Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Bear.

2. (n.) The manner in which one bears or conducts one's self; mien; behavior; carriage.

3. (n.) Patient endurance; suffering without complaint.

4. (n.) The situation of one object, with respect to another, such situation being supposed to have a connection with the object, or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it; hence, relation; connection.

5. (n.) Purport; meaning; intended significance; aspect.

6. (n.) The act, power, or time of producing or giving birth; as, a tree in full bearing; a tree past bearing.

7. (n.) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports; as, a lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

8. (n.) The portion of a support on which anything rests.

9. (n.) Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

10. (n.) The part of an axle or shaft in contact with its support, collar, or boxing; the journal.

11. (n.) The part of the support on which a journal rests and rotates.

12. (n.) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms -- commonly in the pl.

13. (n.) The situation of a distant object, with regard to a ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter, etc.; the direction or point of the compass in which an object is seen; as, the bearing of the cape was W. N. W.

14. (n.) The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer.

15. (n.) The line of flotation of a vessel when properly trimmed with cargo or ballast.