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1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. vi. f. 121 He coulde at no tyme touche the grounde with his soundynge plummet.

1575 G. Gascoigne Posies in Wks. (1907) I. 355 (The sounding plumbe) in haste poste hast must raunge, To trye the depth and goodnesse of our gate.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Sonde, a Mariners sounding plummet.

1776 G. Semple Treat. Building in Water 18 A sounding Rod..marked out in Feet and Inches painted.

1832 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 232 It is quite a new thing for a ‘sounding ship’ to beat a regular man-of-war.

1838 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 148/2 A sounding-rod of iron..was dropped into it, which rebounding several feet, proved that the solid rock had been reached.

1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 289 Massey's Patent Sounding-Machine is an instrument which ascertains the depth of water, and registers it by means of an index.

1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 289 Sounding rod, a slight bar of iron marked with a scale of feet and inches, used to ascertain the depth of water that may happen to be in a vessel's hold.

1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. II. vi. 71 A five-sinnet line of Maury's sounding-twine.

1875 ‘M. Twain’ in Atlantic Monthly May 569/1 You can go and get the sounding-pole.

1894 Times 18 Sept. 10/4 Sir William Thomson's sounding machine was on the vessel aft, but witness used the deep sea lead.

1975 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 23 Feb. 13/2 Tying themselves together like mountain climbers, sounding poles in hand, they forded the river.