dead reckoning
1
8.1
- noun
- /dɛd ˈrɛkənɪŋ/
- Specialized
:
navegación por estimación
- Perlmutter knew from his reading that on his first trip, Columbus navigated by dead reckoning.
- navigate by dead reckoning
- uses dead reckoning
- course by dead reckoning
Examples
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In sailing, we often navigate using dead reckoning when GPS is unavailable.
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We are navigating under the Arctic ice cap by dead reckoning and five days from home.
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I make our position here by dead reckoning.
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Sounds like dead reckoning, sir.
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I mean, we might be able to get to the first navigation point using dead reckoning.
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Most of their navigation was done by dead reckoning.
Fiction book (2000) -
Navigation was by dead reckoning and landmarks rather than by the use of global positioning systems.
Academic text (1997) -
I am uneasy about sailing ahead with nothing but dead reckoning to guide us, but I'm pretty sure that this is all we have ever done.
Academic text (2007) -
To find our way back, we used dead reckoning based on the last known position.
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The captain explained that dead reckoning helps estimate our location without modern tools.
Synonyms
11
7.1
A way of calculating numbers to find an amount
Antonyms
How Accurate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'reckoning' clearly signals estimating or computing and 'dead' can function as an intensifier meaning 'complete' or 'exact', so a learner might infer a sense of a thorough estimate. However, the phrase specifically denotes a technical navigational method of estimating position without instruments, a domain-specific nuance not directly recoverable from the parts, making the relation only partially transparent.
Etymology
Dead reckoning may come from old sailors. One popular story says they would reckon, or 'work out', their position by adding speed and direction when the stars were hidden and no outside tools were available. That's why dead reckoning now means 'estimating where you are or what will happen' using only what you already know rather than exact outside measurements.