bearing

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛə̯ɹɪŋ/
• (US) enPR: bâr'ĭng IPA^(key): /ˈbɛɹɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəɹɪŋ
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

From Middle English beringe, berynge, berende, berande, berand, from Old English berende (“bearing; fruitful”) (also as synonym Old English bǣrende), from Proto-Germanic *berandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear; carry”), equivalent to bear +‎ -ing.

bearing

1. present participle and gerund of bear

bearing (not comparable)

1. (in combination) That bears (some specified thing).

   a gift-bearing visitor

2. Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.

   That's a bearing wall.

From Middle English bering, beringe, berynge, equivalent to bear +‎ -ing.

bearing (plural bearings)

1. (mechanical engineering) A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction.
2. (navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.
   • 1726 October 28, Richard Sympson [pseudonym], [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page X:

     This volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together with the minute descriptions of the management of the ship in storms, in the style of sailors; likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; [...]

3. (in the plural, especially in phrases such as 'get one's bearings') One's understanding of one's orientation or relative position, literally or figuratively.

   Do we go left here or straight on? Hold on, let me just get my bearings.

   I started a new job last week, and I still haven't quite found my bearings.

4. Relevance; a relationship or connection.

   That has no bearing on this issue.

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

     But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, / The strong connections, nice dependencies.

5. One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

   She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     I know him by his bearing.

   • 2019 March 18, Steven Pifer, Five years after Crimea’s illegal annexation, the issue is no closer to resolution‎, The Center for International Security and Cooperation:

     The little green men were clearly professional soldiers by their bearing, carried Russian weapons, and wore Russian combat fatigues, but they had no identifying insignia. Vladimir Putin originally denied they were Russian soldiers; that April, he confirmed they were.

6. (architecture) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports.

   A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

7. (architecture) The portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. (architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span.

   The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

9. (heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo:

     Jos Sedley's open carriage, with its magnificent armorial bearings.

• ABEC

• bearing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “bearing”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Binegar, bangier, barge in