increased take-off and landing speeds of the more heavily loaded monoplanes. |
| 1858 *Landing-stage [see landing-pier above]. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. liv, An old landing-stage. 1868 Less. Mid. Age 269 On Monday morning, in a thick white fog, I entered a little steamer at the landing-stage at Liverpool. |
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist viii, The steps..form a *landing-stairs from the river. 1887 Spectator 21 May 692/1 Jack is going to sea, and his friends are on the landing-stairs to take leave of him. |
| 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xxii. 239 He..advanced foremost on the *landing-steps. 1864 Mrs. Lloyd Ladies Polc. 28 A little natural pier, in which landing-steps had been cut. |
| 1930 Aircraft Engineering Jan. 16/1 The standard intermediate field in low altitudes provides two *landing strips or runways. 1944 Times 1 July 4/3 Squadrons flying from landing strips in Normandy are taking advantage of every break in the clouds. 1956 W. Graham Sleeping Partner 62 Llanveryan had been an aerodrome—a glorified landing strip—in the first place. 1973 G. Greene Honorary Consul iv. iii. 218 Señor Escobar has a landing strip on his estancia. |
| 1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 144 Sail⁓cloth and Sails are required to be stamped in the presence of a *Landing-Surveyor and Landing-waiter, on the common quay. |
| 1925 E. Gellibrand Travelling Do's & Don'ts v. 19 While the cool, collected person gets things done without unnecessary waste of energy, the flustered one..not having his *landing ticket ready..is hustled by the impatient ones. 1930 A. Bennett Imperial Palace li. 382 The hand of the official at the bottom of the gangway was full of landing tickets. |
| 1912 Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 23 They began turning out traffic-lights and locking up *landing-towers. 1967 Jane's Surface Skimmer Systems 1967–68 97/2 Landing Vehicle Hydrofoil. 1969 Observer 20 July 7/1 The astronauts crawl into the landing vehicle..and spend three hours checking it. |
| 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 480 Mr. J. Brook, *landing waiter of the custom-house. |
| 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 46 Something sang to the right, and I found that part of a *landing-wire was dangling helplessly from its socket. 1942 C. C. Redman in R. A. Beaumont Aeronaut. Engin. xvii. 482/1 Landing wires support the wings on the ground, but when the aircraft becomes airborne, the stresses are transferred to the flying wires, as the wings tend to lift upwards. 1952 A. Y. Bramble Air-Plane Flight vii. 100 Those above [the wings of the glider] are obviously supporting the weight of the wings when the machine is on the ground. They are called ‘landing wires’. Those below the wing..are called the ‘flying wires’. |
Add:
[III.] [8.] landing mat.
| 1941 Sci. Amer. Dec. 350/3 Three materials found suitable for use as an emergency *landing mat were steel plank, Irving grid with slip-ring connectors, and rod-and-bar grid with wedge connectors. 1973 Times 12 Jan. 14/2 The standard specifies all the commonly used types of [gymnasium] equipment, from landing mats..to boxing rings. 1987 A. Miller Timebends (1988) ii. 127 Buddy joined the Seabees during the war and welded landing mats for aircraft on Pacific Islands. |
landing zone.
| 1956 W. A. Heflin U.S. Air Force Dict. 292/2 *Landing zone, a zone designated for the landing of aircraft in an airborne assault. 1976 New Yorker 15 Mar. 80/3 Two white-phosphorus rounds were exploded over the landing zone to indicate the ‘all clear’. 1990 A. Beevor Inside Brit. Army (1991) xvi. 241 The non-para infantry..follow once the units dropped have secured a landing zone for their Hercules. |
landing run Aeronaut., the distance that an aircraft travels in contact with the ground during landing; also, that part of an aircraft journey during which the pilot prepares to land.
| 1920 E. B. Wilson Aeronautics 264/1 (Index), *Landing run, 37. 1931 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXV. 747 (heading) Shortening starting and landing runs. 1946 Happy Landings (Air Ministry) July 1/2 A type of failure which..can have disastrous effects on the next landing run. 1986 Aircraft Illustr. July 347/2 The landing gear gets its going over during..the take-off and landing runs. |
▪ II. ˈlanding, ppl. a. [-ing2.] That lands; in
Mil. phr. landing force,
landing party.
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 8 Sept. 8/1 This was due to the French having no landing force. 1894 Ld. Wolseley Life Marlborough II. 175 Sending three armed boats ashore, a landing party took the battery. |