yawing, vbl. n.
(ˈjɔːɪŋ)
[f. yaw v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of the verb yaw; temporary deviation of a vessel from her course; unsteady movement from side to side; also fig. and attrib.
| 1586 J. Melvill Diary (Wodrow Soc.) 253 Be hir tumbling and yeawing, the mast schouk sa louse, that Mr. Robert.. haid mikle ado to fasten the sam. 1627 Capt. J. Smith Sea Gram. ix. 38 He that keepes the Ship most from yawing doth commonly vse the lest motion with the Helme. 1793 Nelson 22 Oct. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) I. 335 The Chase..by yawing, which her superiority in sailing enabled her to do, gave us many broadsides. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lii, There is a great yawing of mouths and..renewed inquiries for fords. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 293 The language has such a fatal genius for going stern-foremost, for yawing. 1915 A. Fage Aeroplane vi. 86 An indifference [on the part of pilots] to yawing, and possibly to rolling, is regarded favourably in many aeronautical circles. 1935 C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 238/1 This causes a ‘yawing’ effect in the opposite direction to the turning effect of the rudder [of the plane]. 1975 L. J. Clancy Aerodynamics xvi. 525 If the aircraft has a yawing velocity, r, this affects the fin incidence in the same way that pitching velocity affects the tail incidence. |
b. Special Comb.: yawing axis, a vertical axis through a ship or aircraft; an axis through a spacecraft normal to both the longitudinal and lateral axes.
| 1953 [see rolling axis s.v. rolling vbl. n.2 9 a]. 1978 Jrnl. Fluid Mech. LXXXVII. 533 These passive yawing motions are studied to find their amplitude, the yawing axis and any associated energy dissipation. |
So ˈyawing ppl. a., that yaws (lit. and fig.).
| 1835 Whately in Life (1866) I. 292 Another [evil] will be a sort of unsteady yawing course of the state-ship. 1850 ‘H. Hieover’ Pract. Horsemanship v. 92 A more yawing, pully-hauly brute I had scarcely ever ridden. |