subs. (thieves’).—1. Six months’ imprisonment. For synonyms, see DOSE.
2. (theatrical).—See quot. 1781.
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, I. 43. It being one of the usual enquiries made by Managers of the candidates for country engagements, ‘How many lengths can you study from night to night?’ A LENGTH is forty two lines.
1838. DICKENS, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxiii. I ’ve got a part of twelve LENGTHS here, which I must be up in by to-morrow night.
1871. Edinburgh Review, ‘Lord Brougham’s Recollections of a Long Life.’ Keen said that Iago was three LENGTHS longer than Othello.
1885. Household Words, 22 Aug., p. 328. All they knew or cared to know was that they had to get into their heads certain LENGTHS of a certain drama to be produced that very night.
TO GET THE LENGTH OF ONE’S FOOT, verb. phr. (common).—To fascinate; to understand how to manage a person.
