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dead reckoning

   Also found in: Legal, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.09 sec.
dead reckoning
n.
1. A method of estimating the position of an aircraft or a ship without astronomical observations, as by applying to a previously determined position the course and distance traveled since.
2. Predictive calculation based on inference; guesswork.
[Possibly alteration of ded., abbr. of deduced, from deduce, to trace from the beginning; see deduce.]
dead reckoning
Noun
a method of establishing one's position using the distance and direction travelled
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.dead reckoningdead reckoning - an estimate based on little or no information
guessing, guesswork, guess, shot
approximation, estimate, estimation, idea - an approximate calculation of quantity or degree or worth; "an estimate of what it would cost"; "a rough idea how long it would take"
2.dead reckoning - navigation without the aid of celestial observations
navigation, pilotage, piloting - the guidance of ships or airplanes from place to place
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Sailing one direction, drifting another direction, to say nothing of the set of the current in some third direction, makes a resultant which dead reckoning can never calculate.
The Sea Wolf by London, Jack View in context
In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds.
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Thoreau, Henry David View in context
Captain Davenport worked up his dead reckoning, allowing generously for drift, and announced Moerenhout Island to be not more than ten miles off.
South Sea Tales by London, Jack View in context
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