ˈlanding-place
1. a. A place where passengers and goods are or can be landed or disembarked.
| 1512 Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 1 §1 The Frenchemen..knowe aswell every haven and creke within the sayde Countie as every landyng place. 1620–55 I. Jones Stone-Heng (1725) 13 They were imbarked, dis-imbarked, and brought from their Landing Place to Salisbury Plain. 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2221/8 Lost.., between Richmond and Putney Landing⁓place, a Point Crevat and Cuffs. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. vi. 191 Pilots were ordered to..conduct him to the most convenient landing-place. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast vii. 15 Waiting at the landing place for our boat to come ashore. |
b. A platform at a railway station.
c. A place where a bird, insect, aircraft, etc., can or does land.
| 1776 T. Pennant Tour in Scotl. & Voy. Hebrides 1772 II. 24 Woodcocks... Their first landing-places are in the eastern counties. 1889 Leisure Hour 642/2 Insect ‘landing-places’ would thus, according to the theory, acquire considerable importance in affecting the structure of the flower. 1899 Strand Mag. Aug. 183/1 Captain Spelterini's sharp eye had quickly chosen an advantageous landing-place, and the anchor was thrown [from the balloon]. 1909 Flying: the Why & Wherefore v. 33 Another advantage of flying high is that in case of an engine stoppage the aeronaut will have time to look round and choose a landing place. 1935 C. Day Lewis Time to Dance 35 The oil ran out and cursing they turned about Losing a hundred miles to find a landing-place. 1962 K. W. Gatland Astronautics in Sixties xi. 338 After reconnaissance spacecraft and soft-landing probes had given information concerning a suitable landing place, a Surveyor-type probe would be put down close to the desired landing point. |
2. = landing vbl. n. 6 (now the usual word).
| 1611 Cotgr., Aire,..the halfe-pace, or landing place of a half-pace staire. 1625 Bacon Ess., Building (Arb.) 550 The Staires likewise.. let them bee vpon a Faire open Newell, and finely raild in..And a very Faire Landing Place at the Top. 1765 Foote Commissary i. Wks. 1799 II. 7 Simon..flew up stairs, fell over the landing-place, and quite barr'd up the way. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge ix, His stealthy footsteps on the landing-place outside. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 352 The staircases and landing places are not wanting in grandeur. |
| attrib. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xxxiv. (1893) 193 The dinner and ball invitations gradually dwindled away, till he became a mere stop-gap at the one, and a landing-place appendage at the other. |
3. transf. and
fig. (in
prec. senses). A place at which one arrives; a stopping- or resting-place.
| 1727 Arbuthnot Tables Anc. Coins, etc. vii. 151 What the Romans called Vestibulum was no part of the House, but the Court or Landing-place between it and the Street. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xlvii, He seeks at least Upon the last and sharpest height..Some landing-place, to clasp and say, ‘Farewell! We lose ourselves in light’. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. I. Introd. 2 Tom was..beginning to feel that it was high time for him to be getting to regular work again.. A landing place is a famous thing, but it is only enjoyable for a time by any mortal who deserves one at all. 1884 J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 245 When the conscience-troubles..lead to scepticism, the ultimate landing-place..is superstition. |