LOG | English Meaning, Definition, and Pronunciation

Middle English (in the sense ‘bulky mass of wood’): of unknown origin; perhaps symbolic of the notion of heaviness. log (sense 3 of the noun) originally denoted a thin quadrant of wood loaded to float upright in the water, whence ‘ship's journal’ in which information derived from this device was recorded

a part of the trunk or a large branch of a tree that has fallen or been cut off

part of tree

• she tripped over a fallen log
• a roaring log fire

an official record of events during the voyage of a ship or aircraft

record of events during voyage

• a ship's log

an apparatus for determining the speed of a ship, originally one consisting of a float attached to a knotted line that is wound on a reel, the distance run out in a certain time being used as an estimate of the vessel's speed.

apparatus for determining ship's speed

the Ranfurly Shield, an interprovincial rugby union trophy competed for annually in New Zealand

Ranfurly Shield rugby union trophy

• errors late in the game cost them a shot at the log of wood

enter (an incident or fact) in the log of a ship or aircraft or in another systematic record

enter information in log

• the incident has to be logged
• control room staff resorted to using pen and paper to log calls

cut down (an area of forest) in order to exploit the timber commercially

cut down forest for timber

• there are plans to log 250,000 hectares of virgin rainforest