bearing

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of bear

adj

1. (in-compounds, not-comparable)That bears (some specified thing).

   “a gift-bearing visitor”

2. (not-comparable)Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.

   “That's a bearing wall.”

noun

1. A mechanical device that supports another part or reduces friction.
2. The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.

   “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; [...]”

3. (especially, in-plural)One'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.”

   “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.”

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

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

   “She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.”

   “I know him by his bearing.”

   “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.”

6. That 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. The portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. (proscribed)The unsupported span.

   “The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.”

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

   “Holonyms: shield, escutcheon”

   “[…]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.”