cross-bearingsn.
Nautical.
The bearings of two or more points taken from a point of reference so as to give their angular distance from each other, or, when their positions are known, to plot the position of a ship on a chart.
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society > travel > travel by water > directing or managing a ship > [noun] > position > bearing
departure1699
cross-bearings1809
four-point bearing1927
1809 Visct. Valentia Voy. (1811) II. viii. 342 Its distance was ascertained to be seventy miles, by a set of cross bearings taken from the island.
1857 R. Tomes Americans in Japan xiii. 310 On taking the cross-bearings, it was found..that the ships had not shifted their places a mile.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1809