Forms: 1 líne, 3–7 lyne, 4 lin, lingne, 4–6 ligne, lygne, 5 lyn, lynye, 3– line. β. Sc. 4 lynge, 4–6 ling. [Two words, ultimately of the same etymology, have coalesced. (1) OE. líne wk. fem. = MDu. lîne (mod.Du. lijn), OHG. lîna (MHG. lîne cord, line, mod.G. leine cord), ON. lína (Sw. lina, Da. line); either a native Teut. formation on *lîno- flax, LINE sb.1, or (more probably) an early Teut. adoption of L. līnea (see below); (2) ME. ligne, line, a. F. ligne = Pr. ligna, Pg. linha (Sp. and It. in learned form linea):—popular L. *linja repr. classical L. līnea (earlier līnia), orig. ‘linen thread,’ a subst. use of līnea fem. of līneus (*līnius) adj., flaxen, f. līnum flax = LINE sb.1; the subst. use of the adj. is due to ellipsis of some fem. sb., possibly fībra FIBRE.
In continental Teut. the popular L. *linja was adopted as OHG. linia (MHG., mod.G., Du., Da. linie).]
I. Cord or string (and derived senses).
1. A rope, cord, string; † a leash for dogs or for hawks. Obs. in gen. sense; now chiefly Naut. or as short for clothes-line, etc. Also applied with words prefixed to particular ‘makes’ of rope, e.g., cod-line, house-line, whale-line.
a. 1000. Sal. & Sat., 294 (Gr.). Yldo … ræceð wide langre linan, lisseð eall ðæt heo wile.
c. 1050. Suppl. Ælfric’s Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 182/24. Spirae, linan.
[1390–1. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 40. Pro … v lynes parvis pro les ankeres et seyles.]
a. 1400. Cursor M., 29532 (Cott. Galba). Cursing es þe fendes lyne þat harles a man to hell pine.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IX. 52. The seymen … Thair lynys kest, and waytyt weyll the tyd.
c. 1520. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 206. Pro vj11 fawdom long lyne for the convaans of the schryne with ij lytyll lynys callyd syde ropes.
1535. Coverdale, Josh. ii. 21. She knyt the rose coloured lyne in the wyndowe.
1589. Rider, Bibl. Scholost., 1727. The gesses, lemniscus. The lines, tænia.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 4. And by her in a line a milkewhite lambe she lad.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 186/2. The string wherewith we lead them;… for a Spaniel [it is called] a Line.
1700. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 247. A Line seldom holding to strein … above 50 or 60 feet.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Lines, among fowlers, is used to express the strings by which they catch birds.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 8, ¶ 7. Shirts waving upon lines.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., Deep-sea soundings for scientific purposes are recorded in thousands of fathoms, in which case the line is sometimes made of silk.
1889. A. B. Goulden, Mission of St. Alphege, 51. Family washing is hung on lines stretched across the lane.
b. In generalized sense, as a material: Cord.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVI. 487/1. The making of two strand and three strand line.
† c. A ‘cord’ in the body. Obs. rare.
1611. Florio, Linéa álba, the white line, the vmbellical veine, the line or hollow tying from the nauel.
1780. Cowper, Table-T., 487. She pours a sensibility divine Along the nerve of every feeling line.
d. Applied to a spider’s thread. poet.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 218. The spider’s touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 495. Spun as fine As bloated spiders draw the flimsy line.
1839. Bailey, Festus (1852), 72. A gossamer line sighing itself along The air.
e. A telegraph or telephone wire or cable. Also (with mixture of sense 26), a telegraph route, a telegraphic system connecting two or more stations.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 1191. Five great electric telegraphic lines…. The extent of line thus served appears to be about fifteen hundred miles.
1854. [see CABLE sb. 3].
1901. Scotsman, 9 March, 9/3. The American trans-Pacific line.
f. pl. Reins. dial. and U.S.
1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, iii. 61. Handing the lines to Ashburner, as he stopped his team, Masters leaped out.
1895. E. Rydings, Manx Tales, 77. He’d jus’ puk up the lines on the hosses back.
1901. G. W. Cable, Cavalier, x. He stepped into the carry-all and took the lines.
† g. fig. Line of life: the thread fabled to be spun by the Fates, determining the duration of a person’s life. Obs. Cf. sense 27.
c. 1580. Sidney, Ps. XXXIX. iii. Lo, thou a spanns length mad’st my living line.
1600. Cert. Prayers, in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847), 694. That the line of thy mercies and the line of her life may be lengthened and run forth together.
1601. Yarington, Two Lament. Traj., III. ii. E 3 b. This fatall instrument, Was mark’d by heauen to cut his line of life, And must supplie the knife of Atropos.
1623. Hugh Holland, Pref. Verses, in Shaks. 1st Folio. Though his line of life went soone about, The life yet of his lines shall neuer out.
1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, ix. 188. Our troubles about sin are short, though they should run parallel with the line of life.
2. A cord bearing a hook or hooks, used in fishing. (Also fishing-line.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13285. At see sant Iohn and Iam he fand, Quils þai þair lines war waitand.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 777. To fysshen here, he leyde out hook and lyne.
a. 1450. Fysshynge w. Angle (1883), 8. Arme ȝowr crop at þe ovir ende down to the frete with a lyn of vi herys & double the lyne.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Avian, xvi. Of a fyssher whiche with his lyne toke a lytyll fysshe.
1590. L. M[ascall] (title), A Booke of Fishing with Hooke & Line.
a. 1613. J. Dennys, Secr. Angling, I. xx. B 4. The Line to lead the Fish with wary skill.
1653. Walton, Angler, ii. 55. Put it [a grasshopper] on your hook, with your line about two yards long.
1827. Praed, Red Fisherm., 97. The line the Abbot saw him throw Had been fashioned and formed long ages ago.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 50. I thought you never left your books except To trim the boat and set the lines.
b. In allusive phrases referring to the ‘playing’ of a hooked fish at the end of the line; esp. to give line: to allow full play, scope or latitude.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 39. Giue him Line, and scope, Till that his passions (like a Whale on ground) Confound themselues with working. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., I. ii. 181. I am angling now, (Though you perceiue me not how I giue Lyne).
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 124. We began to play, and I went wearying of them out by little and little, giving them line enough to runne themselues out of breath.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 34. So soon as he gets hold of a text, he … falls a flinging it out of one hand into the other, tossing it this way and that; lets it run a little upon the line, then ‘tanutus, high jingo, come again.’
a. 1687. Waller, Pride, 7. The meanest wretch, if Heaven should give him line, Would never stop till he were thought divine.
a. 1775. Bp. Burnet, Own Time (1724), I. 435. The King was willing to give Oates line enough, as he expressed it to me.
1854. Dickens, Hard T., II. viii. It’s policy to give ’em line enough.
† 3. pl. Strings or cords laid for snaring birds. Obs.
c. 1325. Song of Yesterday, 130, in E. E. P. (1862), 136. Þe schadewe cacchen þei ne myht For no lynes þat þei couþe lay.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 199. As hose leiþ lynes to lacche wiþ Foules.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Lines, among fowlers, is used to express the strings by which they catch birds…. These lines are made of long and small cords, knotted in different places.
4. A cord used by builders and others for taking measurements, or for making things level or straight. (Cf. PLUMB-LINE.) Line-and-plummet (attrib.): rigidly methodical.
1340, 1362. [see LEVEL sb. 1].
c. 1440. York Myst., viii. 98. To hewe þis burde I will be-gynne, But firste I wille lygge on my lyne.
1525. Fitzherb., Bk. Husb., § 124. To take a lyne, and set it there as thou wylt haue thy hedge, and to make a trenche after thy lyne.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 28. Ane biggare can nocht make ane evin up wal without direction of his lyne.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xl. 3. A man … with a line of flaxe in his hand, & a measuring reed.
1758. J. Watson, Milit. Dict. (ed. 5), Cordeau, a Line divided into Fathoms, Feet, &c. to mark Out-works on the Ground, used by Engineers.
1848. Chambers’s Inform., I. 515/2. The gardener measures and marks off all his figures in the ground with his line and spade.
1849. Miss Mulock, Ogilvies, xii. (1875), 89. There was a line-and-plummet regularity, an angular preciseness, in Mrs. Breynton’s mind and person.
1877. Bryant, Odyss., V. 297. Trees then he felled … and carefully He smoothed their sides, and wrought them by a line.
fig. c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 1068. Eueri wight þat hath an hous to founde … wole … send his hertes lyne out fro with Inne Alderfirst his purpos for to wynne.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxiii. (Arb.), 268. This decencie is … the line and leuell for al good makers to do their busines by.
1859. FitzGerald, trans. Omar, xli. (1899), 82. For ‘Is’ and ‘Is-not’ though with Rule and Line And ‘Up-and-down’ without I could define.
b. Phr. By line: chiefly in figurative contexts, with methodical accuracy. Also by line and level, by rule and line, etc.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., 477 (Douce MS.). Þei settene listes by lyne one þe loȝ lande.
1573. Tusser, Husb., xlvi. (1878), 101. Through cunning with dible, rake, mattock, and spade, by line and by leauell, trim garden is made.
1578, 1610. [see LEVEL sb. 1 fig.].
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. i. F 3. To carry Quarrells As Gallants doe, to manage ’hem, by line.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., I. i. § 10. It [i.e., the matter] is not pudled, but built up by Plummet and Line, with proportion to Time and Place.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 414, ¶ 5. Plantations of our Europeans, which are laid out by the Rule and Line.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 789. A poet does not work by square or line, As smiths and joiners perfect a design.
c. pl. Appointed lot in life. In echoes of Ps. xvi. 6, where the reference seems to be to the marking out of land for a dwelling-place.
1611. Bible, Ps. xvi. 6. The lines are fallen vnto mee in pleasant places; yea, I haue a goodly heritage.
1865. Daily Tel., 25 Oct., 7/3. The poor Pope’s lines seem just now to have fallen in most unpleasant places, and are indeed hard lines.
1866. Whittier, Marg. Smith’s Jrnl., Prose Wks. 1889, I. 175. My brother’s lines have indeed fallen unto him in a pleasant place.
† 5. Rule, canon, precept; standard of life or practice. [Cf. 4 b.] Obs. rare.
Line has been used in several places in the A. V. to translate Heb. qav (primarily ‘cord’) in this sense. Cf. line upon line (sense 23 h).
1340. Ayenb., 124. Uor be þise uirtue al þet man deþ … al he diȝt and let and reuleþ to þe lyne of scele. Ibid., 160. Þo þet ne zeneȝeþ … ac doþ al be riȝtuolnesse and be lingne.
1538. Starkey, England, II. iii. 212. Thys thyng apperyth meruelouse straunge—pepul to haue the lyne of theyr lyfe to be wryte in a straunge tong.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), 2 Cor. x. 13. We wil not reioyce aboue measure … but according to the measure of that line [κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τοῦ κανόνος], wherof God distributed vnto vs a measure.
1563. Winȝet, Wks. (1890), II. 7. An infallible, as it is a general, reul to al richt, an ewin lyne of lawtay.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. i. 3. Let none then blame me, if … I doe not forme them to the common line Of present dayes, which are corrupted sore.
1607. Middleton, Michaelmas Term, II. i. C b. A man must not so much as spit but within line and fashion.
1611. Bible, Ps. xix. 4. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
6. Hard lines: ill luck, bad fortune. (Prob. nautical in origin; now often associated with 4 c.) Hard line money (Naut.): extra pay in consideration of special hardships.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. iii. The old seaman paused a moment, ‘It is hard lines for me,’ he said, ‘to leave your honour in tribulation.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, iii. It will be ‘hard lines’ upon him.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, I. iv. 110. ’Gad, Sir, that was hard lines! to have all the pretty women one had waltzed with … holding round one’s knees, and screaming to the doctor to save them.
1884. Pae, Eustace, 210. You seem to have had hard lines yourselves.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Aug., 2/1. On a Torpedo-boat, Besides, there is hard-line money, which makes up for a good many discomforts.
II. A thread-like mark.
7. A stroke or mark, long in proportion to its breadth, traced with a pen, a tool, etc., upon a surface. Line of burden, floatation, war (on the hull of a ship): see the sbs.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxxviii. 8. I shal make to turne aȝeen the shadewe of lynes, bi the whiche it hadde go doun in the oriloge of Acath, in the sunne, bacward bi ten lynes.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xvii. 184. Be the gret Compas devised be Lines in manye parties; and that alle the Lynes meeten at the Centre.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 305/2. Lyne, or lynye, linea.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Defin., Euery lyne is drawen betwene twoo prickes, wherof the one is at the beginning, and the other at the ende.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 122. Draw a right line from A unto D.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 210. As many Lynes close in the Dials center So [etc.].
1610. Guillim, Displ. Her. (1679), 12. [Gules] is expressed in Graving by Lines drawn streight down the Escucheon…. [Azure] is expressed by Lines drawn cross the Shield.
1610. Willet, Hexapla Dan., 195. Archimedes … was drawing of his lines.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 125. The line of Burthen, or fourth Line.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Lines, in heraldry, the figures used in armories to divide the shield into different parts, and to compose different figures.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 607. He draws upon life’s map a zigzag line.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, ii. 100. An expression of forms only by simple lines.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 139. The writing-master first draws lines with a style.
fig. 1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 83. His life is paralel’d Euen with the stroke and line of his great Iustice.
1633. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit., 5. If thou have drawn in me some lines & notes of able indowments.
1677. Temple, Lett. to Chas. II., Wks. 1731, II. 438. I promised to represent the whole to Your Majesty in the truest Lines and Colours I could possibly.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., I. i. 80. The lines of his character are indeed too broad and clear to be overlooked.
b. Mus. One of the horizontal parallel equidistant strokes forming the stave, or placed above or below it (ledger lines).
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. H 4. Cantat. Iudgement gentlemen, iudgement. Wast not aboue line? I appeale to your mouthes that heard my song.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. i. 4. Five lines is only usual for one of those Parts as being sufficient to contain the Compass of Notes thereto belonging.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 157/1.
1818. Busby, Gram. Music, 3. The Spaces, as well as the Lines of the Stave, furnish situations for the notes.
c. Line of lines, Gunter’s line. Line of numbers, of shadows: see NUMBER, SHADOW.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Gunter’s Line.
d. Fine Art. Applied spec. to the lines employed in a picture; chiefly collect. or in generalized sense, character of draughtsmanship, method of rendering form. Also pl. (cf. sense 15) the distinctive features of composition in a picture. Line of beauty: the curve (resembling a slender elongated letter S), which according to Hogarth is a necessary element in all beauty of form. Also, with reference to engraving (see line-engraving in 32).
1616. B. Jonson, Forest, xiii. 20. I, that … haue not … so my selfe abandon’d, as … I should feare to draw true lines, ’cause others paint.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, vii. 38. The waving line, which is a line more productive of beauty … for which reason we shall call it the line of beauty…. The … line of beauty … being compos’d of two curves contrasted, becomes still more ornamental. Ibid., x. 52. For as … there is but one that truly deserves the name of the line of beauty, so there is only one precise serpentine-line that I call the line of grace.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 46. A bold stroke with the line of beauty, and well shaped stalks, leaves and flowers, natural or imaginary, are the only things a designer has to observe in compleating a well-designed damask pattern.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., p. iv. Miniature engravings in the line manner.
1849. Chambers’s Inform., II. 727/1. To this state of etching … professional engravers bring their plates to be finished in the line manner.
18[?]. Bookseller’s Catal. First impressions of … the 27 fine portraits … all beautifully engraved in line.
1895. Zangwill, Master, II. i. 126. To translate into colour and line all this huge pageant of life. Ibid., II. iii. 154. We praise the mellow Virgilisms in Tennyson, but we are down upon the painter who repeats another’s lines.
e. Geomancy.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faust., I. i. 49. Lines, circles, scenes, letters, and characters.
f. In various games, as tennis, football, etc., the line denotes a particular line which marks the limit of legitimate or successful play.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 35. Thou hast striken the ball, vnder the lyne.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1753), 127. Poor mortalls are so many balls Toss’d som o’r line, som under fortun’s walls.
1890. Heathcote, etc., Lawn Tennis (Badm. Libr.), 334. It will often be extremely difficult for him to judge on which side of the line the ball was dropped.
1899. F. Mitchell, in Football (Badm. Libr.), 210. When the throw-out belongs to his opponents, every forward on coming up to the line must mark his man.
8. Something resembling a traced mark, chiefly in natural objects; e.g., a thin band of color; a suture, seam, furrow, ridge, etc. Line of growth (Conch.): see quot. 1839.
c. 1290. S. Edmund, 96, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 299. In al is bodi nas o weom … bote ase is heued was of I-smyte … A smal red line is al-a-boute.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 91. Longe leuys … þat hauyn whit lynys yn hem.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., V. 266. The Lione he settis in the midis; than tua lynes, on the vttir syd, Wouen in threid of gold.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 203. Yon grey Lines, That fret the Clouds, are Messengers of Day.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 476. The lynes it hath are long and almost superficiary, yet diuided manifold … by the thin membrane running betwixt them.
1672. Grew, Anat. Plants, Idea Philos. Hist. (1682), 6. Those several Lines, by which both the said Varieties [of plants] are determin’d.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. 290. Line, a narrow longitudinal stripe.
1839. Sowerby, Conch. Man., 57. Lines of growth, the eccentric striæ or lines, formed by the edges of the successive layers of shelly matter deposited by the animal, by which it increases the shell.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. iii. 26. Along the faces of the sections the lines of stratification were clearly shown.
1880. R. Rimmer, Land & Freshwater Shells, Introd. p. xxiii. The place where each successive deposit has been attached to the preceding one is indicated by a line which is called the line of growth.
1883. F. M. Peard, Contrad., xiv. There were black lines under her eyes the next morning.
1895. Zangwill, Master, I. x. 111. A thin line of light crept again under the door.
b. A furrow or seam in the face or hands. In Palmistry: A mark on the palm of the hand supposed to indicate one’s fate, temperament or abilities; e.g., line of life, of fortune, of the head, of the heart, of health or liver (hepatic line).
1538. Elyot, Dict., Incisuræ,… the lynes in the palme of the hande.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 56. The small lynes in our hande.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. ii. 169. I shall haue good fortune: goe too, here’s a simple line of life. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., III. ii. 84. He does smile his face into more lynes, then is in the new Mappe.
1621. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorph. (1640), 55. You … meane not to marrie by the line of your life.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 42. The Line of Life or of the Heart…. He that hath this entire, long, clear and ruddy, shall live a happy life. Ibid. Line of liver, liver line [see LIVER sb.1 1 c and 6].
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1823), IV. 7. No more than he can read the future estate of his soul in the lines of his face.
1842. Longf., Sp. Stud., III. v. The line of life is crossed by many marks.
1895. Zangwill, Master, III. ii. 290. There were lines of premature age on the handsome face.
c. A narrow region in a spectrum, appearing to the eye as a fine straight black or shining stroke transverse to the length of the spectrum. Called collectively Fraunhofer’s lines.
1831. Brewster, Newton (1855), I. v. 117. Dr. Woollaston … discovered six fixed dark lines in the spectrum.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 21/1. The beautiful discovery made by Wollaston and Fraunhofer of the existence of dark spaces, bands transverse to the length of the spectrum, and now generally designated Fraunhofer’s lines.
d. Jewellery. (See quot.)
1883. Daily Tel., 12 Feb., 5/2. The … cat’s-eye … is characterised by possessing a remarkable play of light resulting from a peculiarity in its crystallisation. This ray of light is called ‘line’ by jewellers.
9. Math. An element of configuration such as must be represented in geometrical figures by a ‘line’ (sense 7); a continuous extent (whether straight or curved) of length without breadth or thickness; the limit of a surface; the trace of a moving point.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 17. A Circle is a plaine and flat figure comprehended within one line, which is called a circumference.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, I. def. ii. 2. A lyne is a magnitude hauing one onely space or dimension.
1660. Barrow, Euclid, I. Def. ii. 2.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 434. If from any Point L of the Ellipse two right Lines LS, LE be drawn.
1827. Hutton, Course Math., I. 280. Lines are either Parallel, Oblique, Perpendicular, or Tangential.
1831. Brewster, Newton (1855), II. xiv. 6. He considers a line as composed of an infinite number of points.
1885. Watson & Burbury, Math. Th. Electr. & Magn., I. 155. The line x = κ log f.
b. With various defining words: A curve connecting all points having a common property.
1826. [see ISOTHERMAL].
1850, 1873. [see ACLINIC].
1877. [see ADIABATIC].
10. A circle of the terrestrial or celestial sphere; e.g., † ecliptic, equinoctial, † tropic line. Now rare.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 9. In Armenia, Macedonia, Italia, and in oþer londes of þe same lyne.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., Prol. The arising of any planete aftur his latitude fro the Ecliptik lyne.
1511, 1551. [see EQUINOCTIAL A. 1].
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 8. The lyne, called Tropicus Cancri and the Equinoctial lyne.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 282. Under the Ethiop Line By Nilus head.
1667–8. Dryden & Dk. Newcastle, Sir M. Mar-all, V. i. D.’s Wks. 1883, III. 83. I have seen your … ecliptics, and your tropic lines, sir.
1837. [see EQUINOCTIAL A. 1].
b. The line: the equinoctial line; the equator. Under the line: at the equator. (Sometimes written with a capital.).
1588. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 392 (marg.). The straight of Malaca is vnder the line.
1598. W. Phillips, Linschoten, I. iii. 5/1. The shippes are at the least two monthes before they can passe the line.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 1. Sebastian Cabot … sayled to about forty degrees Southward of the lyne.
1676. Glanvill, Ess., iii. 27. Some of the Indians that live near the heats of the Line.
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 62. Where spices smoke beneath the burning Line.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 69. The naked negro, panting at the line.
1814. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., XII. 92. To prohibit all trade in slaves north of the Line.
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., 606. In a darker isle beyond the line.
allusively. 1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 235. Mistris line, is not this my Ierkin? Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., V. iv. 44. All that stand about him are vnder the Line, they need no other pennance.
a. 1667. Cowley, Misc., Account, 42. Cold frozen Loves with which I pine, And parched Loves beneath the Line.
1667. Flavel, Saint Indeed (1754), 125. The Beams of his glory strike it but obliquely and feebly, but shortly it will be under the line, and there the sun shall stand still.
11. Often used for ‘straight line’ (sense 9); esp. in Physics and techn., as in line of the apsides, of distance, of force, of sight (for which see those words). Line of fire (see quot. 1859).
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xx. 90. Þe lyne þat es betwene þise twa sternez departez all þe firmament in twa partes.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 139. Marking diligentlye that the Center of the second Circle, be in the line of sighte.
1601. Dolman, La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618), III. xxiv. 116. By meanes of the shadowes, or visuall lines, representing the saide shadowes.
1816. Playfair, Nat. Phil., II. 266. The forces which act upon a body … may be resolved into the directions of three lines or axes.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, Gloss. 778. Line of centres, a line drawn from the centre of one wheel to the centre of another when their circumferences touch each other.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 319. Whenever the axis of a single lens comes in the line between the observers and the focus.
1859. ‘Stonehenge,’ Shot-gun, 314. The line of fire is the indefinite projection of the axis of the barrel.
1873. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., § 82 I. 84. If a line be drawn whose direction at every point of its course coincides with that of the resultant force at that point, the line is called a Line of Force.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 250/1. Any number of players can take part … so long as they are not so crowded as to get into each other’s line of play.
b. Fencing. (See quot.)
1727–52. Chambers, Cycl., Line, in fencing, is that part of the body directly opposite to the enemy, wherein the shoulders, the right arm, and the sword, ought always to be found; and wherein are also to be placed the two feet, at the distance of 18 inches from each other. In this sense, a man is said to be in his line, to go out of his line, &c.
c. On the line: said of a picture in an exhibition which is hung so that its center is about on a level with the eye.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 314. The centre of the picture should not be much above the level of the eye. In an exhibition the pictures in this most favourable situation are said to be on the ‘line.’
1873. Punch, 26 April, 169/1. Pictures hung ‘upon the line’ at the Academy, for reason of their merit.
1895. Zangwill, Master, II. ii. 134. And I was also on the line in the big room.
12. In advb. phr. (mostly obs.) having reference to the straight line, e.g., even as line, even by line, as straight as line (now, as a line), as line right, right (up) as a or any line, in (intil) ane ling (Sc.): in a direct course, straightforward; also, straightway, at once. (Cf. LINE-RIGHT.)
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 150. After in a while com R. euen as lyne.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 6370 (Kölbing). Purch þe wombe & þurch þe chine Þe spere ȝede euen bi line.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1412 (1461). To his Neces hous as Streyt as lyne He com. Ibid., III. 179 (228). Pandarus, as faste as he may dryue, To Troylus þo com as lyne right.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, iv. (Jacobus), 298. He gert fele knychtis in a lynge pryk efter þame.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 49. Than sprent thai sammyn in-till a lyng.
c. 1422. Hoccleve, Learn to Die, 692. To purgatorie y shal as streight as lyne.
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., X. (Fox & Wolf), xvi. To the wolff he went in to ane ling.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. viii. 43. Lyke as ane lyoun … Cummys braidand on the best fast in a lyng.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), II. 687. Quhilk causit him go leip furth in ane ling.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 27. Thou folowest their steppes as right as a lyne.
1889. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, xliii. He … went as straight as a line.
13. A direction as traced by marks on a surface or as indicated by a row of persons or objects. To bring into (a) line: to align; fig. to cause (persons) to agree, to make unanimous. † To draw in a or one line: to be unanimous.
a. 1500. MS. Ashmole, 344 lf. 22 b (Chess rules), Draw thy kyng … forth in to the lyne ther his kyng goth yn.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 65. He loued me: We drew both in one line.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. iii. 152. Now Powers from home, and discontents at hom[e] Meet in one line.
1600. Holland, Livy, XLII. xxi. 1127. Seeing the LL. of the Senat thus drawing all in a line.
1676. Moxon, Print Lett., 6. The Bottom-line is the line that bounds the bottom of the Descending Letters.
1763. Hoyle, Chess, 163. When your Adversary has a Bishop and one Pawn on the Rook’s Line.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 355. As the breech sight, the muzzle sight, and the object aimed at, are … at different distances from the eye, it is difficult to bring them at once into line.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ix. 89. Livingstone … was going to get the horses in line, to start them for the farmer’s Cup.
1860. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. ci. 2. Jonathan, too, is coming into line; his caustic wit is making its way into the press.
1897. Daily News, 23 April, 3/1. It was found a matter of no small difficulty to get all the owners into line.
b. Mil. (See quot. 1872–6.) Cf. sense 21.
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 73. When the open Column, halted on the Ground on which it is to form, wheels up into Line.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v., When the light infantry companies are in line with their battalions.
1872–6. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), s.v., The term in line is applied to a battalion when its companies are deployed on the same alignment to their full extent, i.e. in two ranks. Columns are said to be in line when their fronts are on the same alignment.
1881. Tennyson, Charge Heavy Brigade, i. And he call’d ‘Left wheel into line!’
14. Contour, outline; lineament.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), C 3 b. Seeming him was his wife, Both in line, and in life.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 107. Euerie line and tricke of his sweet fauour. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., IV. i. 10. The Lines of my body are as well drawne as his.
1818. Shelley, Lines on Euganean Hills, 19. The dim long line before Of a grey and distant shore.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, viii. (1878), 122. The line of my features.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 450. The savage lines of his mouth.
1891. Truth, 10 Dec., 1240/2. The skirt falling in straight, plain lines to the ground.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, V. iii. 286. The round line of the sea was bleared and broken.
15. pl. a. The outlines, plan or draught of a building or other structure; spec. in Ship-building, the outlines of a vessel as shown in its horizontal, vertical and oblique sections. (Also fig.)
1673. Temple, Ess. Irel., Wks. 1731, I. 121. The raising such Buildings as I have drawn you here the Lines of.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. xiii. Nor have I heard of any other Ship built by the Kings-fisher’s Lines.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 66. The principal Lines of my Design of a Bridge suitable to that place.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. v. 188. Carnac … remained … to lend his countenance and aid to measures, the line of which he had contributed to draw.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 336. Model of a ship’s hull…. The novelty claimed in the uniformity of its lines.
1860. Reade, Cloister & H., lvii. (1896), 174. Her extravagant poop that caught the wind, and her lines like a cocked hat reversed.
b. fig. Plan of construction, of action, or procedure: now chiefly in phr. on (such and such) lines.
1757. Burke, Abridgm. Eng. Hist., I. ii. 13. In all very uncultivated countries … there are but obscure lines of any form of government.
1807. S. Cooper (title), The First Lines of the Practice of Surgery; being an elementary work for Students [etc.].
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lv. 18. The lines of their policy are often to be traced for the most part by conjecture and inference. Ibid. (1875), Gen. Hist. Rome, li. (1877), 404. He did not live to lay even the first lines of his great work.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, viii. 80. He had reorganised the constitution on the most strictly conservative lines.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. lxi. 432. Nearly all these offices are contested on political lines.
1889. Swinburne, Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894), 286. No later work of Victor Hugo’s, written on the same lines or in the same temper, can reasonably be set beside the Châtiments.
16. [After F. ligne.] A measure of length, the twelfth part of an inch.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 61. It did bear but 2 inches and 9 lines French for its greatest Aperture.
1759. trans. Adanson’s Voy. Senegal, 101. I was informed, that there fell two inches three lines of water.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 62. The Long-tailed Field-Mouse … Length of head and body three inches eight lines.
1863. Berkeley, Brit. Mosses, i. 3. Varying from less than a line to many inches in length.
b. In recent technical use (see quot.).
1880. Plain Hints Needlework, 133. Button Gauge…. The numbers indicate the quantity of ‘lines’ in diameter. This ‘line’ is equal to the French millimetre.
17. A limit, boundary; more fully, line of demarcation. Phr. To draw the line (see DRAW v. 59 b); also, with similar meaning, to † lay, form a line, To run the lines (U.S.): see RUN v.
1595. Markham, Sir R. Grinvile (Arb.), cxii. And now the night grew neere her middle line.
a. 1613. J. Dennys, Secr. Angling, I. iv. B 1 b. Of Heauen the middle Line That makes of equall length both day and night.
1727–52. [see DEMARCATION].
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 228. And Middle natures, how they long to join, Yet never pass the insuperable line!
1769. Burke, Late St. Nation, Wks. 1842, I. 108. Their different principles compose some of the strongest political lines which discriminate the parties even now subsisting amongst us.
1770. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., iii. (1876), 33. It is this intellectual dignity … that ennobles the Painter’s art; that lays the line between him and the mere mechanic.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, I. iii. (1840), I. 69. To form a line between them and the Company, it was ordained, that [etc.].
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i. I. 30. The line which bounded the royal prerogative.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. vii. Hold on and hit away, only don’t hit under the line.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., xviii. 303. The lines of separation of the great watersheds.
b. Mason’s and Dixon’s line: the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, so named from the two astronomers who surveyed it (1763–1767), and forming the line of demarcation between the free and the slave States.
1824. Randolph, in Richmond Enquirer, 26 Feb., 2/3. We, who belong to that unfortunate portion of this confederacy, which is south of Mason and Dixon’s line.
1850. Whittier, Old Portr. & Mod. Sk., Pr. Wks. 1889, II. 195. Every petty postmaster south of Mason and Dixon’s line became ex officio a censor of the press.
1861. Lowell, E Pluribus Unum, Pr. Wks. 1890, V. 51. They have argued themselves into a kind of vague faith that the wealth and power of the Republic are south of Mason and Dixon’s line.
† 18. Degree, rank, station. Obs.
1528. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 121. Skiparis and seruandis of euery lyne.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 168. To shew the Line, and the Predicament Wherein you range vnder this subtill King. Ibid., III. ii. 85. And in that very Line, Harry, standest thou.
1782. Paine, Let. Abbé Raynal (1791), 37. One whom years, experience, and long established reputation have placed in a superior line.
1785. G. A. Bellamy, Apol., etc. (ed. 3), IV. 46. She … had received a more liberal education than is usually bestowed upon English women in the middle line of life.
III. Applied to things arranged along a (straight) line.
19. A row or series of persons or objects.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., H ij. Men call a line of Brickes, and a line of Asshelers stones, when many bee laied in a rowe, in lengthe.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 117. What will the Line stretch out to’th’ cracke of Doome?
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 63, ¶ 4. The Officers planting themselves in a Line on the left Hand of each Column.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Mar, 28 Aug. The Street … is perhaps the most beautiful line of building in the world.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 57/2. The bond was wrote obliquely, from right hand to left, the seals in a line, on the margin.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, III. 260. A line of trading posts from the Mississippi and the Missouri across the Rocky mountains.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 31. Trees in formal line.
1848. W. H. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., xiv. (1879), 301. The valley … enclosed by lower lines of hills than [etc.].
1853. M. Arnold, Scholar-Gipsy, xiii. The line of festal light in Christ-Church hall.
1863. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 158. In the whole line of the procession.
b. A fancy name for: A flock of geese.
[1802. Daniel, Rur. Sports, II. 465. [Geese in flight] form two oblique lines like the letter V, or if their number be small, only one line.]
1882. Standard, 10 Feb., 5/3. To speak by the book, of a ‘line’ instead of a ‘flock’ of geese.
20. Mil. A trench or rampart; pl. (also collect. sing.), a connected series of field-works. Also, one of the rows of huts or tents in a camp or cantonment (see quots. 1872–6 and 1876). Line of circumvallation, defence, etc.: see the second sbs.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 613. The Line that incompassed his Camp was 8 Foot high.
1695. Prior, Ballad Taking Namur, 113. Regain the lines the shortest way, Villeroy.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 139, ¶ 7. He took the French Lines without Bloodshed.
1793. Burns, Sodger’s Return, i. I left the lines and tented field.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 352. Lines were now run from bastille to bastille, and the town was completely shut in.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 21. To attack the Gorkha positions at the western extremity of their line.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 263. Lines are formed for the entrenchment of armies, and are composed of a succession of redans, &c. (joined by curtains).
1872–6. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., s.v. Cantonments, In India … a cantonment contains barracks for European troops, and native huts termed lines for the Sepoys.
1876. Murray’s Handbk. Surrey, etc. 173. In the North Camp [Aldershot] the buildings are principally of wood, arranged in ‘lines’ … which are lettered from A to Q. Each line is an oblong block of about 40 huts.
fig. 1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., v. 220. They hastened to entrench themselves within the lines of absolute despotism.
21. Mil. and Naut. A row or rank of soldiers (distinguished from a column); a row of ships in a certain order. Also occas. collect. sing. = ships of the line. Line of battle: see BATTLE sb. 12. Ship of the line: a line-of-battle ship.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4054/1. Their Line consisted of 52. Ships and 24 Gallies. Ibid. (1706), No. 4222/3. He had then 30 Ships of the Line,… besides two or three Frigats.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), A a 3 b. The line is said to be formed abreast, when the ships sides are all parallel to each other, on a line which crosses the keels at right angles.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., Characters, 56/2. Lord Cornwallis put him in command of the second line of the army.
1801. Campbell, Battle of the Baltic, ii. While the sign of battle flew On the lofty British line.
1805. in Duncan, Life of Nelson (1806), 231. We have only 11 line, 3 frigates, and a sloop.
1813. Southey, Life of Nelson, vi. The feet from Cadiz … consisting of from seventeen to twenty sail of the line.
1815. Byron, Ode, ‘We do not curse thee, Waterloo,’ iii. While the broken line enlarging, Fell or fled along the plain.
1838. Lytton, Leila, IV. i. Suddenly the lines of the Moors gave way.
b. The line: in the British army, the regular and numbered troops as distinguished from the guards and the auxiliary forces; in the U.S. army, the regular fighting force of all arms.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict.
1813. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1838), XI. 141. To prevent the men from volunteering to serve in the line.
1849. Chambers’s Inform., II. 184/2. The pay of a private … in the cavalry of the line [is] 1s. 4d. … in the infantry of the line, 1s. id.
1858. Lytton, What will He do? II. v. Then Charlie Haughton sold out of the Guards … [and] went into the line.
1865–6. H. Phillips, Amer. Paper Curr., II. 248. The Connecticut line … assembled to return to their homes and leave the army to its fate.
1881. J. Grant, Cameronians, I. iii. 37. The new head-dress for the Line.
c. All along the line: at every point.
1877. Spurgeon, Serm., XXIII. 246. God will be victorious all along the line in the present battle.
1880. T. Hodgkin, Italy & Invaders, I. I. i. 117. The campaign of 378 opened auspiciously for the interests of Rome along the whole line.
22. A regular succession of public conveyances plying between certain places; e.g., the Cunard line (of steamers), the White Star line.
1848. Chambers’s Inform., I. 424/2. Lines of large steamers are got up by companies as a speculation.
1900. F. T. Bullen, Idylls of Sea, 198. The better class of seamen will be found making voyage after voyage in the same vessel or at least in the same line.
1901. Scotsman, 2 March, 10/1. The first vessel of the new direct line to Jamaica from England.
23. A row of written or printed letters.
a. gen. One of the rows of letters in any piece of writing or letterpress: often, esp. in pl., put for the contents or sense of what is written or printed.
† Line by line: from beginning to end, seriatim. To read between the lines: to discover a meaning or purpose not obvious or explicitly expressed in a piece of writing.
a. 1000. Riddles, xliii. 10 (Gr.). Se torhta Æsc an an linan.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 94. Þe Bulle In two lynes hit lay and not a lettre more.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 84. Quhen the marschall the cowyne Till bath the lordis lyne be lyne Had tald.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 428. In canoun ne in þe decretales I can nouȝte rede a lyne.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1821. Loo ‘litill thefe’ in ilka lyne his lettir me callis.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. i. 1. Com’st thou with deepe premeditated Lines? With written Pamphlets?
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. III.), 100. The good opinion you have of me, which is to be seen in every lyne of your letter.
1709. H. Felton, Classics (1718), 80. Two Lines would express all they say in two Pages.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4807/4. Let him send a Line or two directed to the Blue Anchor and Crown.
1713. Steele, Englishman, No. 53. 344. Clerks amongst us make distant Lines, few words in those Lines.
1755. Johnson, s.v., (In the plural) A letter; as, I read your lines.
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., xxvi. (1813), 130. Not a note, not a line, did I receive in the mean time.
1816. C. Wolfe, Burial Sir J. Moore, 31. We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone.
1856. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 299. The distance between your lines in the letter just come.
1866. J. Martineau, Ess., I. 118. No writer … was ever more read between the lines.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xiv. 194. In every line that he wrote Cicero was attitudinising for posterity.
1880. Spurgeon, Serm., XXVI. 327. They do not say as much to their secret selves; but you can read between the lines these words—‘What a weariness it is!’
1896. Moxon’s Mech. Exerc., Printing, p. xviii. A line-for-line and page-for-page reprint of the original text.
fig. 1573. L. Lloyd, Pilgr. Princes (1586), 210. The last line of all thinges is death.
b. spec. in Printing. A row of types or quads.
1659. C. Hoole, trans. Comenius’ Orbis Sensualium (1672), 191. The Compositor … composeth words in a composing stick, till a Line be made.
1676. Moxon, Print Lett., 11. You must indent your Line four Spaces. Ibid. It is not graceful to end a Break with a short word onely in a line. Ibid. (1683), Mech. Exerc., II. 394. White-line, a Line of Quadrats.
1841. W. Savage, Dict. Printing, 310. Head line, the top line of a page in which is the running title and folio, but sometimes only a folio.
† c. collect. A written record, message, etc. Obs.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1932. [He] Vn-lappis liȝtly þe lefe & þe line [v.r. lines] redes. Ibid., 2060. And vneth limpid him þe lee þe lyne me recordis.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 9628. The Secund day suyng, sais me the lyne, Þe Troiens full tymli tokyn þe feld.
d. A few words in writing; often applied to a short letter.
1647. H. Markham, Lett., in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 3. I … desire a line under your own hand to whom I shall deliver the castle.
1751. Berkeley, Lett. to Johnson, 25 July, Wks. 1871, IV. 326. A line from me in acknowledgment of your letter.
1775. J. Adams, Wks. (1854), IX. 352. I have this morning received a line from Mrs. Warren.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 415. History was too much occupied with courts and camps to spare a line for the hut of the peasant or for the garret of the mechanic.
1865. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 279. Dearest,—Just a line to say that all goes well.
1894. Mrs. H. Ward, Marcella, II. 307. Marcella scribbled a line on a half sheet of paper, and … despatched Benny with it.
e. The portion of a metrical composition that is usually written in one line; a verse; pl. verses, poetry. Also pl., (so many) lines of verse (sometimes, of prose) set to be written out as an imposition in school.
To read the line (Sc.): to give out the words of a metrical psalm or hymn a line at a time (cf. LINE v.2 6).
1563–7. Buchanan, Reform. St. Andros, Wks. (1892), 8. The regent sal cause thayme to writ twa or thre lynis of Terence.
1599. Drayton, Idea, xlii. And in my lines, if shee my loue may see!
1623. B. Jonson, To memory of Shakespeare. Marlowes mighty line.
1630. Milton, On Shaks. Each heart Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu’d Book, Those Delphick lines with deep impression took.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 347. And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 211. Each line, each word, in Catullus, has its merit.
1792. Cowper (title), Lines addressed to Dr. Darwin.
1809. Byron, Eng. Bards & Review., 390. Lines forty thousand, cantos twenty-five!
1867. A. Dickson, Rambling Recoll. (1868), 33. To dispense with reading the line in psalmody was by many held to be profane.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 252. The lines of Homer which you were reciting.
1894. Wilkins & Vivian, Green Bay Tree, I. 72. To commute the punishment to 500 Latin lines.
f. pl. Short for marriage lines, the certificate of marriage. Applied also dial. to other kinds of certificates (e.g., of church membership).
1829. J. Hunter, Hallamsh. Gloss., Lines. Marriage-lines is a certificate of marriage often asked for and kept by the bride.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xi. She could not produce her marriage lines.
1861–2. Thackeray, Adv. Philip, xii. (1869), I. 254. ‘How should a child like you know that the marriage was irregular?’ ‘Because I had no lines,’ cries Caroline quickly.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 81. ‘Lines of admission,’ or as we should call them letters of recommendation.
1901. Union Mag., March, 106/1. The old minister fell into a reverie in the very midst of filling in Sandy M’Turk’s lines.
g. pl. The words of an actor’s part.
1882. Daily Tel., 7 Dec., 2/5. He [an actor] said, ‘Do let me get in some of my “lines.”’
h. Line upon line: now taken as referring to the reiteration of statements in successive lines of writing or print (for the orig. meaning see 5).
1611. Bible, Isa. xxviii. 10. For precept must be vpon precept, precept vpon precept, line vpon line, line vpon line, here a litle, and there a litle.
1837. Mrs. T. Mortimer (title), Line upon line; or, a second series of the earliest religious instruction the infant mind is capable of receiving.
1896. Home Missionary (N. Y.), Aug., 218. A line-upon-line presentation of these facts to the churches.
IV. Serial succession.
24. A continuous series of persons (rarely of things) in chronological succession. Chiefly with reference to family descent, a series in which each member is the parent of the one next following. So male, female line, direct line. For heir of line, see HEIR 1 b.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 279. If gentillesse were planted natureelly vn-to a certeyn linage, doun the lyne.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 14696. ‘Flatrye’ … by dyssent off lyne doun Eldest douhter off Falsnesse.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 48. In þe lyne vpward, þi fadyr is to þe in þe first degre of kynrede.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, I. 34. The fyrst rycht lyne of the fyrst Stewart.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk., 285. A marshall muste take hede of the byrthe, and nexte of the lyne, of the blode royall.
1640. Ld. Digby, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 146. By the concentring of all the Royal Lines in his Person.
1705. Addison, Italy, 13. There is no House in Europe that can show a longer Line of Heroes.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1724), I. 457. Isaac, Jacob, Judah … and … Solomon, were preferred without any regard to the next in line.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 211. In the line Of his descending progeny.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 136. The property … derived from a long line of ancestors.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 358. Purchases in the line of the mother or grandmother.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch., I. xiii. 254. He and his sons founded a long line of Priests.
1895. Law Times Rep., LXXII. 817/1. The case is governed by a line of authorities extending over a century.
† b. By line: by lineal descent. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 1481. Of þis lord descendede Tydeus By ligne.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xi. (Symon & Judas), 3. Of Symone … & of Iudas … Þat brethire ware be lyne of fles to Sancte Iames callit þe les.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 693. Of his lynage am I, and his of spryng By verray ligne.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1841. Lord of þe londe as be lyne olde.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, V. x. My fader is lyneally descended of Alysaunder … by ryght lygne.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 134. The lawful ȝouth quha rycht be lyne was sproung of the kingis blude.
25. Lineage, stock, race. ? Somewhat arch.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 5462 (Kölbing). Aigilin, A wiȝt kniȝt of gentil lin.
c. 1400. Sowdone Bab., 357. I trowe, he were a develes sone, Of Belsabubbis lyne.
c. 1440. Partonope, 7253*. He is of the lyne of king Priam.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 21. They had put out of rome tarquyn and al his lygne.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VII., 6. Sole heyre male lefte of the ligne of Richarde duke of Yorke.
1634. Milton, Comus, 923. Virgin, daughter of Locrine Sprung of old Anchises line.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 303. Th’immortal Line in sure Succession reigns.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXIV. 588. Shame not the line whence glorious you descend.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 456. The party hostile to his line, his office, and his person.
1865. R. W. Dale, Jew. Temp., xiii. (1877), 139. He belongs to no consecrated line.
1874. Bancroft, Footpr. Time, i. 78. The line of Cyrus being extinct.
V. A direction or course of movement.
26. Track, course, direction; route; e.g., line of communication, of march, of operations.
For telegraph line see 1 e.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 21779. That lyne ryht shal lede the To the place … Wych thow hast … souht.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. ii. (1635), 15. All earthly bodies are by a right line directed to the Center of the Terrestriall Globe.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 224. Sounds that move in oblique and arcuate lines.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. vii. 213. This would have carried us in a direct line to the Island of Quibo.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 574. Though … the shaft … err but little from the intended line.
1819. Blackw. Mag., V. 737. Lying in a diagonal direction across the line of march.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Line, the route of a stage-coach, railroad, packet, or steamer.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 193. The neck of country by which he keeps up his communications with the base is called the ‘line of operations.’
1872. B. Stewart, Physics, ii. (1876), 3. You must know … the direction or line in which I am moving.
1895. Zangwill, Master, I. vii. 82. They ran on parallel lines that never met.
b. Short for line of rails, railway line, tram line. Cf. branch III.
In railway lang. variously applied (a) to a single track of rails, as in the up line, the down line; (b) to a railway forming one of the parts of a system, as in main line, branch line, loop line; (c) sometimes to an entire system of railways under one management, as in the Midland line.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 643. The numerous projected lines of rail-road for diminishing the friction of carriages.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 251/1. Curves on a main line of railway being … objectionable…. When the Liverpool and Manchester line was projected.
1848. Chambers’s Inform., I. 411/2. The plan of laying down continuous lines or tramways of smooth pavement for the wheels to roll over.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 1148. Model of a patent railway, with a third line of rails, to prevent running off the line.
1861. G. M. Musgrave, By-roads & Battle-Fl., 195. The farmers … use the line to advantage by sending flour to inland and coast consumers by every train.
c. 1886. R. Kipling, Railway Folk, 56. Naturally a father who has worked for the line expects the line to do something for the son.
1898. Flor. Montgomery, Tony, 11. A few stations down the line.
c. U.S. To ride the line: to make the circuit of the boundary of a cattle-drift in order to drive in stray cattle.
1888. T. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., March, 669/1. Those who do not have to look up stray horses, and who are not forced to ride the line day in and day out.
d. Hunting. The straight course in the hunting field, esp. in phrases to ride the line, to take, keep one’s own line.
1836. New Sporting Mag., X. 62. Nothing is so unsportsmanlike or so dangerous as to cross a man at a leap; every one should keep his own line, and if a man when he gets close to it fears the fence before him, he should pull up.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 196/2. A parson he was, after a sportsman’s heart…. Though an old man when I knew him, he always rode the line religiously.
1898. St. James’s Gaz., 15 Nov., 6/1. Hounds drove along after their fox in rare style,… the line was worked out to Houghton.
27. Course of action, procedure, life, thought or conduct.
13[?]. K. Alis., 7266. For þis barouns and for myne This weore the ryghtest lyne.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 6492 (Kölbing). Þe king aros by wrongful lines &… He forlay þe stewardes wiif.
1629. N. Carpenter, Achitophel, 39. The same hand of Kingly munificence which … pointed him out the lines of his obliged loyaltie.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 112. The line I have observed with him has been [etc.].
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., III. 57. Promising to consult with him, in regard to what line of life he should pursue.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. xiv. I should then have inherited some family line of conduct, both moral, and political.
1850. Lewis, Lett. (1870), 233. The Protectionists, as a party, have taken no line in the matter.
1878. R. W. Dale, Lect. Preach., v. 131. You should consider by what lines of thought … you would be able to make the truth clear to them.
1882. Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xvi. (1882), 121. The line that shall be taken upon all the questions of the day.
1893. Swinburne, Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894), 42. Few men … whose line of life lay so far apart from a naturalist’s or a poet’s can ever have loved nature or poetry better.
28. A department of activity; a kind or branch of business or occupation.
The sense seems to be largely due to the influence of quot. 1611, where, however, line (= Gr. κανών, lit. ‘measuring rod,’ R. V. ‘province’) was prob. meant by the translators in a sense belonging to branch II. The phrase line of things, sometimes used instead of line in the sense above explained, certainly arose from misapprehension of this text, where the words ‘in another mans line’ are parenthetical.
[1611. Bible, 2 Cor. x. 16. And not to boast in another mans line of things made ready to our hand.]
1638. Rouse, Heav. Univ., x. (1702), 148. Keep thou especially in thine own line neither trouble thy self for the line of another.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. iv. § 23. It is not out of Curiosity or Busybodinesse, to be meddling in other mens Lines.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, II. 86. To intrude our selves into that which is out of our Line, or beyond our Sphere.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 266. He entred on the Physick line, but took no degree in that Faculty.
1773. Johnson, Lett. Mrs. Thrale, 20 Sept. Seeing things in this light I consider every letter as something in the line of duty.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 95. If I can be made useful to you in any line whatever here.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 23 Sept. an. 1777. Johnson was … prompt to repress colloquial barbarisms … such as line, for department, or branch, as the civil line, the banking line.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), IV. Introd. Any thing much worse than usual in that line?
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, V. i. ¶ 65. I had got into the matrimonial line.
1820. Byron, Blues, II. 94. Stick to those of your play, which is quite your own line.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Char., ix. (1892), 238. Mr. Augustus Cooper was in the oil and colour line.
1887. Spectator, 16 April, 535/2. The line of this story is correctness rather than interest.
b. In (or out of) one’s line: suited (or unsuited) to one’s capacity, taste, etc.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxvi. Have you got anything in my line to-night?
1886. R. Kipling, Departm. Ditties, etc. (1899), 35. Her jokes aren’t in my line.
1888. H. Rider Haggard, in Harper’s Mag., July, 183/2. I came to the conclusion that store-keeping was not in my line.
† 29. Used by Shaks. in pl. for: ‘Goings on,’ caprices or fits of temper. [Cf. the Warwickshire dial. phrase on a line = in a rage.]
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. ii. 22. Your husband is in his olde lines againe. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 139. Yea watch His pettish lines. [Mod. edd. lunes in both places.]
30. Comm. An order received by a traveller or agent for goods; the goods so ordered; also, the stock on hand of a particular class of goods.
1882. Daily News, 4 March. Spinners content themselves with supplying special lines and immediate requirement. Ibid. (1892), 11 April, 6/6. In spite of the new French tariff we still continue to receive fair ‘lines’ for silver goods from Paris.
1892. Money Market Rev., 6 Feb. Another error committed by some of the Trusts has consisted in taking inordinately large ‘lines’ of particular Stocks.
VI. Combinations.
31. Simple attrib. and objective, as line battalion, end, -guard, -maker, -making, -pair, -regiment, -rhyme, -room; line-throwing adj.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 50/1. 2 companies from each of the *line battalions assigned to the sub-district.
1748. W. Hardy, Miner’s Guide, 184. Your Assistant having made a mark upon the Ground, where the *Line End touched last.
1888. ‘J. Bickerdyke,’ Bk. All-round Angler, II. 28. A Nottingham reel fitted with a little invention … intended to prevent the line uncoiling … off the reel. This *line-guard has answered beyond my expectations.
1897. Daily News, 13 Sept., 7/3. Some six miles further on, the point where [railway] *line-making was actually in process.
1867. Cayley, in Coll. Math. Papers (1893), VI. 201. A conic is a curve of the second order and second class; quà curve of the second order it may degenerate into a pair of lines, or *line-pair.
1864. Trevelyan, Compet. Wallah (1866), 255. Eighteen months in such a school would have turned the French *line-regiments into Zouaves.
1860. Marsh, Eng. Lang., xxv. 554. *Line-rhyme is a constituent of all but the most ancient forms of Icelandic verse.
a. 1643. W. Cartwright, Ordinary, III. ii. To hang up cloaths, or any thing you please, Your Worship cannot want *line-room.
1887. Daily News, 9 March, 6/7. A *Line-Throwing Gun.
† b. Bot. Used = linear-. Obs.
1787. Fam. Plants, I. 37. The leaflets line-lanc’d, keel’d, erect. Ibid., 41. Seeds one, cover’d, line-oblong. Ibid., 105. Filaments five, line-compress’d.
32. Special combs.: † line-angular a. (see quot.); line-bait, bait used in line-fishing; line-ball Baseball (see quot.); line-breeding U.S., ‘the breeding of animals with reference to securing descent from a particular family, especially in the female line’ (Webster, Suppl., 1879); line-cod, cod-fish caught with a line; line-conch, a large gasteropod of Florida, Fasciolaria distans, marked by black lines (Cent. Dict.); line-coordinate Math., one of a set of quantities defining the position of a line; line density (see quot.); line drawing, a drawing done with a pen or pencil; line engraving, the art of engraving ‘in line,’ i.e., by lines incised on the plate, as distinguished from etching and mezzotint; an engraving executed in this manner; line-filling, a flourish or ornament serving to fill up a line of writing; line-firing Mil., firing by a body of men in line; line-fisherman, a man who fishes with a line; so line-fishing sb. and a.; line-hunter, a hound that follows its quarry by the line of the scent alone; so line-hunting a.; line-integral Math., the integral, taken along a line, of any differential that has a continuously varying value along that line; line-integration, the operation of finding a line-integral; line-knife, a knife used on a whaler for cutting the harpoon rope; line-maker, ‘a manufacturer of rope, sash-lines, clothes-lines, etc.’ (Simmonds, Dict. Trade, 1858); line pin, one of the iron pins used to fasten a bricklayer’s line (see quot. 1859); † line-reel, a reel upon which a gardener’s line is wound; line-riding U.S., riding the line (see sense 26 c); line-rocket, a small rocket attached to a line or wire along which it is made to run; line-soldier, a soldier of the line, a linesman; line-squall, a squall, consisting of a violent straight blast of cold air with snow or rain, and occurring along the axis of a V-shaped depression; so line-thunderstorm; line-storm U.S., an equinoctial storm; line-way, † (a) a tow-path; (b) ‘a straight direct path’ (Halliwell, 1847); line-wire Telegraphy, the wire that connects the stations of a telegraph-line; line-work, drawing or designing executed with the pen or pencil (as opposed to wash, etc.). Also LINEMAN, LINESMAN.
1774. M. Mackenzie, Maritime Surv., p. xviii. A *Line-angular Survey is, when the Coast is measured all along with a Chain, or Wheel, and the Angles taken at each Point and Turn of the Land with a Theodolite, or magnetic Needle.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 432/1. Minnows, frogs, crayfish or any favorite *line bait.
1874. H. Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 55. A *‘line ball’ or ‘liner’ is a ball sent swiftly from the bat to the field almost on a horizontal line.
1877. Holdsworth, Sea Fisheries, 80. Very few *line-cod are caught in the North Sea for the next three months.
1866. Cayley, in Coll. Math. Papers (1892), V. 521. Considered as (what in the theory of *line-coordinates it in fact is) a particular case of the double tangent.
1873. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., § 64 I. 68. In this case we may define the *line-density at any point to be the limiting ratio of the electricity on an element of the line to the length of that element when the element is diminished without limit.
1895. Zangwill, Master, II. vii. 205. To undertake wash-drawings, *line-drawings, colour-work or lithography.
1810. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXVIII. 14. *Line Engravings of Historical Subjects.
1849. Chambers’s Inform., II. 729/2. Effect is obtained in etching in the same manner as in line-engraving—namely, by depth.
1895. M. R. James, Abbey St. Edmund’s at Bury, 93. The small initials … as well as the *line fillings, are of the most absolutely perfect kind.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., *Line-firings are executed separately and independently by each battalion.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 405. For close quarters, line-firing, or quickness of loading, the musket will hold its place for centuries to come.
1899. Daily News, 12 April, 6/2. The *line-fishermen off our coasts.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 242. They depend for this supply on *line-fishing.
1897. Daily News, 10 Feb., 6/2. The screw *line-fishing boat George Baird.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 355. Many of them [sc. hounds] had their heads up…. Some few of the *line hunters were persevering with the scent over the greasy ground.
1856. Whyte-Melville, Kate Cov., xii. They are capital ‘line-hunters,’ so says John.
1890. Sat. Rev., 1 Feb., 135/1. In the vast forests of Europe a line-hunter on the scent of an ungalled hart would be lost to all eternity. Ibid. The old slow *line-hunting staghound.
1873. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., § 69 I. 71. *Line-Integral of Electric Force, or Electromotive Force along an Arc of a Curve. Ibid. (1881), II. 232. The magnetic potential, as found by a *line-integration of the magnetic force.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, xli. 202. The captain seizing the *line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 19 July. The pretty woman, the *line-maker’s wife that lived in Fenchurch Streete.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 395/2. Two *Line Pins, with a Line lapped or raped about part of both.
1700. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 247. A Pair of Line Pins of Iron, with a length of Line on them.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 387. The Line Pins, consist of two iron pins, with a line of about sixty feet, fastened by one of its extremities to each.
1859. Gwilt’s Encycl. Archit. (ed. 4), II. iii. 514. The line pins … for fastening and stretching the line at proper intervals of the wall, that each course may be kept straight in the face and level on the bed.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 256. When you haue cast your ground, you shall begin to stretch your line with good and firme *line-reeles, to take the bredth and length of your borders round about.
1888. T. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., March, 668/2. *Line-riding is very cold work, and dangerous, too, when the men have to be out in a blinding snowstorm.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 19. Charges for the *line rockets.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 551. Two-thirds of each *line-soldier’s service is passed abroad.
1887. R. Abercromby, Weather, 241. This class of atmospheric disturbance, which, for the sake of classification, we will call *‘Line-squalls.’
1867. Whittier, The Palatine, 63. Along their foam-white curves of shore They heard the *line-storm rave and roar.
1887. R. Abercromby, Weather, 248. We will now give an example of *line-thunderstorms which are not associated with the trough either of a V or a cyclone.
1464. Rolls of Parlt., V. 569/2. A waye on either syde of the seid water called a *lyne weye, to convey the said Trowes, Botes, Cobles and Shutes, on the seid water.
1870. F. L. Pope, Electr. Tel., iii. (1872), 24. A Telegraphic Circuit consists of one or more batteries, the *line wire, the instruments and the earth.
1895. Zangwill, Master, II. vii. 205. Cross-hatching, solid black, *line-work.
