mooring

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• (without the pour–poor merger) Rhymes: -ʊəɹɪŋ
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹɪŋ

mooring

1. present participle and gerund of moor

mooring (plural moorings)

1. A place to moor a vessel.
   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎^[1], London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 31:

     Then did the comet break loose from his moorings and the eclipse roamed about the sky, and down on the earth did Death’s three children—Famine, Pestilence, and Drought—come out to feed.

   • 1953 May, “British Railways and the January Floods”, in Railway Magazine, page 301:

     On the Lincolnshire side of the Humber, the Pier Station at New Holland was put out of action when the ferry boat plying to and from Hull broke loose from its moorings.

2. The act of securing a vessel with a cable or anchor etc.
3. (figuratively) Something to which one adheres, or the means that helps one to maintain a stable position and keep one's identity - moral, intellectual, political, etc.
   • 1890, John George Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History

     The party of pro-slavery reaction was for the moment in the ascendant; and as by an irresistible impulse, the Supreme Court of the United States was swept from its hitherto impartial judicial moorings into the dangerous seas of polities.

   • 1898, Coates, Florence Earle, song: "Friendship from its Moorings Strays"

     Friendship from its moorings strays,

     Love binds fast together;

     Friendship is for balmy days,

     Love for stormy weather.

• dock
• wharf

• rooming