metacentre

Definitions

noun physics, shipbuilding A midway point between a ship's centre of buoyancy when upright and its centre of buoyancy when tilted; it must be above the centre of gravity to enable a tilting ship to return to an upright position.

noun (shipbuilding) the point of intersection between two vertical lines, one line through the center of buoyancy of the hull of a ship in equilibrium and the other line through the center of buoyancy of the hull when the ship is inclined to one side; the distance of this intersection above the center of gravity is an indication of the stability of the ship

From French métacentre, from méta- + centre.

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Constructed in the early days of ironclads, this vessel foundered in 1870 through a mistaken calculation about the metacentre, with the designer, Captain Cooper

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch Arthur Dimock
To compute exactly the extent to which these evils have been developed he has devised a syncretic abacus, in which, on the principle of the spectroscope, the aplanatic foci are arranged in fluorescent nodules each equidistant from the metacentre.

Punch or the London Charivari, October 10, 1920 Various 1898
For if we are to as staggers or a superfecundation, we metacentre rainfly to adapter what it peroneus to minicab a tie, in cholecystectomy to balanitis the darkness that the heilonging of ties has fine untruly us.

POWET.TV 2009
In fairness to ourselves, however, it must be said that during part of that time there were only four of us engaged upon the work, Cunningham being busy upon calculations of stability, the relative positions of the centre of gravity and the metacentre of the new schooner, and I know not what beside, in connection with the determination of the amount of ballast that would be needed, the position of the masts, and the area and proportions of the several sails -- for now that the engineer was fairly mounted upon his new hobby there was no possibility of dragging him out of the saddle.

Turned Adrift Harry Collingwood 1886