log

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A usually large section of a trunk or limb of a fallen or felled tree.
2. n. A long thick section of trimmed, unhewn timber.
3. n. Nautical A device trailed from a ship to determine its speed through the water.
4. n. Nautical A record of a ship's speed, its progress, and any shipboard events of navigational importance.
5. n. Nautical The book in which this record is kept.
6. n. A record of a vehicle's performance, as the flight record of an aircraft.
7. n. A record, as of the performance of a machine or the progress of an undertaking: a computer log; a trip log.
8. v. To cut down, trim, and haul the timber of (a piece of land).
9. v. To cut (timber) into unhewn sections.
10. v. To enter in a record, as of a ship or an aircraft.
11. v. To travel (a specified distance, time, or speed): logged 30,000 air miles in April.
12. v. To spend or accumulate (time): had logged 25 years with the company.
13. v. To cut down, trim, and haul timber.
14. in To enter into a computer the information required to begin a session.
15. out To enter into a computer the command to end a session.
16. n. A logarithm.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A bulky piece or stick of unhewn timber; a length of wood as cut from the trunk or a large limb of a tree; specifically, an unsplit stick of timber with butted ends ready for sawing.
2. n. Figuratively, a dull, heavy, stolid, or stupid person.
3. Constructed of logs; consisting of logs: as, a log cabin; a log fort or bridge.
4. To cut into logs.
5. To cut down trees and get out logs from the forest for sawing into boards, etc.: as, to engage in logging.
6. n. Nautical, an apparatus for measuring the rapidity of a ship's motion. The most common form consists of a log-chip, or thin quadrant of wood, of about five inches radius, fastened to a line wound on a reel. When the log-chip is thrown overboard, its motion is deadened on striking the water, and its distance from the ship, measured after a certain time on the line (which is allowed to run out), gives approximately the speed of the ship. The chip is loaded with lead on the arc side to make it float upright. At 12 or 15 fathoms from the chip a white rag marks off the stray-line, a quantity sufficient to let the log-chip get clear of the vessel before time is marked. The rest of the line, which is from 150 to 200 fathoms long, is divided into equal parts by bits of string stuck through the strands and distinguished by the number of knots made in each, or in some similar way, as by colored rags; hence these divisions are called knots. The length of a knot must bear the same proportion to the length of a nautical mile (see mile) that the time during which the line is allowed to run out bears to one hour. Thus, using a twenty-eight second glass, 28 : 3600 : : 47.3 feet (the usual length of a knot): 6080 feet (the usually received length of a sea-mile). Many other devices have been invented to perform the functions of the log, which generally include a brass fly or rotator connected with mechanism acting as an index. In some cases the whole machine is towed astern of the ship, and must be hauled in to be examined; with the taffrail-log, the register is fastened to the taffrail and the fly is towed astern.
7. n. Hence The record of a ship's progress, or a tabulated summary of the performance of the engines and boilers, etc.; a log-book.
8. To record or enter in the log-book.
9. To exhibit by the indication of the log, as a rate of speed by the hour: as, the ship logs ten knots.
10. To move to and fro; rock. See logging-rock.
11. n. A Hebrew liquid measure, the seventy-second part of a bath, or about a pint. It seems to have been of Babylonian origin, being one sixtieth of a maxis.
12. n. The abbreviation of logarithm. Thus, log. 3 = 0.4771213 is an equation giving the value of the logarithm of 3.
13. n. plural A jail (formerly built of logs).
14. n. In tailoring, a document which fixes the time to be credited to journeymen for making a specified kind of garment, the men being paid nominally by the hour. N. E. D. Also attributive: as, a log shop.
15. Nautical, to enter in a log-book the name of a man, with his offense and the penalty attached to it; hence, to fine.

Wiktionary

1. n. The trunk of a dead tree, cleared of branches.
2. n. Any bulky piece as cut from the above, used as timber, fuel etc.
3. n. A floating device, usually of wood, used in navigation to estimate the speed of a vessel through water.
4. n. A logbook.
5. n. A blockhead, very dumb person.
6. n. A longboard.
7. n. A rolled cake with filling.
8. n. A logbook, or journal of a vessel (or aircraft)'s progress
9. n. A chronological record of actions, performances, computer/network usage, etc.
10. v. To cut trees into logs
11. v. To cut down (trees).
12. v. To travel at a specified speed, as ascertained by chip log
13. v. To cut down trees in an area, harvesting and transporting the logs as wood
14. v. To make, to add an entry (or more) in a log(book).
15. v. To travel (a distance) as shown in a logbook

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A Hebrew measure of liquids, containing 2.37 gills.
2. n. A bulky piece of wood which has not been shaped by hewing or sawing.
3. n. An apparatus for measuring the rate of a ship's motion through the water.
4. n. The record of the rate of speed of a ship or airplane, and of the course of its progress for the duration of a voyage; also, the full nautical record of a ship's cruise or voyage; a log slate; a log book.
5. n. A record and tabulated statement of the person(s) operating, operations performed, resources consumed, and the work done by any machine, device, or system.
6. n. A weight or block near the free end of a hoisting rope to prevent it from being drawn through the sheave.
7. n. A record of activities performed within a program, or changes in a database or file on a computer, and typically kept as a file in the computer.
8. v. To enter in a ship's log book.
9. v. To record any event in a logbook, especially an event relating to the operation of a machine or device.
10. v. To engage in the business of cutting or transporting logs for timber; to get out logs.
11. v. To move to and fro; to rock.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. measuring instrument that consists of a float that trails from a ship by a knotted line in order to measure the ship's speed through the water
2. v. enter into a log, as on ships and planes
3. n. a written record of events on a voyage (of a ship or plane)
4. n. a segment of the trunk of a tree when stripped of branches
5. n. a written record of messages sent or received
6. v. cut lumber, as in woods and forests
7. n. the exponent required to produce a given number