BEARING

Definitions

1. 1. The manner in which one bears or conducts one's self; mien; behavior; carriage. I know him by his bearing. Shak.
2. 2. Patient endurance; suffering without complaint.
3. 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. 4. Purport; meaning; intended significance; aspect.
5. 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. 6. 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.
7. 7. The portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. 8. Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.
9. 9. The part of an axle or shaft in contact with its support, collar, or boxing; the journal.
10. 10. The part of the support on which a journal rests and rotates.
11. 11. Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms -- commonly in the pl. A carriage covered with armorial bearings. Thackeray.
12. 12. 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.
13. 13. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer. (c) pl.
14. 14. 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.