sounding
    adj 1: appearing to be as specified; usually used as combining
           forms; "left their clothes dirty looking"; "a most
           disagreeable looking character"; "angry-looking";
           "liquid-looking"; "severe-looking policemen on noble
           horses"; "fine-sounding phrases"; "taken in by high-
           sounding talk" [syn: looking, sounding]
    2: having volume or deepness; "sounding brass and a tinkling
       cymbal"; "the sounding cataract haunted me like a passion"-
       Wordsworth
    3: making or having a sound as specified; used as a combining
       form; "harsh-sounding"
    n 1: a measure of the depth of water taken with a sounding line
    2: the act of measuring depth of water (usually with a sounding
       line)

Sound \Sound\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sounded; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Sounding.] [F. sonder; cf. AS. sundgyrd a sounding rod,
   sundline a sounding line (see Sound a narrow passage of
   water).]
   1. To measure the depth of; to fathom; especially, to
      ascertain the depth of by means of a line and plummet.
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   2. Fig.: To ascertain, or try to ascertain, the thoughts,
      motives, and purposes of (a person); to examine; to try;
      to test; to probe.
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            I was in jest,
            And by that offer meant to sound your breast.
                                                  --Dryden.
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            I've sounded my Numidians man by man. --Addison.
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   3. (Med.) To explore, as the bladder or urethra, with a
      sound; to examine with a sound; also, to examine by
      auscultation or percussion; as, to sound a patient.
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Sounding \Sound"ing\, a.
   Making or emitting sound; hence, sonorous; as, sounding
   words. --Dryden.
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Sounding \Sound"ing\, n.
   1. The act of one who, or that which, sounds (in any of the
      senses of the several verbs).
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   2. (Naut.) [From Sound to fathom.]
      (a) measurement by sounding; also, the depth so
          ascertained.
      (b) Any place or part of the ocean, or other water, where
          a sounding line will reach the bottom; -- usually in
          the plural.
      (c) The sand, shells, or the like, that are brought up by
          the sounding lead when it has touched bottom.
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   Sounding lead, the plummet at the end of a sounding line.
      

   Sounding line, a line having a plummet at the end, used in
      making soundings.

   Sounding post (Mus.), a small post in a violin,
      violoncello, or similar instrument, set under the bridge
      as a support, for propagating the sounds to the body of
      the instrument; -- called also sound post.

   Sounding rod (Naut.), a rod used to ascertain the depth of
      water in a ship's hold.

   In soundings, within the eighty-fathom line. --Ham. Nav.
      Encyc.
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