Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEAR'ING, n.

1. Gesture; mien; behavior. I know him by his bearing. – Shak.
2. The situation of an object, with respect to another object, by which it is supposed to have a connection with it or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it. But of this frame, the bearings and the ties. – Pope.
3. In architecture, the space between the two fixed extremes of a piece of timber, or between one extreme and a supporter. – Builder's Dict.
4. In navigation, the situation of a distant object, with regard to a ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter, &c. Also, an arch of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compass, or resulting from sinical proportion. – Mar. Dict.
5. In heraldry, bearings are the coats of arms or figures of armories, by which the nobility and gentry are distinguished from common persons. – Encyc.