▪ I. surveying, vbl. n.
(səˈveɪɪŋ)
[f. survey v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb survey.
1. The action of viewing or examining in detail (esp. officially); † the exploration (of a country).
| 1467–8 Rolls of Parlt. V. 598/2 The surveying aswell of the Veerte as of the Venyson of oure Forest. 1577 V. Leigh (title) The..science of Surueying of Landes, Tenementes, and Hereditamentes. 1596 Bacon Max. & Use Com. Law ii. (1630) 10 Besides surueying of the Pledges of Freemen, and giuing the oath of Allegeance, and making Constables. 1607 in Hist. Wakefield Gram. Sch. (1892) 74 If great occasion shall be for the surveyinge of the whole..of the howses or landes to the schole belonginge. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 5 Commissions for the surveying and repairing of Walls, Banks and Rivers. 1632 Lithgow (title) The Totall Discourse, Of the Rare Aduentures..of long nineteene Yeares Trauayles..in Surueighing of Forty eight Kingdomes. |
2. The process or art of making surveys of land: see survey n. 5, v. 2, and land-surveying.
| 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. Ep. King, In suruaiyng & measuring of landes. 1639 Boston Rec. (1877) II. 41 A great lott..twelve acrs, paying for the same..three shillings an acr upon the entrance of the platform or bounders thereof, after the Surveying of it. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece Pref. a ij, I..reduced their Positions into Triangles;..an ordinary rule in surveighing. a 1727 Newton Chronol. Amended ii. (1728) 248 This King wrote a book of surveying, which gave a beginning to Geometry. 1867 Brande & Cox Dict. Sci., etc. s.v., Naval Surveying, the science of determining the lines on which seas may be safely navigated. |
† 3. Oversight, superintendence. Obs.
| 1538 Elyot, Libitinarius, he that hath the suruayeng and charge aboute burienges. |
4. attrib.: † a. surveying-board, -place, a sideboard or hatch on which the dishes were placed ready for serving at a meal under the direction of the ‘surveyor’ (surveyor 1 d). Obs.
| a 1483 Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 45, xx squires attendaunt uppon the King's person..to help serve his table from the surveying bourde, and from other places, as the assewer woll assigne. c 1543 in Parker Dom. Archit. III. 78 A new halle, with a squillery, saucery, & surveyng place. c 1600 in Archaeologia LXIV. 392 The surveying place by the kitchin dore. 1608 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 494 Y⊇ kitchen, butry, surveying place. |
b. Applied to instruments or appliances used for, and to ships employed in, surveying.
| 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. i. i. Wks. 1851 III. 98 Discipline, whose golden survaying reed..measures every quarter and circuit of new Jerusalem. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. i. 2 In that socket you put the head of your three legged Surveying-Staff. a 1691 Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 134 Having gotten together all the surveighing chains the city afforded..we went into the Church. 1701 Moxon Math. Instr. 17 Reducing scale,..Sometimes 'tis called a Surveying Scale. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., [The] Surveying Cross..in France..serves in lieu of a Theodolite. Ibid. s.v. Quadrant, The Common, or Surveying Quadrant. Ibid., Perambulator,..an Instrument for the measuring of Distances, call'd also Pedometer, Way-wiser, and Surveying Wheel. 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 108/2 A very useful..addition to the ordinary Surveying Poles. 1846 Huxley in L. Huxley Life & Lett. (1900) I. ii. 26 Surveying ships are totally different from the ordinary run of men-of-war. 1883 Simmonds Dict. Trade Suppl., Surveying Chain, a measuring chain 66 feet long, with iron rings and links. 1905 A. R. Wallace Life I. vi. 86 My strong surveying boots cost 14s. a pair. |
▪ II. surˈveying, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That surveys: see the verb.
| 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 21 Hir [sc. an Eagle's] suruaighing spreding traine. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. ix, Whose courtly habite is the grace of the presence, and delight of the surueying eye. a 1644 Quarles Sol. Recant. ch. vi. 5 The worlds surveighing Lamp. 1697 Dryden æneid xi. 796 A steepy Mountain..Whence the surveying Sight the neather Ground commands. |