sounding definition

English

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) enPR: soundʹĭng, IPA^(key): /ˈsaʊndɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊndɪŋ

Etymology 1

sound (“produce a sound”) +‎ -ing.

Noun

sounding (plural soundings)

1. The action of the verb to sound.
   • c. 1650, John Lightfoot, The Temple-Service

     And thus did the trumpets sound one-and-twenty blasts every day; […] three soundings at the three pausings of the music, […]

   • 1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw and Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 394:

     In the course of his soundings, Sir Herbert Walker had heard favourable reports of O.V.S. Bulleid, currently Principal Assistant to Gresley on the LNER.

Adjective

sounding (not comparable)

1. Emitting a sound.

   The sounding bell woke me up.

2. Sonorous.
   • 1668, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, M. DC. LXVI. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], OCLC 1064438096, (please specify the stanza number):

     sounding words

   • 1849, Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee

     In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Verb

sounding

1. present participle of sound

   Little Mary was sounding very sleepy, so I tucked her in bed.

   "Assist"'s sense ‘to be present (at a ceremony, entertainment, etc.)’, now uncommon and sounding affected, is a Gallicism.

Etymology 2

From sound (“examine with the instrument called a sound, or by auscultation or percussion”) +‎ -ing.

Noun

sounding (plural soundings)

1. Test made with a probe or sonde.
   • 2011, John P. Rafferty, Oceans and Oceanography (page 189)

     Soundings showed wide variations in depths of water, and from the dredgings of the bottom came new types of sediment […]

   • 2020 June 25, National Weather Service Boston 9:52 AM forecast discussion:

     Morning sounding at Chatham showed dry adiabatic lapse rate all the way to 700 mb this morning […]

2. A measured depth of water.

   The sailor took a sounding every five minutes

3. The act of inserting of a thin metal rod into the urethra of the penis for medical or sexual purposes
4. (chiefly in the plural) Any place or part of the ocean, or other water, where a sounding line will reach the bottom.
   • Spanish Ladies, naval song, chorus

     We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas; Until we strike soundings in the Channel of old England

5. The sand, shells, etc. brought up by the sounding lead when it has touched bottom.

Translations

Anagrams

• Guindons, undoings