sounding-leadn.
Nautical.
The lead or plummet attached to the sounding-line.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > navigational aids > [noun] > sounding-line or -rod > weight on sounding-line
plummetc1384
leadc1440
sounding-lead1485
sinking lead1648
blue pigeon1818
1485 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 51 Leede lynes, j; Sounding leeds, j.
1495 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 193 Sowdyng ledes, ij.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 709/2 I serche the see with a sowndyng leade to knowe howe depe it is.
1584 B. R. tr. Herodotus Famous Hyst. ii. f. 76 Which..would not suffer the line with the sounding leade to sinke to the bottome.
1639 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: Select. Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 226 Two compasses, one sounding lead & one barrell of meale.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. iv. 137 Common Navigation requireth the Use of no Instruments but the Compass and Sounding-Lead.
1711 Mil. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4) (at cited word) The Sounding-Lead is as the Deep-Sea-Lead for Sounding; but it is commonly only seven Pounds Weight, and about 12 Inches long.
1802 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. (1805) III. 215 Upon..sounding, the strap of the sounding~lead broke; an accident which very rarely happens.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 75 These grounds are found by the use of the sounding-lead.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2020).
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