Defn: To ascertain the depth of water with a sounding line or other
device.
I sound as a shipman soundeth in the sea with his plummet to know the
depth of sea. Palsgrave.
SOUND
Sound, n. Etym: [F. sonde. See Sound to fathom.] (Med.)
Defn: Any elongated instrument or probe, usually metallic, by which cavities of the body are sounded or explored, especially the bladder for stone, or the urethra for a stricture.
SOUND
Sound, n. Etym: [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. The warlike sound Of trumpets loud and clarions. Milton.
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.
Note: In this sense, sounds are spoken of as audible and inaudible.
3. Noise without signification; empty noise; noise and nothing else. Sense and not sound . . . must be the principle. Locke. 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.
SOUND Sound, v. i. Etym: [OE. sounen, sownen, OF. soner, suner, F. sonner, from L. sonare. See Sound a noise.]
1. To make a noise; to utter a voice; to make an impulse of the air that shall strike the organs of hearing with a perceptible effect. "And first taught speaking trumpets how to sound." Dryden. How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues! Shak.