Noun

(en noun)

A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction.

(navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.

Relevance; a relationship or connection.

That has no bearing on this issue.

* Alexander Pope

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

One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing .

* Shakespeare

I know him by his bearing .

(in the plural) Direction or relative position.

(architecture) 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.

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

(architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span.

The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

(heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.

* Thackeray

A carriage covered with armorial bearings .

Noun

(en noun)

The way something appears when viewed from a certain direction or perspective.

The way something appears when considered from a certain point of view.

A phase or a partial, but significant view or description of something

One's appearance or expression.

* (and other bibliographic particulars) (John Dryden)

serious in aspect

* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)

, chapter=4, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect .}}

* 2009 , (Hilary Mantel), (Wolf Hall) , Fourth Estate 2010, p. 145:

It is Stephen Gardiner, black and scowling, his aspect in no way improved by his trip to Rome.

Position or situation with regard to seeing; that position which enables one to look in a particular direction; position in relation to the points of the compass.

Prospect; outlook.

* (and other bibliographic particulars) (John Evelyn)

This town affords a good aspect toward the hill from whence we descended.

(grammar) A grammatical quality of a verb which determines the relationship of the speaker to the internal temporal flow of the event the verb describes, or whether the speaker views the event from outside as a whole, or from within as it is unfolding.

(astrology) The relative position of heavenly bodies as they appear to an observer on earth; the angular relationship between points in a horoscope.

(Milton)

(obsolete) The act of looking at something; gaze.

* (and other bibliographic particulars) Sir (Francis Bacon)

The basilisk killeth by aspect .

* (and other bibliographic particulars) Sir (Walter Scott)

His aspect was bent on the ground.

(obsolete) Appearance to the eye or the mind; look; view.

* (and other bibliographic particulars) (Thomas Burnet)

the true aspect of a world lying in its rubbish

* (and other bibliographic particulars)

the aspect of affairs

(computing, programming) In aspect-oriented programming, a feature or component that can be applied to parts of a program independent of any inheritance hierarchy.