bearing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of bear

1. in compoundsnot comparableThat bears (some specified thing).

   a gift-bearing visitor

2. not comparableOf a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.

   That's a bearing wall.

plural bearings

1. engineeringA mechanical device that supports another part or reduces friction.

   The smaller 1/4" shank version features a bearing at the top edge to limit depth of cut, making it especially useful for curved glue joints.

   2026 August 28, Collin Knoff, “Wave Reversible Glueline Bit From Microjig”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 12

2. navigationnauticalThe horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.

   1 more example

   This volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made bold to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides, as well as to the variations and bearings in the several voyages, together with the minute descriptions of the management of the ship in storms, in the style of sailors; likewise the account of longitudes and latitudes; [...]

   1726 October 28, Richard Sympson [pseudonym], [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page X

3. especiallyin pluralOne's understanding of one's orientation or relative position, literally or figuratively.

   Do we go left here or straight on? Hold on, let me just get my bearings.

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   I started a new job last week, and I still haven't quite found my bearings.

4. Relevance; a relationship or connection.

   That has no bearing on this issue.

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   But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, / The strong connections, nice dependencies.

   1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC

5. One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

   She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.

   2 more examples

   I know him by his bearing.

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   The little green men were clearly professional soldiers by their bearing, carried Russian weapons, and wore Russian combat fatigues, but they had no identifying insignia. Vladimir Putin originally denied they were Russian soldiers; that April, he confirmed they were.

   2019 March 18, Steven Pifer, Five years after Crimea’s illegal annexation, the issue is no closer to resolution, The Center for International Security and Cooperation

   Synonyms: presence

6. architectureThat part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports.

   A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

7. architectureThe portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. proscribedarchitectureThe unsupported span.

   The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

9. governmentAny single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.

   Holonyms: shield, escutcheon

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   […]when the French seized Malta they were by no means so delicate. They effaced armorial bearings with their usual hot-headed eagerness; and a few years after they had torn down the coats of arms of the gentry, the heroes of Malta and Egypt were busy devising heraldry for themselves, and were wild to be barons and counts of the empire.

   1846, Mr. M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; W. M. Thackeray], chapter VIII, in Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo […] , London: Chapman and Hall, page 140