nauticaladj.n.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum B iiij b Anaximander..inuented the Nauticall..compasse.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Nautical, belonging to ships or Marriners.

1691 W. Petty Treat. Naval Philos. in T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 119 Nautical Staticks, and Mechanicks, relating to Pullies and Crows, Handspecks.

1716 Philos. Trans. 1714–16 (Royal Soc.) 29 331 (title) An easy Mechanical Way to divide the Nautical Meridian Line in Mercato's Projection; with an Account of the Relation of the same Meridian Line to the Curva Catenaria.

1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature (1799) III. 25 The fifth nautical proof of the elevation of the Poles above the Horizon.

1836 M. Scott Cruise of Midge xvii. 291 My nautical enthusiasm fairly got the better of me.

1892 A. Conan Doyle Adventures Sherlock Holmes x. 249 The official detective was attired in a peajacket and cravat, which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 948/1 This anchor had an excellent reputation amongst nautical men of that period.

1938 Amer. Home Jan. 55/1 You can transform any hall or clubhouse into a boat, very nautical and ‘salty’ in atmosphere if you try.

1963 Connecticut Hist. Soc. Jan. 7 Three days later nine sails were up, including a ‘Flybinite’ which Lyman doubted could be found in any nautical dictionary.

1998 Zest Sept. 129/2 You work the sail by pulling or easing out a rope (in nautical speak, called the main-sheet).

1831 P. Heidiger Didoniad i. 30 Which argued attitudinal instruction Beyond belief, in nauticals ashore.

1840 R. H. Barham Bagman's Dog in Ingoldsby Legends 1st Ser. 322 Sir E. Lytton Bulwer, who brought up the rear of the ‘Nauticals’.

1851 Times 16 Aug. 7/1 Still, the nauticals looked knowing, and said, ‘Oh, aye, this is all very well for a schooner on this wind’.

1985 ‘J. Gash’ Pearlhanger (1986) iv. 33 I wanted no sudden nauticals swaggering unexpectedly round the old bollards.

1823 G. Crabb Universal Technol. Dict. Nautical angle, an instrument by which a ship's departure, meridional difference, etc. are obtained from inspection.

1700 Moxon's Math. made Easie (ed. 3) 103 Nautical Card, for Multiplication, Division and Extraction of Roots with much ease.

1850 J. Ogilvie Imperial Dict. Nautical indicator, an instrument for finding the latitude, longitude, and variation of the compass at sea.

1803 J. W. Norie (title) A complete set of nautical tables.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 492 Nautical Tables, those especially computed for resolution of matters dependent on nautical astronomy, and navigation generally.

1929 Jrnl. Mod. Hist. 1 581 No nautical tables were published regularly in Turkey.

1996 M. Campbell-Kelly & W. Aspray Computer iii. 56 While one can see the original table-making Difference Engine as completely at one with the economic need for nautical tables, with the analytical Engine these issues were entirely forgotten.

1678 J. Moxon Mech. Dyalling 8 A Card of the Nautical Compass.

1780 Philos. Trans. 1779 (Royal Soc.) 69 545 There could be no great difficulty to adapt to these kind of needles a thin glass, metallic, or enamelled plate, serving instead of the card in the common nautical compasses.

1870 Rep. U.S. Commissioners Paris Universal Expos. 1867 604 A nautical compass invented by Mr. E. S. Ritchie, of Boston..was noticeable as being a much more important improvement than the foregoing.

1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 31 Jan. (Westchester Weekly section) 11/1 Seamanship, the use of electronic aids, the nautical compass, tides and currents and ‘rules of the road’ will meet the requirements for a United States Coast Guard six-passenger operator's license.

1771 Philos. Trans. 1770 (Royal Soc.) 60 100 It must be observed, that the Astronomical, and not the Nautical Day, is everywhere to be understood in the following Journal.

1840 J. F. Cooper Mercedes of Castile Pref. p. xi The nautical day formerly commenced at meridian.

1970 Jrnl. Brit. Astron. Assoc. 80 210 The nautical day fell into disuse in the 19th century, but the astronomical day continued to be used until 1924.

1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Navigation i. ii. §12 The lines which make with the meridian lines the angles called courses are called nautical distances.

1965 Internat. Migration Digest 2 194 The Polynesians built amazingly seaworthy craft and planned and carried out trips and colonizations over longer nautical distances than most other peoples in the world.

1994 Evolution 48 1883/1 Distance between localities was measured as the shortest nautical distance between localities reckoned from 1,000,000:1 scale maps.

1765 Philos. Trans. 1764 (Royal Soc.) 54 264 The last rule, for computing the distance of the Moon from a Star..seems particularly adapted for the construction of a nautical Ephemeris.

1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 558 The exact times at which the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites will occur..are given..in the nautical ephemeris.

1995 D. Sobel Longitude xii. 134 The Reverend Mr. Maskelyne..wanted to begin annual publication of the nautical ephemerides for seamen interested in finding longitude by lunars.

1730 J. Harris Treat. Navigation ii. 60 A Degree of a Great Circle upon the Superficies is divided into 60 Geographical or Nautical Miles.

1782 Philos. Trans. 1781 (Royal Soc.) 71 339 We had..been driven by the wind 38 nautical miles to the southward.

1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Navigation ii. ii. 15 A geographical or nautical mile is ¹/ ₆₀ of a degree of a great circle of the earth.

1956 Electr. Communic. Mar. 3/1 Tacan is a system that provides both bearing and distance information on direct-reading instruments in an airplane within 200 nautical miles of a selected ground station.

1996 S. Gould Wildside 104 But you used the wrong scale. You used statute miles instead of nautical miles.

1599 E. Wright Certaine Errors Navigation ii. sig. C3 To shew by what kinde of proiection..the nautical planisphere may..be conceiued to bee geometrically made.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Nautical Planisphere, is a Description of the Terrestrial Globe upon a Plane, for the Use of Mariners.

1764 Philos. Trans. 1763 (Royal Soc.) 53 69 I Received your favour with Mr. Samuel Dunn's letter, touching Mr. West's method of constructing a nautical planisphere.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 492 Nautical Stars, about 72 of the brightest, which have been selected for determining the latitude or the longitude.

1997 A. Waldman Iovis ii. 210 Turn to stars again..multiple star, N star, nautical star.

1936 Naut. Almanac 1937 Pref. The pages of Sunrise, Sunset and Twilight have been rearranged and Civil and Nautical Twilight are given for the first time.

1936 Naut. Almanac 1937 202 The time when the Sun has a depression,of 12° is here termed nautical twilight.

1986 T. Clancy Red Storm Rising (1988) xxi. 317 The light level was what meteorologists and sailors called nautical twilight.

1991 Discover Mar. 82/1 Nautical twilight persists longer, until the sun is 12 degrees down. That's when the horizon vanishes, when a mariner cannot distinguish between sea and sky.