Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The difference in latitude between two positions as a result of a movement to the south.
- n. Progress toward the south.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Tendency or motion to the south.
- n. In astronomy, the transit of the moon or a star across the meridian of a place.
- n. In navigation, the difference of latitude made by a ship in sailing to the southward.
- n. In surveying and in navigation, the linear distance measured in a north and south direction from the northerly end of a line to the true east and west line or the parallel of latitude passing through the southerly end of the line. Geometrically the southing or the northing of a line is equal to its east and west projection on to a meridian. The southing of a line thus is equal to its northing, and the former or the latter will be used solely in accordance with the direction of real or imaginary motion along the line.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical A distance traveled southward.
- n. astronomy The time when the moon souths.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Tendency or progress southward.
- n. The time at which the moon, or other heavenly body, passes the meridian of a place.
- n. (Astron.) Distance of any heavenly body south of the equator; south declination; south latitude.
- n. (Surv. & Navigation) Distance southward from any point departure or of reckoning, measured on a meridian; -- opposed to
northing .
Examples
“How it came to me I know not -- call it an inspiration if you will; but the thought arose in me: if southing is latitude, why isn't westing longitude?”
“How it came to me I know not - call it an inspiration if you will; but the thought arose in me: if southing is latitude, why is n't westing longitude?”
“From January 5 onwards for two weeks we steamed steadily towards the west, repeatedly changing course to double great sheets of pack which streamed away to the north, pushing through them in other places where the welcome "water-sky showed strong" ahead, making "southing" for days following the trend of the ice, then grappling with it in the hope of winning through to the land and at last returning to the western track along the margin of brash which breaks the first swell of the Southern”
The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
“By morning no more than a faint air was blowing from the eastward, and, unable to make appreciable southing by it, Captain Davenport hauled up full-and-by on the port track.”
“When demonstrators attempted to take away their megaphones, in order to stop them from southing down other speakers, the Svoboda boys shoved and even punched back, continuing to repeat over and over, "Tiah-ny-bok!”
The Huffington Post: Damian Kolodiy: Circus at the Ukrainian Parliament 9/7/2010
“All Vivaldi, all southing, all the time, you mean?”
“Champlain wrote that “contrary winds from the south-southwest and west-northwest…drove us as far as latitude 42 degrees, without being able to make a southing.””
“Mihr, the seventh month; and lasted six days, with feasts, festivities and great rejoicings in honour of the Sun, who now begins his southing-course to gladden the other half of the world.”
“We managed to make a little southing during the next day, but noon found us”
“I did not wish to lose the benefit of the original southing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘southing’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Quenelles of Random Palavery
More randomly-garnered terms from the world of words that don't quite yet fit into my other lists.
Goddidit, barcelona, filigrain, good-natured, ill-natured, half-bit, endosome, underplaying, parotid, denormalization, sleightgeist, wheezing and 2334 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for southing.

chained_bear "...it was found that the Surprise had made eighty-seven miles of southing, almost all of it since the morning watch."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 88 Feb 29, 2008