Sound \Sound\, n. [OE. soun, OF. son, sun, F. son, fr. L. sonus
   akin to Skr. svana sound, svan to sound, and perh. to E.
   swan. Cf. Assonant, Consonant, Person, Sonata,
   Sonnet, Sonorous, Swan.]
   1. The peceived object occasioned by the impulse or vibration
      of a material substance affecting the ear; a sensation or
      perception of the mind received through the ear, and
      produced by the impulse or vibration of the air or other
      medium with which the ear is in contact; the effect of an
      impression made on the organs of hearing by an impulse or
      vibration of the air caused by a collision of bodies, or
      by other means; noise; report; as, the sound of a drum;
      the sound of the human voice; a horrid sound; a charming
      sound; a sharp, high, or shrill sound.
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            The warlike sound
            Of trumpets loud and clarions.        --Milton.
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   2. The occasion of sound; the impulse or vibration which
      would occasion sound to a percipient if present with
      unimpaired; hence, the theory of vibrations in elastic
      media such cause sound; as, a treatise on sound.
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   Note: In this sense, sounds are spoken of as audible and
         inaudible.
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   3. Noise without signification; empty noise; noise and
      nothing else.
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            Sense and not sound . . . must be the principle.
                                                  --Locke.
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   Sound boarding, boards for holding pugging, placed in
      partitions of under floors in order to deaden sounds.

   Sound bow, in a series of transverse sections of a bell,
      that segment against which the clapper strikes, being the
      part which is most efficacious in producing the sound. See
      Illust. of Bell.

   Sound post. (Mus.) See Sounding post, under Sounding.
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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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