Also 4–6 lyne. [f. LINE sb.1 Cf. L. līneāre, F. ligner (OF. lignier), Sp. linear, It. lineare.]
1. trans. To tie with a line, string or cord (rare); † to string (a bow) (obs.).
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, v. (Johannes), 478. Þe ȝunge man þan his bov bent syne, and vith his hand þare-vith can lyne.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xcvii. (1495), 663. The flex is … gadred all hole and is thenne lyned.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 131. Cunning mules … are lined, that is, the forefoot is tied to the hindfoot on the same side.
2. To measure or test with a line, to cut to a line; also absol. Occas. fig. to reach as with a measuring-line. Obs. exc. in technical use.
a. 1400. Burgh Laws, cv. (Sc. Stat. I.). Þat þai sall leilly lyne in lenth as braidnes baith foir part and back part of þe land.
1466. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 93. The bordes shalbe lynyd and leyd on hye on the gistes.
1541. Aberd. Reg., XVII. (Jam.). The Baillies ordanit the lynaris to pass to the ground of the said tenement, and lyne and marche the same, &c.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 44. I sall lyne landis lellelie betwix parteis.
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., 57. A sweet self-privacy in a right soul Outruns the Earth, and lines the utmost pole.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 32. As they line or sound for the depth of a River.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 116. Then if the trunk is to be squared it is ‘lined.’ The string is fastened at one end, and, mounting the tree, the foreman moves the line about until he finds what branches should be cut away to trim the trunk to the best advantage.
3. (U.S.) To angle with a book and line. rare.
1833. [see LINING vbl. sb.1 5].
4. To trace with, or as with, a line or lines; to delineate, sketch. Chiefly in combination with advs. To line in: to put in with a hard pencil the permanent lines of (a freehand drawing); also, to insert (objects) in the outline of a picture. To line off: to mark off by lines. To line out: to trace the outlines of (something to be constructed); to prescribe in general outline; to forecast, adumbrate.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 97. All the pictures fairest Linde, are but blacke to Rosalinde.
1618. Mynshul, Ess. Prison, 1. My purpose is with dim water-colours to line me out a heart.
1650. Baxter, Saints’ R., IV. xiii. § 1. I have … lined you out the best way that I know for your successful performance.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 138. Here is a way plainly lined out to cheat the Rats and Mice.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 264. Mr. D. … has boldly lined off streets and a market place through the very heart of the moor.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, x. He again strongly conjured him to construct a sconce upon the round hill called Drumsnab, and offered his own friendly services in lining out the same.
1880. G. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 197. She had seen them [mountain heights] day after day thinly lined on the dead sky.
1886. Milligan, Revelation, vi. (1887), 231. The picture [sc. New Jerusalem] may not yet be realised in fulness, but every blessing lined in upon its canvas is in principle the believer’s now.
1889. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 304. Thick or compressed lips, open or sunken eyes, straight or hooked noses, may enable one to roughly line out a disposition.
5. To mark with a line or lines; to impress lines upon; to cover with lines. Also with off, out. To line through: to draw a line through (an entry), to cross out.
1530. Palsgr., 611/2. Have you lyned your paper yet? Ibid., 612/1. I lyne, as a carpenter dothe his tymber with a coloured lyne before he square it.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 100. The Stuff being thus lined is fastned with wedges over the Pit.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 130. It [the land] must be lined out into oblong squares.
1819. Shelley, Rosalind & Helen, 429. Selfish cares with barren plough, Not age, had lined his narrow brow.
1826. E. Irving, Babylon, II. V. 64. The chart was lined off … for tracing upon it the rise, and progress.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xiii. This entry was afterwards lined through. Ibid. (1859), T. Two Cities, I. iv. (Ogilvie). He had a healthy colour in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., To line a ship, is to strike off with a batten, or otherwise, the directional lines for painting her. Ibid., Line out stuff, to mark timber for dressing to shape.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 99. The edges and butts of the plates are lined off.
1892. Daily News, 26 Jan., 3/1. Every piece of wood [should] be correctly lined before being cut or planed.
1900. A. Black, in Expositor, Sept., 223. The pale wronged face, lined with melancholy resignation.
6. To read out (a metrical psalm, a hymn) line by line for the congregation to sing. Also to line out.
1853. N. D. Gould, Ch. Mus. Amer., 47–8. This custom, however, of reading, or lining, or, as it was frequently called, ‘deaconing,’ the hymn or psalm in the churches, was brought about partly from necessity.
1885. ‘Mark Twain,’ in Century Mag., XXIX. 549/2. The preacher was lining out a hymn. He lined out two lines, everybody sung it.
7. U.S. To follow the line of flight of (bees).
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. v. 78. I had lined a beautiful swarm that very day into the hollow of a dead beech.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Briery Creek, ii. 32. Girls … lining the wild bees to their haunt in the hollow tree.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey, 25. I emerged … just in time to see the runaways disappearing over the top of the hill…. Lining them as well as I could, I soon reached the hill-top.
8. a. trans. To bring (ships, soldiers, etc.) into a line or into line with others; to bring (one’s boat) into line with that of (another); also with up. Hence U.S. to assign (a person) to (certain work).
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 193. The pivots being lined, and the wheeling distances being true.
1884. Mil. Engineering (ed. 3), I. II. 75. Too much time must not … be lost in lining the gabion accurately.
1886. Philadelphia Times, 21 March, 1/3 (Cent.). No actor of American birth and training can be lined to this class of work.
1891. Daily News, 28 Dec., 3/1. The cast iron frames are lined up in place before the concrete is poured in. Ibid. (1899), 29 July, 8/7. Blackstaffe … crossed over in front of Howell and lined him.
b. intr. (a) To present to the eye a line of a specified kind. (b) To form a (good) line with others; to fall into line; also with out, up; fig. to come up to a certain line. (b) To run in line with; to border upon.
(a) 1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 16. Masts that have cheeks differ in this; they line tapering athwartships…. The aftsides of top-masts line straight.
(b) 1790. By-stander, 159, note. This the printers describe by saying a letter does not line well.
1796. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 34. The men as they come up endeavour to line well on the part already formed.
1864. Trollope, Small Ho. at Allington, xv. She struggled to line up to the spirit of her promises and she succeeded.
1887. Shearman, Football (Badm. Libr.), 316. The forward must always be ready to line up and face one man, and one only.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 June, 5/2. Nearly two hundred ‘old students’ lined up to receive the Royalties.
1894. Daily News, 8 Oct., 2/7. The two old birds and the four cygnets then lined out in battle array.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 334/1. These boats … enjoyed a world-wide renown for their speed, anterior to their lining up against boats of another type.
(c) 1881. R. M. Johnston, in Harper’s Mag., No. 369. 433/2. Three hundred acres of good fresh land, lining … with the Booker estate.
9. a. To arrange a line (orig. of troops) along (a hedge, road, etc.). b. To have or take one’s place or (of inanimate objects) to have a place in line along (a road, etc.).
In both significations the vb. is now apprehended with a mixture of the sense of LINE v.1
a. 1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VI. § 248. They having lined the hedges behind them with their reserve.
1684. Scanderbeg Rediv., v. 115. And Lined the Wood on each side of the Narrow Way with several Companies of Musqueteers.
1740. S. Speed, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 393. Their coasts were lined with soldiers on that account.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xliii. (1869), II. 611. The ramparts were lined with trembling spectators.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. iii. (Rtldg.), 344. The walks well gravelled and lined with orange trees.
1812. Ann. Reg., Gen. Hist., 139. The numerous batteries with which it [the shore] is there lined.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., II. 155. At such times the street is lined with listeners.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, VI. ii. He came into a broad and spacious square lined with palaces.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 580. The thick hedges which on each side overhung the narrow lanes, were lined with musketeers.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, vii. 83. A fine quay lined with shipping.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 8. The Greeks … lined the southern shores of Italy with that fringe of colonies, which [etc.].
1895. Zangwill, Master, I. x. 112. A cutting in the hill lined with overhanging snow-drifts.
b. 1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, 48. At that instant have the shot that line the battell, their time to serve.
a. 1671. Ld. Fairfax, Mem. (1699), 30. They … had set about five hundred Musketeers to line the hedges about the Town.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4345/3. The Streets were lin’d by the Militia.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 126. The violet … condescends to line our edges.
1773–83. Hoole, Orl. Fur., XXXV. 496. Not feeble years, nor childhood stay’d, but all Alike impatient throng’d to line the wall.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., Chron., 55/2. Council-house-street … was lined by the body guard.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 45. Broad landing quays covered with cranes lined the river bank.
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., viii. (1874), 132. The English archers … lined the pass.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 126/2. For some twenty years he annually dispatched ten or twelve vessels to the ports lining the Mediterranean.
