Adjacent Words

Bearing definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BEARING, ppr. Supporting; carrying; producing.
BEARING, n. Gesture; mien; behavior.
I know him by his bearing [Unusual.]
1. The situation of an object, with respect of another object, by which it is supposed to have a connection with it or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it.
But of this frame,the bearings and the ties.
2. In architecture, the space between the two fixed extremes of a piece of timber, or between one extreme and a supporter.
3. In navigation, the situation of a distant object, with regard to a ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter, etc. Also, an arch of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compass, or resulting from sinical proportion.
4. In heraldry, bearings are the coats of arms or figures of armories, by which the nobility and gentry are distinguished from common persons.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: (of a structural member) withstanding a weight or strain [ant: nonbearing] n
1: relevant relation or interconnection; "those issues have no bearing on our situation"
2: the direction or path along which something moves or along which it lies [syn: bearing, heading, aim]
3: dignified manner or conduct [syn: bearing, comportment, presence, mien]
4: characteristic way of bearing one's body; "stood with good posture" [syn: carriage, bearing, posture]
5: heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield [syn: charge, bearing, heraldic bearing, armorial bearing]
6: a rotating support placed between moving parts to allow them to move easily

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 13th century 1. the manner in which one bears or comports oneself 2. a. the act, power, or time of bringing forth offspring or fruit b. a product of bearing ; crop 3. a. an object, surface, or point that supports b. a machine part in which another part (as a journal or pin) turns or slides 4. a figure borne on a heraldic field 5. pressure, thrust 6. a. the situation or horizontal direction of one point with respect to another or to the compass b. a determination of position c. plural comprehension of one's position, environment, or situation d. relation, connection; also purport 7. the part of a structural member that rests on its supports Synonyms: bearing, deportment, demeanor, mien, manner, carriage mean the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. bearing is the most general of these words but now usually implies characteristic posture <a woman of regal bearing>. deportment suggests actions or behavior as formed by breeding or training <your deportment was atrocious>. demeanor suggests one's attitude toward others as expressed in outward behavior <the haughty demeanor of the headwaiter>. mien is a literary term referring both to bearing and demeanor <a mien of supreme self-satisfaction>. manner implies characteristic or customary way of moving and gesturing and addressing others <the imperious manner of a man used to giving orders>. carriage applies chiefly to habitual posture in standing or walking <the kind of carriage learned at boarding school>.

U.S. Military Dictionary

The horizontal angle at a given point measured clockwise from a specific datum point to a second point. See also grid bearing.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a person's bodily attitude or outward behaviour. 2 (foll. by on, upon) relation or relevance to (his comments have no bearing on the subject). 3 endurability (beyond bearing). 4 a part of a machine that supports a rotating or other moving part. 5 direction or position relative to a fixed point, measured esp. in degrees. 6 (in pl.) a one's position relative to one's surroundings. b awareness of this; a sense of one's orientation (get one's bearings; lose one's bearings). 7 Heraldry a device or charge. 8 = ball-bearing (see BALL(1)). Phrases and idioms: bearing-rein a fixed rein from bit to saddle that forces a horse to arch its neck.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bear Bear (b[^a]r), v. t. [imp. Bore (b[=o]r) (formerly Bare (b[^a]r)); p. p. Born (b[^o]rn), Borne (b[=o]r); p. pr. & vb. n. Bearing.] [OE. beren, AS. beran, beoran, to bear, carry, produce; akin to D. baren to bring forth, G. geb["a]ren, Goth. ba['i]ran to bear or carry, Icel. bera, Sw. b["a]ra, Dan. b[ae]re, OHG. beran, peran, L. ferre to bear, carry, produce, Gr. fe`rein, OSlav brati to take, carry, OIr. berim I bear, Skr. bh[.r] to bear. [root]92. Cf. Fertile.] 1. To support or sustain; to hold up. 2. To support and remove or carry; to convey. I 'll bear your logs the while. --Shak. 3. To conduct; to bring; -- said of persons. [Obs.] Bear them to my house. --Shak. 4. To possess and use, as power; to exercise. Every man should bear rule in his own house. --Esther i. 22. 5. To sustain; to have on (written or inscribed, or as a mark), as, the tablet bears this inscription. 6. To possess or carry, as a mark of authority or distinction; to wear; as, to bear a sword, badge, or name. 7. To possess mentally; to carry or hold in the mind; to entertain; to harbor --Dryden. The ancient grudge I bear him. --Shak. 8. To endure; to tolerate; to undergo; to suffer. Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. --Pope. I cannot bear The murmur of this lake to hear. --Shelley. My punishment is greater than I can bear. --Gen. iv. 13. 9. To gain or win. [Obs.] Some think to bear it by speaking a great word. --Bacon. She was . . . found not guilty, through bearing of friends and bribing of the judge. --Latimer. 10. To sustain, or be answerable for, as blame, expense, responsibility, etc. He shall bear their iniquities. --Is. liii. 11. Somewhat that will bear your charges. --Dryden. 11. To render or give; to bring forward. ``Your testimony bear'' --Dryden. 12. To carry on, or maintain; to have. ``The credit of bearing a part in the conversation.'' --Locke. 13. To admit or be capable of; that is, to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change. In all criminal cases the most favorable interpretation should be put on words that they can possibly bear. --Swift. 14. To manage, wield, or direct. ``Thus must thou thy body bear.'' --Shak. Hence: To behave; to conduct. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison ? --Shak. 15. To afford; to be to; to supply with. His faithful dog shall bear him company. --Pope. 16. To bring forth or produce; to yield; as, to bear apples; to bear children; to bear interest. Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore. --Dryden. Note: In the passive form of this verb, the best modern usage restricts the past participle born to the sense of brought forth, while borne is used in the other senses of the word. In the active form, borne alone is used as the past participle. To bear down. (a) To force into a lower place; to carry down; to depress or sink. ``His nose, . . . large as were the others, bore them down into insignificance.'' --Marryat. (b) To overthrow or crush by force; as, to bear down an enemy. To bear a hand. (a) To help; to give assistance. (b) (Naut.) To make haste; to be quick. To bear in hand, to keep (one) up in expectation, usually by promises never to be realized; to amuse by false pretenses; to delude. [Obs.] ``How you were borne in hand, how crossed.'' --Shak. To bear in mind, to remember. To bear off. (a) To restrain; to keep from approach. (b) (Naut.) To remove to a distance; to keep clear from rubbing against anything; as, to bear off a blow; to bear off a boat. (c) To gain; to carry off, as a prize. To bear one hard, to owe one a grudge. [Obs.] ``C[ae]sar doth bear me hard.'' --Shak. To bear out. (a) To maintain and support to the end; to defend to the last. ``Company only can bear a man out in an ill thing.'' --South. (b) To corroborate; to confirm. To bear up, to support; to keep from falling or sinking. ``Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings.'' --Addison. Syn: To uphold; sustain; maintain; support; undergo; suffer; endure; tolerate; carry; convey; transport; waft.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bearing Bear"ing, n. 1. The manner in which one bears or conducts one's self; mien; behavior; carriage. I know him by his bearing. --Shak. 2. Patient endurance; suffering without complaint. 3. The situation of one object, with respect to another, such situation being supposed to have a connection with the object, or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it; hence, relation; connection. But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, The strong connections, nice dependencies. --Pope. 4. Purport; meaning; intended significance; aspect. 5. The act, power, or time of producing or giving birth; as, a tree in full bearing; a tree past bearing. [His mother] in travail of his bearing. --R. of Gloucester. 6. (Arch.) (a) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports; as, a lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall. (b) The portion of a support on which anything rests. (c) Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports. 7. (Mach.) (a) The part of an axle or shaft in contact with its support, collar, or boxing; the journal. (b) The part of the support on which a journal rests and rotates. 8. (Her.) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms -- commonly in the pl. A carriage covered with armorial bearings. --Thackeray. 9. (Naut.) (a) The situation of a distant object, with regard to a ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter, etc.; the direction or point of the compass in which an object is seen; as, the bearing of the cape was W. N. W. (b) pl. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer. (c) pl. The line of flotation of a vessel when properly trimmed with cargo or ballast. Ball bearings. See under Ball. To bring one to his bearings, to bring one to his senses. To lose one's bearings, to become bewildered. To take bearings, to ascertain by the compass the position of an object; to ascertain the relation of one object or place to another; to ascertain one's position by reference to landmarks or to the compass; hence (Fig.), to ascertain the condition of things when one is in trouble or perplexity. Syn: Deportment; gesture; mien; behavior; manner; carriage; demeanor; port; conduct; direction; relation; tendency; influence.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bearings) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If something has a bearing on a situation or event, it is relevant to it. Experts generally agree that diet has an important bearing on your general health... My father's achievements really don't have any bearing on what I do. = influence PHRASE: V inflects 2. Someone's bearing is the way in which they move or stand. (LITERARY) She later wrote warmly of his bearing and behaviour. N-SING: usu poss N 3. If you take a bearing with a compass, you use it to work out the direction in which a particular place lies or in which something is moving. = reading N-COUNT 4. If you get your bearings or find your bearings, you find out where you are or what you should do next. If you lose your bearings, you do not know where you are or what you should do next. A sightseeing tour of the city is included to help you get your bearings... PHRASE: V inflects 5. Bearings are small metal balls that are placed between moving parts of a machine in order to make them move smoothly and easily over each other. An oil seal was replaced, along with both front wheel bearings. N-COUNT: usu pl see also ball bearing

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Deportment, demeanor, behavior, conduct, carriage, mien, air, port. 2. Relation, dependency, connection. 3. Endurance, suffering, enduring, patience, long-suffering. 4. Direction, course, aim, aspect, point of compass. 5. Import, effect, force, meaning, scope, compass. 6. Producing, bringing forth, yielding fruit or increase. 7. Socket, bed, receptacle.

Moby Thesaurus

Zeitgeist, action, actions, activity, acts, address, affectation, affective meaning, aftermath, aim, air, air express, airfreight, airlift, applicability, application, appositeness, aspect, asportation, attitude, axis, azimuth, backing, ball bearing, bearings, beck, beckon, behavior, behavior pattern, behavioral norm, behavioral science, bent, bevel bearing, birthing, body language, bolstering, boost, born, bracing, brow, bump, bumper crop, bunt, burdened, bushing, butt, buttressing, calved, carriage, carry, carrying, cartage, cast, cast of countenance, celestial navigation, charade, chassis, childbearing, childbirth, chironomy, color, coloring, complexion, comportment, concern, concernment, conduct, connection, connotation, consequence, conveyance, correlation, countenance, course, crop, culture pattern, current, custom, dactylology, dead reckoning, deaf-and-dumb alphabet, delivery, demeanor, denotation, deportment, dig, direction, direction line, display, doing, doings, drayage, drift, dropped, dumb show, effect, endurance, enduring, essence, exposure, expressage, extension, face, facial appearance, favor, feature, features, ferriage, fix, foaled, folkway, force, frame, freight, freightage, front, frontage, fructiferous, fructification, fruit, fruitbearing, fruiting, fruition, fulcrum, garb, germaneness, gesticulation, gesture, gesture language, gestures, gist, given birth, giving birth, glacial movement, goings-on, grammatical meaning, guise, hand signal, harvest, hatched, haulage, hauling, head, heading, headstock, helmsmanship, holding, hustle, idea, impact, implication, import, inclination, infrastructure, intension, interest, jab, jewel, jog, joggle, jolt, jostle, kinesics, lay, lexical meaning, lie, lighterage, line, line of direction, line of march, line of position, lineaments, lines, literal meaning, look, looks, lugging, main current, mainstream, maintaining, maintien, make, manner, manners, materiality, meaning, method, methodology, methods, mien, modus vivendi, motion, motions, mount, mounting, movement, movements, moves, navigation, nee, needle bearing, newborn, nudge, oarlock, observable behavior, orientation, output, overtone, packing, pantomime, parturition, pattern, pertinence, physiognomy, pilotage, piloting, pith, pivot, point, poise, poke, port, portage, porterage, pose, position, position line, posture, practical consequence, practice, praxis, presence, press, pressure, procedure, proceeding, proceeds, prod, produce, producing, product, production, propping, punch, purport, push, quarter, radio bearing, railway express, range, range of meaning, real meaning, reference, referent, regard, relatedness, relation, relationship, relevance, respect, rest, resting point, roller bearing, rowlock, run, scope, second crop, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, set, setting, shipment, shipping, shoring, shove, shrug, sign language, significance, signification, significatum, signifie, skeleton, social science, span of meaning, spirit, stance, stand, steerage, steering, stillborn, stream, stress, structural meaning, style, substance, sum, sum and substance, supporting, supportive, suspensory, sustaining, sustentative, swing, symbolic meaning, tactics, telpherage, tendency, tenor, the general tendency, the main course, thole, tholepin, thrust, thrust bearing, time spirit, tone, totality of associations, toting, track, traits, transferred meaning, transport, transportation, transshipment, trend, truckage, turn, unadorned meaning, underframe, undertone, upholding, value, vintage, visage, waft, waftage, wagonage, way, way of life, ways, whelped, yield, yielding