Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The person using the lead line in taking soundings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Nautical, a seaman who heaves the lead.
  • noun One who leads the way.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Naut.) The man who heaves the lead.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete lodesman (a leader or guide)
  • noun nautical A sailor who takes soundings with a lead, measuring the depth of water.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Middle English ledes-man ("a military commander”, “a general"); equivalent to leads (the genitive form of lead: “a leading”, “a directing”, “a guiding”) + man.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

leads (the genitive form of lead: “heavy base metal” = the Latin plumbum) + man

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Examples

  • He was the leadsman, that is to say, it was his business to sound the depths of the sea; he had plumbed the profound abysses of the ocean, calculated the elevation of the land and the apparent motion of the sky; he knew the exact time by looking at the sun, and he could tell from the stars how far they had travelled.

    In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales August Strindberg 1880

  • Though she received nine shots in her hull, the leadsman was the only man wounded on board.

    The Three Commanders William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • The leadsman was a rather pompous individual, duly impressed with the importance of his position, in having charge of the deep-sea line, which was something short of two fathoms in length.

    Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 423 Volume 17, New Series, February 7, 1852 Various 1841

  • Giving the cub pilot the wheel in what he knew to be safe water, Bixby arranged for the leadsman to begin calling out ever more dangerous readings, while Clemens grew increasingly agitated, finally crying out in an agony of doubt and despair: Quick, Ben!

    LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY JR. ROY MORRIS 2010

  • Giving the cub pilot the wheel in what he knew to be safe water, Bixby arranged for the leadsman to begin calling out ever more dangerous readings, while Clemens grew increasingly agitated, finally crying out in an agony of doubt and despair: Quick, Ben!

    LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY JR. ROY MORRIS 2010

  • The halt is a matter depending on the sounding-line, and not on the leadsman.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • The veteran pilot arranged with the “leadsman,” the deckhand who took constant soundings of the channel depth with a lead-weighted rope, to falsely cry out smaller and smaller depths as Sam manned the pilot wheel across a passage that he knew to be safe and deep.

    Mark Twain Ron Powers 2005

  • The veteran pilot arranged with the “leadsman,” the deckhand who took constant soundings of the channel depth with a lead-weighted rope, to falsely cry out smaller and smaller depths as Sam manned the pilot wheel across a passage that he knew to be safe and deep.

    Mark Twain Ron Powers 2005

  • We were surrounded by reefs, a light breeze, and fair depth of water-called out by the leadsman, 2, 2½, 2, 3 fathoms, until after some time we got into deeper water, and passed out of the Bay in safety.

    Narrative of an expedition undertaken for the exploration of the country lying between Rockingham Bay and Cape York 2003

  • Lieutenant Otero, who had charge of the frigate, paused to listen to the leadsman who was calling the depth.

    Sharpe's Devil Cornwell, Bernard 1992

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