log

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A logarithm.
• noun A usually large section of a trunk or limb of a fallen or felled tree.
• noun A long thick section of trimmed, unhewn timber.
• noun A device trailed from a ship to determine its speed through the water.
• noun A record of a ship's speed, its progress, and any shipboard events of navigational importance.
• noun The book in which this record is kept.
• noun A record of a vehicle's performance, as the flight record of an aircraft.
• noun A record, as of the performance of a machine or the progress of an undertaking.
• intransitive verb To cut down, trim, and haul the timber of (a piece of land).
• intransitive verb To cut (timber) into unhewn sections.
• intransitive verb To enter in a record, as of a ship or an aircraft.
• intransitive verb To travel (a specified distance, time, or speed).
• intransitive verb To spend or accumulate (time).
• intransitive verb To cut down, trim, and haul timber.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The abbreviation of logarithm. Thus, log. 3 = 0.4771213 is an equation giving the value of the logarithm of 3.
• noun plural A jail (formerly built of logs).
• Nautical, to enter in a log-book the name of a man, with his offense and the penalty attached to it; hence, to fine.
• noun Nautical, an apparatus for measuring the rapidity of a ship's motion.
• noun Hence The record of a ship's progress, or a tabulated summary of the performance of the engines and boilers, etc.; a log-book.
• To cut into logs.
• To cut down trees and get out logs from the forest for sawing into boards, etc.: as, to engage in logging.
• To move to and fro; rock. See logging-rock.
• noun A Hebrew liquid measure, the seventy-second part of a bath, or about a pint. It seems to have been of Babylonian origin, being one sixtieth of a maxis.
• To record or enter in the log-book.
• To exhibit by the indication of the log, as a rate of speed by the hour: as, the ship logs ten knots.
• noun A bulky piece or stick of unhewn timber; a length of wood as cut from the trunk or a large limb of a tree; specifically, an unsplit stick of timber with butted ends ready for sawing.
• noun Figuratively, a dull, heavy, stolid, or stupid person.
• Constructed of logs; consisting of logs: as, a log cabin; a log fort or bridge.
• noun In tailoring, a document which fixes the time to be credited to journeymen for making a specified kind of garment, the men being paid nominally by the hour. N. E. D. Also attributive: as, a log shop.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A Hebrew measure of liquids, containing 2.37 gills.
• intransitive verb U.S. To engage in the business of cutting or transporting logs for timber; to get out logs.
• intransitive verb obsolete To move to and fro; to rock.
• noun A bulky piece of wood which has not been shaped by hewing or sawing.
• noun (Naut.) An apparatus for measuring the rate of a ship's motion through the water.
• noun The record of the rate of speed of a ship or airplane, and of the course of its progress for the duration of a voyage; also, the full nautical record of a ship's cruise or voyage; a log slate; a log book.
• noun A record and tabulated statement of the person(s) operating, operations performed, resources consumed, and the work done by any machine, device, or system.
• noun (Mining) A weight or block near the free end of a hoisting rope to prevent it from being drawn through the sheave.
• noun (computers) A record of activities performed within a program, or changes in a database or file on a computer, and typically kept as a file in the computer.
• noun (Naut.) a board consisting of two parts shutting together like a book, with columns in which are entered the direction of the wind, course of the ship, etc., during each hour of the day and night. These entries are transferred to the log book. A folding slate is now used instead.
• noun (Naut.) a book in which a log{4} is recorded.
• noun a cabin or house made of logs.
• noun a canoe made by shaping and hollowing out a single log; a dugout canoe.