[f. WEST adv. or v.]
1. Naut. The net distance made by a vessel towards the west. (Cf. EASTING sb. 1.)
1628. Digby, Voy. Mediterr. (Camden), 9. But for easting and westing, great diligence is required not to fall into error.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., IV. xvii. 202. In the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh Columns, set down the Northing, Southing, Easting, and Westing.
1690. Leybourn, Curs. Math., 641. The Lesser Easting or Westing, subtracted from the Greater, shall give you the Departure.
1726. Shelvocke, Voy. round World, 384. The Westing we should gain in going to California would make amends for what we should lose.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, II. 579. After leaving Ascension we made a good deal of westing.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 369. A decrease of the variation of the compass, tends to give them more westing than they calculate upon.
1839. Marryat, Phant. Ship, ix. Their easting and westing could only be computed by dead reckoning.
1858. Merc. Marine Mag., V. 257. Furthest westing N. of Equator 261/2° W.
2. Direction or course towards the west.
1825. Scott, 29 June, in Fam. Lett. (1894), II, 280. How sets the vane…? Due north I hope, with a westing towards Abbotsford.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xviii. 330. The westing we were making brought us among people who are frequently visited by the Mambari, as slave-dealers. Ibid. (1872), Lett. to N. Y. Herald (Feb.), in Daily News, 29 July, 5/6. I … at last found that the mighty river left its westing and flowed right away to the north.
b. Astron. Attainment of the western limit of the apparent course.
1883. Proctor, Gt. Pyramid, iii. 139. The easting, southing, westing, and northing of heavenly bodies.
3. Of winds: The fact of blowing from, or shifting to, the west.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea (Low), iv. 79. Hitherto winds with westing in them have been most prevalent. Ibid., v. 127. The forces of diurnal rotation assist to give these winds their westing.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 144/1. The westing of these great aerial currents is due to … the rotation of the earth round its axis.
