▪ I. westing, vbl. n.
(ˈwɛstɪŋ)
[f. west adv. or v.]
1. Naut. The net distance made by a vessel towards the west. (Cf. easting n. 1.)
| 1628 Digby Voy. Mediterr. (Camden) 91 But for easting and westing, great diligence is required not to fall into error. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. iv. xvii. 202 In the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh Columns, set down the Northing, Southing, Easting, and Westing. 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 641 The Lesser Easting or Westing, subtracted from the Greater, shall give you the Departure. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 384 The Westing we should gain in going to California would make amends for what we should lose. 1777 G. Forster Voy. round World II. 579 After leaving Ascension we made a good deal of westing. 1820 Scoresby Arctic Reg. II. 369 A decrease of the variation of the compass, tends to give them more westing than they calculate upon. 1839 Marryat Phantom Ship ix, Their easting and westing could only be computed by dead reckoning. 1858 Merc. Marine Mag. V. 257 Furthest westing N. of Equator 26½° W. |
2. Direction or course towards the west.
| 1825 Scott 29 June in Fam. Lett. (1894) II. 280 How sets the vane..? Due north I hope, with a westing towards Abbotsford. 1857 Livingstone Trav. xviii. 330 The westing we were making brought us among people who are frequently visited by the Mambari, as slave-dealers. 1872 ― Let. to N.Y. Herald (Feb.) in Daily News 29 July 5/6, I..at last found that the mighty river left its westing and flowed right away to the north. |
b. Astron. Attainment of the western limit of the apparent course.
| 1883 Proctor Gt. Pyramid iii. 139 The easting, southing, westing, and northing of heavenly bodies. |
3. Of winds: The fact of blowing from, or shifting to, the west.
| 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) iv. 79 Hitherto winds with westing in them have been most prevalent. Ibid. v. 127 The forces of diurnal rotation assist to give these winds their westing. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 144/1 The westing of these great aerial currents is due to..the rotation of the earth round its axis. |
Add: [1.] b. Cartogr. and Surveying. The distance west of a point of origin; hence, a unit of measurement used in calculating this (usu. pl.); also, a line of longitude west of a given meridian. Cf. *easting vbl. n. 1 b.
| 1767, 1804 [see *southing vbl. n. 3]. 1902 J. Whitelaw Surveying ii. 93 The most accurate method of plotting is..to calculate the latitudes and departures, or northings, southings, eastings, westings, as they are also called, of each of the lines. 1950 J. Clendinning Princ. Surveying v. 57 Latitudes and departures are also sometimes called northings or southings and eastings or westings, according to the direction in which they run. 1972 W. Schofield Engin. Surveying I. iii. 103 On the E–W axis, the eastings are positive and the westings negative, these are called departures. 1986 Sailplane & Gliding Oct./Nov. 216/3 Usually the longitude is a ‘westing’ as most places in the UK lie west of the Greenwich meridian. |
▪ II. ˈwesting, ppl. a.
[f. as prec.]
Tending towards the west.
| 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. iv. ii. 147 In the like manner you must do if your Course were North or Westing. 1836 Scott. Monthly Mag. July 207 The westing sun's beam Cast gold on the grass. 1880 Mrs. Whitney Odd or Even? xxvi, A shade against the westing sun. |