▪ I. sounding, vbl. n.1
(ˈsaʊndɪŋ)
[f. sound v.1]
1. a. The fact of emitting or giving out a sound or sounds, or the power of doing this; the sound produced or given out by something, esp. a bell or trumpet.
| α 1388 Wyclif Exod. xix. 16 The sownyng of a clarioun made noise ful greetli. 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. xvi. xxxvi. (Bodl. MS.), Bras accordeþ moste to trumpes and taboures for sownynge and longe duringe þerof. c 1450 Lovelich Grail lv. 292 That was the Noyse Of here Sownenge. 1482 Monk of Evesham lvii. (Arb.) 110 As al the bellys yn the worlde or what sumeuer ys of sownyng had be rongyn to gedyr at onys. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. (1549) 68 Harpes, lutes, organes softe in sownyng. 1557 Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 202 A blast so hye, That made an eckow in the ayer and sowning through the sky. |
| β c 1440 Promp. Parv. 466/1 Soundynge, sonatus. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 69 in Babees Bk., Ne suppe not with grete sowndynge. 1483 Cath. Angl. 350/1 A Sowndynge, sonoritas. 1530 Palsgr. 273/1 Soundyng, sonnerie. c 1595 Capt. Wyatt Dudley's Voy. (Hakl. Soc.) 46 The cause that made thease people flie from us..was the soundinge of our trumpetts. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. 72 A beginner..shall by this way use only one Sounding, viz. an Unison. a 1700 Evelyn Diary July 1645, The fillings up..'twixt the walls were of urnes and earthen pots for the better sounding. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. ix. 196 The Trumpets sounded their Soundings. 1799 Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 284 These soundings are exactly the same as those of the trumpet. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 104 The rustic's ear at leisure dwells On the soft soundings of his village bells. 1882 C. Rossetti Poems (1904) 262/2 The irresponsive sounding of the sea. |
| fig. a 1711 Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 504 For thou Omniscient art, To know the Wants and Soundings of my Heart. |
b. With advs., as again, on.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 466/2 Soundynge a-ȝene (or rebowndynge), resonatus, reboacio. 1560 Bible (Geneva) Ezek. vii. 7 The sounding againe of the mountaines. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 172 The braying or sounding againe of the Asse. 1852 Seidel Organ 45 The so-called howling or sounding-on of certain pipes when their respective keys are not pressed down. |
2. a. Vocal utterance or pronunciation; resonant or sonorous quality of this.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 163 For men of þe est wiþ men of þe west..acordeþ more in sownynge of speche. 1398 ― Barth. De P.R. v. xxi. (1495) 128 It faryth in children that they spylle and hurte many letters and maye not haue sownyng. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xiv. 152 The Langage of that Contree is more gret in sownynge, than it is in other parties beȝonde the See. 1599 Minsheu Sp. Gram. 6, G..hath two maner of soundings according to the vowels which follow it. |
b. Black English. Playing the dozens (play v. 16 e).
| 1962 R. D. Abrahams in Jrnl. Amer. Folklore LXXV. 209 The dozens are commonly called ‘playing’ or ‘sounding’. 1965 Ibid. LXXVIII. 343 Sounding, especially Mother-Sounding, demonstrates the second place given to the mother-son bond in comparison to the primary place assigned the clique. 1972 W. Labov Language in Inner City p. xviii, The setting was essentially that of a party..with card games, eating and drinking, singing and sounding. 1974 H. L. Foster Ribbin', Jivin', & Playin' Dozens v. 183 In Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the term is sounding... In a Brooklyn, New York, secondary school the terms ranking and sounding are still used. |
3. The (or an) act of causing a trumpet, bell, etc., to sound; the blowing of a bugle or trumpet, esp. as a signal.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xviii. 8 b, Euery man was warned to be redy at the fyrst soundyng of the trumpette. 1529 Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland) I. 396 Be conuocatioun of our said communitie be þe swndyng of þe bell usit in þis part. 1616 B. Jonson Poetaster (Init.), After the second sounding. 1811 Regul. & Orders Army 281 Whether perfect in the different Soundings of the Trumpet, and in the Beats of the Drum. 1879 Scribner's Mag. XIX. 518/2 Only at the sounding of the second bell did Louisiana escape..to prepare for dinner. |
† 4. = ringing vbl. n.2 3. Obs.—1
| 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme i. xii. 61 Against the noise and sounding of the eare. |
5. The action of examining by percussion; spec. auscultation; an instance of this.
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 230 Sounding, knocking on the roof, etc., to ascertain if it is sound or safe to work under. 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., Sounding, the operation of examining the chest; auscultation. 1900 E. Wallace Writ in Barracks 72 Didn't mind the Doctor's soundin's. |
6. Comb., as sounding-bar, sounding-machine, sounding-rod, sounding-string; sounding bow, -box (see sound n.3 8); sounding-post = sound-post.
| 1756 Dict. Arts & Sci. s.v. Bell, The parts of a Bell are (1) The sounding bow, or the inferior circle, which terminates it, growing thinner and thinner. 1838 Penny Mag. 30 June 246/2 This peg is called the sounding post..of the violin. 1847 Todd & Bowman Phys. Anat. II. 97 Müller..could by means of a sounding-rod..ascertain the relative intensity of the sonorous vibrations. 1853 Herschel Pop. Lect. Sci. vii. §58 (1873) 275 The vibrations which reach the ear from a sounding-string. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. iv. 59 Above the vibrating reed-apparatus is set, after the fashion of a sounding-box, the cavity of the pharynx. 1881 W. E. Dickson Pract. Organ-Building v. 64 A long screw..biting well in one of the sounding-bars. |
▪ II. sounding, vbl. n.2
(ˈsaʊndɪŋ)
[f. sound v.2]
1. a. The action or process of sounding or ascertaining the depth of water by means of the line and lead or (now usu.) by means of echo; an instance of this.
| 1336 [implied in sounding-line]. 1352 Excheq. Acc. Q.R. 20 No. 27 (Pub. Rec. Office), De ijs. iijd. pro cordis emptis minutis per vices, Anglice lyne pro soundings et toppeline pro eadem. 1485– [implied in sounding-lead]. 1631 Markham Country Contentm. i. xi. (ed. 4) 76 That in the sounding of Lakes or Riuers, he may know how many foot or inches each..contayneth. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. 50 Taking your Sounding from Beef-Island shore. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., When the Seamen try the Depth of the Water with a Line and Plummet, they call it Sounding. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v., Sounding with the hand-lead..is generally performed by a man who stands in the main-chains to windward. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. (Low) 4 Nor have any reliable soundings yet been made in water over five miles deep. 1880 19th Cent. No. 38. 594 At each of the observing stations a sounding was taken for the determination of the exact depth. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIII. 216/1 Since about the middle of the 1920s, virtually all deep-sea soundings have been made by echo sounding. |
| transf. 1891 A. M. Clerke in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 106 M. Celoria..obtained for a ‘mean sounding’, at the north pole of the milky way, almost identically the same number [of stars] given by Herschel's great reflector. |
b. fig. Investigation. Also with out. to take soundings, to try to find out quietly how matters stand.
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 156 To himselfe so secret and so close, So farre from sounding and discouery, As is the bud bit with an enuious worme. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' M. 217 Old Dan bears you no malice, I'd lay fifty pounds on it! But, if you like, I'll just step in and take soundings. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 9 Nov. 4/1 The Liverymen afterwards decide the selection. Soundings may have been taken beforehand. 1969 Daily Tel. 11 Nov. 21/4 The secret sounding-out by Plessey and BSR was an effort to clear the hurdle before breathing a word, but a share jump precipitated events. |
c. transf. The determination of any physical property at a depth in the sea or at a height in the atmosphere; an instance of this.
| 1875 Proc. R. Soc. XXIII. 249 Temperature-soundings were taken on the 28th of September and on the 3rd of October, at depths of 2800 and 1420 fathoms respectively. 1947 Sci. Progr. XXXV. 88 These soundings have also shown exceedingly dry layers..to exist from time to time in the troposphere. 1955 E. Burgess Frontier to Space iii. 24 The use of the rocket for altitude sounding is by no means a new idea. 1974 Physics Bull. Jan. 11/3 Further instrumental developments are bound to follow and it may be that balloon and rocket soundings of the atmosphere will soon become obsolete. |
d. Archæol. A trial boring made on a site to gain preliminary information. Cf. sondage.
| 1957 K. M. Kenyon Digging up Jericho 170 Our excavation at the highest point on the central ridge..was only a restricted sounding. 1967 Amer. Anthropologist LXIX. 401/2 At Chagar Bazar, Huwaish (at which only a seven-day sounding was carried out), and in the rest of Mesopotamia ‘religious responsibilities rested with the local secular chiefs’. |
2. A place or position at sea where it is possible to reach the bottom with the ordinary deep-sea lead (see quot. 1867). Chiefly pl. a. In prepositional phrases, as in soundings or into soundings, off (the) soundings.
The form sowdyng of the earliest examples also occurs in 1495 under sounding-lead.
| sing. 14.. Sailing Directions (Hakl. Soc. 1889) 21 And ye gesse you ij. parties ovir the see..ye must north and by est till ye come into Sowdyng. Ibid., Than go north till ye come into sowdyng of woyse [= ooze]. |
| pl. 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 18 A shallow water, deepe water, soundings, fadome by the marke. 1694 Narborough Voy. i. 18 The Sea-Water is changed whiter than the usual colour, whence I conjecture, I must be in Soundings. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. vi. 347 We frequently brought to, to try if we were in soundings. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 174 At this time a French squadron was cruizing in the soundings. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xxii, We were soon out of soundings, and well into the Bay of Biscay. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., To be in soundings..is limited in common parlance to parts not far from the shore, and where the depth is about 80 or 100 fathoms. |
b. In other uses. to strike soundings (see quot. 1863).
| 1701 Penn in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 69 We were but twenty-six days from land to soundings. 1748 Anson's Voy. i. vi. (ed. 4) 83 We had soundings all along the coast of Patagonia. 1802 Schomberg Naval Chronology I. 132 He..sailed with the rest for England. On the 23d of October the admiral struck soundings in 90 fathoms. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xxvi, A large homeward-bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings. 1863 A. Young Naut. Dict. 359 To strike soundings, is to find bottom with the deep-sea-lead on coming in from sea. A vessel is then in soundings. |
c. spec. with the. Such places in the mouth of the English Channel. ? Obs.
| 1666 Lond. Gaz. No. 39/1 A little off the Soundings she met with ill weather. 1693 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 51 Alymer, after seen the Streights fleet past the soundings, goes on some other design. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack xi, We had tolerable weather..till we came into the soundings, so they call the mouth of the British Channel. [1897 Laughton in Dict. Nat. Biog. LII. 160/2 On 22 Oct. the fleet came into the soundings.] |
d. U.S. (See quot.) rare—1.
| 1804 C. B. Brown tr. Volney's View Soil U.S. 174 On each side, it forms eddies or counter-currents, which, aided by the depositions of the rivers, forms the muddy stratum or deposit, termed soundings. |
3. pl. The depths of water in the sea, esp. along the coast, in a harbour, road, etc., or (rarely) in a river, ascertained by sounding (sense 1); also, the entries in a log-book, etc., giving these, together with particulars relating to the nature of the bottom.
| 1570 Dee Math. Pref. a iiij b, The Soundinges..ought the Hydrographer..to haue certainly knowen. c 1595 Capt. Wyatt Dudley's Voy. (Hakl. Soc.) 38, I must confess that the Captaine did not make anie publike declaracion how hee founde the sowndings. 1661 E. Hickeringill (title), Jamaica Viewed, with all the Ports, Harbours, and their several Soundings. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. viii. 216 A plan of the road..where the soundings are laid down. 1774 M. Mackenzie Maritime Surv. 79 The Survey of the Coast..and the Soundings near it. 1841 B. Hall Patchwork II. i. 4 The leadsman..singing out the soundings to the anxious pilot. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 341 From the state of the soundings at the present day,..the river in Strabo's time must have entered the sea [etc.]. |
4. Surg. The action of examining with a sound or probe. Also attrib., as † sounding-iron.
| 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 13/1 The soundinge Iron..is verye conveniente to sound and serche for bullettes in a wounde. 1695 New Light Chirurgery put out 36 He will not allow Sounding by Probe. 1830 S. Cooper Dict. Pract. Surg. (ed. 6) 816 The manner of searching for the stone, or as it is now more commonly expressed of sounding. |
5. attrib., chiefly in sense 1, as sounding-machine, sounding-plumb, sounding-plummet, sounding-pole, sounding-rod, sounding-ship, sounding-twine; sounding balloon = ballon-sonde; sounding rocket, a rocket designed to carry scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere in order to make measurements during its flight.
Also sounding-apparatus, sounding-bottle, etc. (1875– in Knight Dict. Mech. and later Dicts.).
| 1555 Eden Decades iii. vi. (Arb.) 163 He coulde at no tyme touche the grounde with his soundynge plummet. 1575 Gascoigne Posies Wks. 1907 I. 355 (The sounding plumbe) in haste poste hast must raunge, To trye the depth and goodnesse of our gate. 1611 Cotgr., Sonde, a Mariners sounding plummet. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 18 A sounding Rod..marked out in Feet and Inches painted. 1832 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 232 It is quite a new thing for a ‘sounding ship’ to beat a regular man-of-war. 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 148/2 A sounding-rod of iron..was dropped into it, which rebounding several feet, proved that the solid rock had been reached. 1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 289 Massey's Patent Sounding-Machine is an instrument which ascertains the depth of water, and registers it by means of an index. Ibid., Sounding rod, a slight bar of iron marked with a scale of feet and inches, used to ascertain the depth of water that may happen to be in a vessel's hold. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. vi. 71 A five-sinnet line of Maury's sounding-twine. 1875 ‘Mark Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly May 569/1 You can go and get the sounding-pole. 1894 Times 18 Sept. 10/4 Sir William Thomson's sounding machine was on the vessel aft, but witness used the deep sea lead. 1902 Sounding balloon [see ballon-sonde]. 1937 C. G. Philp Stratosphere & Rocket Flight v. 33 By the aid of ‘sounding’ balloons..data has been obtained of the earth's atmosphere at a height of over 23 miles. 1947 Amer. Jrnl. Physics XV. 139/1 (caption) The WAC Corporal sounding rocket, which reached 43 mi altitude. 1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics iv. 121 Data obtained from the sounding rockets were correlated with readings from the Explorer 4 artificial satellite. 1965 R. A. Craig Upper Atmosphere ii. 17 Sounding balloons are most commonly made of neoprene and inflated with helium or hydrogen. 1975 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 23 Feb. 13/2 Tying themselves together like mountain climbers, sounding poles in hand, they forded the river. 1978 Pasachoff & Kutner University Astron. xxviii. 710 (caption) The ultraviolet spectrum of 3C 273, taken with a 40-cm telescope, the largest ever flown on a sounding rocket. |
▪ III. † ˈsounding, vbl. n.3 Obs.
[f. sound v.4]
1. Swooning, fainting.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 1134 Wan þe Amyral haþ iherd þe kyng, in sowenyng gan he falle; Ac wan he awok of his soȝnyng, loude he gan to calle. c 1435 Torr. Portugal 1400 Thries in sownyng fell she thare. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health ccxvi. 74 There be many sodein sickenesses, as the pestilence,..the palsey, and soundynge. 1590 P. Barrough Meth. Physick ii. xiv. (1639) 94 If sounding be caused through paine, you must diligently enquire the cause. 1620 Venner Via Recta (1650) 143 A water of singular efficacie against sowning. |
2. A swoon; a fainting-fit.
| 1580 Frampton Bezaar Stone in Joyf. News (1596) 119 The bone of the hart..is of great vertue against venom and soundings of the heart. 1595 Lodge Fig for Momus G 4, It causeth sownings, passions of the hart. a 1657 Sir J. Balfour Ann. Scot. Wks. 1825 II. 104 Falling into maney soundinges and paines, and violent fluxes of the belley. c 1670 Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 388 Yet he could hardly keep himself from a second sowning. |
3. attrib., as sounding ecstasy, sounding fit, sounding trance.
Freq. in the 17th century.
| ? 1565 Lady Hungerford in H. Hall Eliz. Soc. (1886) 253 Your man..founde me in suche sounding fitts and wekenys. 1582 T. Watson Centurie of Love xi, Sone after into howe sorrowfull a dumpe, or sounden [sic] extasie he fell. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 467, I fell twice in a sounding trance. 1681 H. More Exp. Dan. 78 A sounding fit that took him at the hearing the voice of the Angel. 1720 Mrs. Manley Power of Love (1741) 49 An immediate Suffocation..might be improved into an appearance of sounding Fits. |
▪ IV. sounding, ppl. a.1
(ˈsaʊndɪŋ)
[f. sound v.1]
1. a. Having a sound; causing, emitting, producing, a sound or sounds, esp. of a loud character; resonant, sonorous; reverberant.
Freq. in 18th cent. poetry.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 883 Þat nwe songe þay songen ful cler, In sounande notez a gentyl carpe. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. ii. (1868) 8 Þe causes whennes þe sounyng wyndes moeuen and bisien þe smoþe water of þe see. 1483 Cath. Angl. 350/1 Sowndynge, argutus, sonorus. 1526 Tindale 1 Cor. xiii. 1, I were even as soundynge brasse. 1560 Bible (Geneva) 2 Chron. xiii. 12 And beholde, this God is with vs,..& his Priests with the sounding trumpets. 1594 Marlowe & Nashe Dido i. 1, Both barking Scilla, and the sounding Rocks. 1636 B. Jonson Eng. Gram. iii. Wks. (Rtldg.) 770/2 When it [the letter v] followeth a sounding vowel. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. v. 130 Murm'ring Billows on the sounding Shore. 1710 J. Clarke tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. (1729) I. i. ii. 7 Mankind..are apt to think, that the Sound..is in the Air, or in the sounding Body as they call it. 1798 Wordsw. ‘Five years have past’ 76 The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion. 1825 T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. I. 319 As the sounding horn foretels the coming-mail. 1883 Stevenson Treas. Isl. xxvii, He went in with a sounding plunge. |
b. Preceded by an adj. or adv., as clear, deep, loud sounding, etc.
| c 1325 Prose Ps. cl. 5 Herieþ hym in cymbals wele sounand. 1486 Bk. St. Albans d iij, Looke also that thay be sonowre and well sowndyng and shil. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxviii. 44 Blith be thy churches, wele sownyng be thy bellis. 1560– [see high-sounding a.]. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. xv. 99 b, Cimbals of..cleare sounding mettall. 1592 Arden of Feversham iii. iii. 16 With that he blew an euill sounding horne. 1606 W. S. Serm. before King, With the loud sounding trumpet to rouse and araise them. 1693 [see ill- 6]. 1781 Cowper Hope 554 Beneath well-sounding Greek I slur a name a poet must not speak. 1801 Lusignan IV. 28 The shores of the deep sounding main. 1845 [see fine a. D. 2 a]. 1882 Floyer Unexpl. Baluchistan 75 The Divine formulas of Islam are merely fine hearty-sounding words to swear in. |
† c. Having a sound similar to something. Obs.—1
| 1563 Foxe A. & M. 559/1 The booke..is nother English, Laten, Greke, nor Hebrue, nor Douche, but somewhat soundinge to oure English. |
d. sounding sand = singing sand s.v. singing ppl. a. 4 b.
| 1884 Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1883 251 The sounding sand is near the surface only, at the depth of one or two feet the acoustic properties disappear. 1897 G. P. Merrill Treat. Rocks, Rock-Weathering & Soils ii. ii. 143 On certain Hawaiian beaches, such sands [sc. shell sands] give out a distinct note..when walked over, or even when shaken in a closed vessel, and are popularly known as sounding, or singing, sands. 1976 Nature 5 Feb. 368/2 Hardly surprisingly in view of their weird effects, sounding sands are incorporated into folklore and legends going back at least 1,500 years. |
2. a. Of language, names, titles, etc.: Having a full, rich, or imposing sound; high-sounding, pompous, bombastic, etc. Also transf. of writers.
| 1683 Soame & Dryden tr. Boileau's Art Poet. i. 182 Keep to your subject close in all you say; Nor for a sounding sentence ever stray. 1693 Dryden Juvenal Dedication (1697) p. lxxxix, We make our Authour at least appear in a Poetique Dress. We have actually made him more Sounding, and more Elegant, than he was before in English. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 26 ¶1 Several Persons mentioned in the Battles of Heroic Poems, who have sounding Names given them. 1775 Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 11 Before they quit the comforts of a warm home for the sounding some⁓thing which they think better. 1805 N. Nicholls in Corr. w. Gray (1843) 36 Milton, who, he said, in parts of his poem, rolls on in sounding words that have but little meaning. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 321 There was a society..which assumed the sounding name of the Royal Academies Company. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. lxxii. II. 594 The orator has been apt to evade them or to deal in sounding commonplaces. |
b. Of persons: Loudly demonstrative.
| 1828 Lytton Pelham III. ix, The disinterested kindness and delicacy..contrasted so deeply with the hollowness of friends more sounding, alike in their profession and their creeds. |
▪ V. † ˈsounding, ppl. a.2 Obs.—1
[f. sound v.4]
That swoons; swooning.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii, For all their Physitians and medicines inforcing Nature, a souning wife, families complaints, friends teares,..he..goes to hell with a guilty conscience. |