log1
/lɒɡ
/noun
1A part of the trunk or a large branch of a tree that has fallen or been cut off: she tripped over a fallen log [as modifier]: a roaring log fire...
- Even though she knew that there would be no berries, for it was early fall, she walked deep into the woods and past fallen logs and trees to the same meadow that her mother had told her about.
- She went into the forest, slowing only enough to avoid trees and fallen logs.
- This group has a great diversity of roosting habits, including caves, hollow logs, tree branches, tunnels, and human houses.
Synonyms
chunk of wood, branch, tree trunk, bole, stump;
block of wood, billet;
timber
2 (also logbook) An official record of events during the voyage of a ship or aircraft: a ship’s log...
- Solomon and Hart used Hudson Bay Company postal records and ships' logbooks to examine storm frequency and severity in the Beaufort Sea.
- The FAA acquired the aircraft logbooks, and months of investigation began.
- Most of the aircraft have no logbooks, have run-out engines and props, and need a lot of work.
2.1A regular or systematic record of incidents or observations: keep a detailed log of your activities...
- Residents will also be able to record incidences on logs, which will be distributed by the police.
- Self-testing devices and devices that maintain logs to track incidents are available.
- At the same time, White House attorneys are reviewing memos, phone logs and other documents that may be relevant to the investigation.
2.2Australian A set of claims for improved pay or conditions, lodged by a trade union on behalf of workers: the union served a log on the employers in September, but it was refused
3An apparatus for determining the speed of a ship, originally one consisting of a float attached to a knotted line that is wound on a reel, the distance run out in a certain time being used as an estimate of the vessel’s speed.Traditionally, a vessel's speed was determined using a log and line - a float on the end of a line knotted at precise intervals and tossed overboard....
- One method of keeping direction, the log and the line, is generally discounted when a ship is sailing by compass correctly; this is true of the Pequod.
verb (logs, logging, logged) [with object]
1Enter (an incident or fact) in the log of a ship or aircraft or in another systematic record: the incident has to be logged...
- ‘We are still at the same stage,’ said a Garda spokesperson who could not give any indication as to when the system would begin to log racist incidents.
- This detail is logged into the system, and so is the fact that an engineer is required to visit the client.
- Two police forces, the national rail operating system and the local train service have all logged the incident.
Synonyms
register, record, make a note of, note down, write down, jot down, book down, set down, put down, put in writing;
enter, file, minute, chart, tabulate, catalogue
1.1(Of a ship, aircraft, or pilot) achieve (a certain distance, speed, or time): she had logged more than 12,000 miles since her launch...
- By the end of the month, the aircraft had logged about 26 hours of flying time during an equal number of test flights.
- The leading maxis were logging average speeds of between 13 and 15 knots and were still on course to smash the current crossing record of 14 days and five hours.
- Many of these aircraft have logged more than 20,000 hr.
Synonyms
attain, achieve, chalk up, make, do, go, cover
1.2Make a systematic recording of events, observations, or measurements: the virus can log keystrokes that you make when you log on to all sorts of services...
- Even more worrying is the way enquiries are logged.
- Bugbear, another blended threat, spread through network shares but also logged keystrokes and functioned as a back door.
- She joined the summer fieldtrips in 2002 and 2003, and has been the lab scribe, logging the group's daily trials and travails.
2Cut down (an area of forest) in order to exploit the timber commercially: there are plans to log 250,000 hectares of virgin rainforest...
- Deny said local residents had been persuaded by the owners of several timber companies to log areas within KEL, including the protected Mount Leuser National Park.
- Approximately 200 meters on either side of the ‘priority one’ area were selectively logged.
- According to Bapedal, the Indonesian government's environment agency, 57 timber companies are logging a massive 11 million hectare area in the region.
Phrases
(as) easy as falling off a log
Phrasal verbs
log in (or on)
log off (or out)
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'bulky mass of wood'): of unknown origin; perhaps symbolic of the notion of heaviness. sense 3 of the noun originally denoted a thin quadrant of wood loaded to float upright in the water, whence 'ship's journal' in which information derived from this device was recorded.
The word log is first recorded in the Middle Ages in the sense ‘a bulky mass of wood’. The ship's log or official record of events during the voyage got its name from a device used to find out the rate of a ship's motion, a thin quarter-circle of wood loaded so as to float upright in the water and fastened to a line wound on a reel (see knot). The captain would record the information obtained from this in a journal, or log. See also jam, sleep
Rhymes
log2
/lɒɡ/noun
Short for logarithm. [as modifier]: log values [prefixed to a number or algebraic symbol]: log x