[f. ANCHOR v. + -ING1.]
1. The action or condition of lying at anchor, or the means of doing so; anchorage.
1593–1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 178. Under which is good anchoring, cleane ground.
1690. Lond. Gaz., mmdix/3. A very violent Storm of Wind … forced the Frigat from her Anchoring.
1724. De Foe, etc., Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), III. 215. Good Anchoring in six or eight Fathom of Water.
2. transf. The action or method of fixing securely.
1767. Ellis, Actinia, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 432. Like the anchoring of muscles [i.e., mussels], by their fine silken filaments, that end in suckers.
1883. W. Conant, in Harper’s Mag., 930/1. The mode of anchoring the cables [of a suspension-bridge] will be described in its proper place.
3. Comb. anchoring-ground, -place, ground, or a position, used or suited for anchoring; anchoring-room, space for anchoring; anchoring-stone, a stone used instead of an anchor.
1740. Woodroofe, in Hanway Trav. (1762), I. IV. lix. 273. On the south side there is good anchoring-ground.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 497. In the ankoring places it [the Sea] was Blue.
1796. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp., II. 309. Not one anchoring place from Genoa to Ventimiglia was accessible.
1865. Times, 1 Feb., 10/2. The anchoring room being too contracted, to proceed in shore to cover the encampment of the troops.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. I. xiii. 329. The Argonauts had left their anchoring-stone on the coast of Bebrycia.
