launching, vbl. n.
(ˈlɔːnʃɪŋ, formerly ˈlɑːnʃɪŋ)
[f. launch v. + -ing1.]
a. The action of the vb. launch.
| 1592 Davies Immort. Soul xxx. lviii. (1714) 104 That Launching, and Progression of the Mind, Which all men have. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. i. 95 Nought but lanching can the wound auayle. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. ii. Fathers 67 Such ill-rigg'd ships would even in lanching sink. 1669 Bunyan Holy Citie 259 This signifieth our launching into Eternity. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman (1841) I. vi. 44 Such miserable havoc has launching out into..remote undertakings, made amongst tradesmen. 1751 C. Labelye Westm. Br. 28 The lowering or launching of the finished Caisson. 1822 J. Flint Lett. Amer. 129 The launching of a large steam-boat attracted a great assemblage of spectators. 1824 P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsmen (ed. 3) 332 Birds may be approached much nearer by this means than by any other kind of ‘launching’. 1967 Listener 23 Feb. 263/3 Admittedly, the launchings will be carried out by American rockets from an American site, but the satellites themselves are purely British-built. 1971 Nature 6 Aug. 357/2 It is not safe to base a rocket development project on a single launching once a year. |
b. attrib. and
Comb., as
launching-cord,
launching-cradle,
launching-line,
launching platform,
launching site,
launching station;
launching-cleat, the block of wood fastened to a ship when in dry dock or on the slips, to catch the head of the ‘shore’;
launching pad, the area on which a rocket stands for launching; also
fig. and
transf.;
launching-planks (see
quot.);
launching-punt,
-sledge, a boat used in shooting wild fowl (
cf. launch v. 9);
launching-tube, a tube in a war-vessel for launching torpedoes;
launching-ways,
= launching-planks.
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 15 Dec. 4/1 The Princess..has only to sever the *launching cord to set the Irresistible free. |
| Ibid., The *launching cradle is a massive structure of wood and iron, weighing 300 tons. |
| 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 124 It swims at the line representing the *launching line. |
| 1951 Cooke & Caidin Jets, Rockets & Guided Missiles 138 Under a blazing afternoon sun, at 3.14 p.m., a modified V-2 rocket carrying a WAC-Corporal in its nose rose slowly from its concrete *launching pad. 1958 Daily Mail 16 Aug. 1/4 The 88 ft. rocket stands poised on its concrete launching pad here tonight looking like a giant silver propelling pencil. 1959 Encounter Dec. 74/2 All this is by way of a launching-pad for the idea of the Non-Nuclear Club. 1963 A. Huxley Let. 17 Feb. (1969) 948 Julian tells me that your book is now definitely on the launching pad. 1973 Guardian 31 Jan. 13/7 The NUS sees the rent-strike movement as a launching pad for its main campaign. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 128 *Launching planks, a set of planks mostly used to form the platform on each side of the ship, whereon the bilgeways slide for the purpose of launching. |
| 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 50/1 Ordinary aeroplanes were carried in fighting-ships with a *launching-platform. 1957 Jane's Fighting Ships 1957–58 413 The missile is using jet-assisted rocket bottles to launch it from its zero-length launching platform. |
| 1824 P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsmen (ed. 3) 326 Hampshire *Launching-punt. |
| 1944 Aeronautics Aug. 27/1 The counter attack, by bombing the *launching sites in the Pas de Calais, was intensified. 1958 Listener 13 Nov. 766/2 Israel had also agreed to launching-sites on her territory for United States atomic rockets and guided missiles. |
| 1824 P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsmen (ed. 3) 332 The light *launching sledge is in the foreground. |
| 1897 Strand Mag. June 712/1 We had better not make the *launching station a place like the bank of the river, where it can go only one way. 1944 A. Huxley Let. 9 July (1969) 507 Five thousand launching stations, firing off twenty robots [sc. rockets] apiece—and that would be the end of any metropolis. 1958 C. C. Adams et al. Space Flight p. xi, A space station would serve as a ‘launching station’ for space ships to the moon, saving fabulous amounts of precious fuel. |
| 1846 A. Young Naut. Dict., *Launching-ways, the same as Bilge-ways. |