Library / English Dictionary

LANDING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of coming to land after a voyage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("landing" is a kind of...):

arrival (the act of arriving at a certain place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "landing"):

amphibious landing (a military action of coordinated land, sea, and air forces organized for an invasion)

debarkation; disembarkation; disembarkment (the act of passengers and crew getting off of a ship or aircraft)

Derivation:

land (arrive on shore)

land (bring ashore)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of coming down to the earth (or other surface)

Example:

his landing on his feet was catlike

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("landing" is a kind of...):

arrival (the act of arriving at a certain place)

Meronyms (parts of "landing"):

landing approach (the approach to a landing field by an airplane)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "landing"):

touchdown (a landing (as the wheels touch the landing field); especially of airplanes)

aircraft landing; airplane landing (landing an aircraft)

splashdown (a landing of a spacecraft in the sea at the end of a space flight)

Derivation:

land (reach or come to rest)

land (cause to come to the ground)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Structure providing a place where boats can land people or goods

Synonyms:

landing; landing place

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("landing" is a kind of...):

construction; structure (a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts)

Meronyms (parts of "landing"):

landing stage (platform from which passengers and cargo can be (un)loaded)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "landing"):

dock; dockage; docking facility (landing in a harbor next to a pier where ships are loaded and unloaded or repaired; may have gates to let water in or out)

Holonyms ("landing" is a part of...):

harbor; harbour; haven; seaport (a sheltered port where ships can take on or discharge cargo)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An intermediate platform in a staircase

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("landing" is a kind of...):

platform (a raised horizontal surface)

Holonyms ("landing" is a part of...):

staircase; stairway (a way of access (upward and downward) consisting of a set of steps)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

-ing form of the verb land

Credits

 Context examples: 

But fists were landing on faces the whole length of the car.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It came out upon the landing opposite to a second more ornamental stair which came up from the front hall.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now, Mr. Lestrade, I will ask you all to accompany me to the top landing.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We've told yarns by the camp-fire in the prairies; and dressed one another's wounds after trying a landing at the Marquesas; and drunk healths on the shore of Titicaca.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Since landing from the boat he has obtained some consolation from the beauty and variety of the insect and bird life around him, for he is absolutely whole-hearted in his devotion to science.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I strove to compel myself to think we would make the landing safely, and so I spoke, not what I believed, but what I preferred to believe.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Jip would bark and caper round us, and go on before, and look back on the landing, breathing short, to see that we were coming.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Landing on Ceres to investigate its interior would be technically challenging and would risk contaminating the dwarf planet.

(Dawn Finds Possible Ancient Ocean Remnants at Ceres, NASA)

But the Outside dogs, though practically broken in since their landing, did not amount to much.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Some of the sequence is understood: Mud that formed lake-bed mudstones Curiosity examined near its 2012 landing site and after reaching Mount Sharp must have dried and hardened before the fractures formed.

(Curiosity Eyes Prominent Mineral Veins on Mars, NASA)