launchingn.

1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 84 That launching and progression of the mind, Which all men haue.

1602 2nd Pt. Returne fr. Parnassus i. i. 95 Nought but lanching can the wound auayle.

1605 J. Sylvester tr. Fathers in tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. 501 Such ill-Rigg'd Shippes, would euen in launching sinck.

1669 J. Bunyan Holy Citie 259 This signifieth our launching into Eternity.

1725 D. Defoe Compl. Eng. Tradesman I. vi. 82 Such miserable havock has launching out into..remote undertakings made among tradesmen.

1751 C. Labelye Descr. Westm. Bridge 28 The lowering or launching of the finished Caisson.

1822 J. Flint Lett. from Amer. 129 The launching of a large steam-boat attracted a great assemblage of spectators.

1824 P. Hawker Instr. Young Sportsmen (ed. 3) 332 Birds may be approached much nearer by this means than by any other kind of ‘launching’.

1967 Listener 23 Feb. 263/3 Admittedly, the launchings will be carried out by American rockets from an American site, but the satellites themselves are purely British-built.

1971 Nature 6 Aug. 357/2 It is not safe to base a rocket development project on a single launching once a year.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 15 Dec. 4/1 The Princess..has only to sever the launching cord to set the Irresistible free.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 15 Dec. 4/1 The launching cradle is a massive structure of wood and iron, weighing 300 tons.

1691 W. Petty Treat. Naval Philos. in T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 124 It swims at the line representing the launching line.

1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 50/1 Ordinary aeroplanes were carried in fighting-ships with a launching-platform.

1957 Jane's Fighting Ships 1957–58 413 The missile is using jet-assisted rocket bottles to launch it from its zero-length launching platform.

1944 Aeronautics Aug. 27/1 The counter attack, by bombing the launching sites in the Pas de Calais, was intensified.

1958 Listener 13 Nov. 766/2 Israel had also agreed to launching-sites on her territory for United States atomic rockets and guided missiles.

1897 Strand Mag. June 712/1 We had better not make the launching station a place like the bank of the river, where it can go only one way.

1944 A. Huxley Let. 9 July (1969) 507 Five thousand launching stations, firing off twenty robots [sc. rockets] apiece—and that would be the end of any metropolis.

1958 C. C. Adams et al. Space Flight p. xi A space station would serve as a ‘launching station’ for space ships to the moon, saving fabulous amounts of precious fuel.

1951 D. C. Cooke & M. Caidin Jets, Rockets & Guided Missiles 138 Under a blazing afternoon sun, at 3.14 p.m., a modified V-2 rocket carrying a WAC-Corporal in its nose rose slowly from its concrete launching pad.

1958 Daily Mail 16 Aug. 1/4 The 88 ft. rocket stands poised on its concrete launching pad here tonight looking like a giant silver propelling pencil.

1959 Encounter Dec. 74/2 All this is by way of a launching-pad for the idea of the Non-Nuclear Club.

1963 A. Huxley Let. 17 Feb. (1969) 948 Julian tells me that your book is now definitely on the launching pad.

1973 Guardian 31 Jan. 13/7 The NUS sees the rent-strike movement as a launching pad for its main campaign.

1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 128 Launching planks, a set of planks mostly used to form the platform on each side of the ship, whereon the bilgeways slide for the purpose of launching.

1824 P. Hawker Instr. Young Sportsmen (ed. 3) 326 Hampshire Launching-punt.

1824 P. Hawker Instr. Young Sportsmen (ed. 3) 332 The light launching sledge is in the foreground.

1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. Launching-ways, the same as Bilge-ways.