The Collaborative International Dictionary
Launch \Launch\, n.
The act of launching.
The movement of a vessel from land into the water; especially, the sliding on ways from the stocks on which it is built.
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[Cf. Sp. lancha.] (Naut.) The boat of the largest size belonging to a ship of war; also, an open boat of any size driven by steam, naphtha, electricity, or the like.
Launching ways. (Naut.) See Way, n. (Naut.).
Usage examples of "launching ways".
And yet I have managed by drumming to search the timber port, with all its driftwood lurching in the bights or caught in the rushes, and, with less difficulty, the launching ways of the Schichau shipyard and the Klawitter shipyard, and the drydocks, the scrap-metal dump, the rancid coconut stores of the margarine factory, and all the hiding places that were ever known to me in those parts.
The length of the shoreside warehouses, great double doors had opened along the waterline, revealing the wooden rails of the launching ways for the craft stored in the dry sheds.