'Line' definitions:

Definition of 'line'

From: WordNet
noun
A formation of people or things one beside another; "the line of soldiers advanced with their bayonets fixed"; "they were arrayed in line of battle"; "the cast stood in line for the curtain call"
noun
A mark that is long relative to its width; "He drew a line on the chart"
noun
A formation of people or things one behind another; "the line stretched clear around the corner"; "you must wait in a long line at the checkout counter"
noun
A length (straight or curved) without breadth or thickness; the trace of a moving point
noun
Text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen; "the letter consisted of three short lines"; "there are six lines in every stanza"
noun
A single frequency (or very narrow band) of radiation in a spectrum
noun
A fortified position (especially one marking the most forward position of troops); "they attacked the enemy's line"
noun
A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating a truth or falsehood; the methodical process of logical reasoning; "I can't follow your line of reasoning" [syn: argumentation, logical argument, argument, line of reasoning, line]
noun
A conductor for transmitting electrical or optical signals or electric power [syn: cable, line, transmission line]
noun
A connected series of events or actions or developments; "the government took a firm course"; "historians can only point out those lines for which evidence is available" [syn: course, line]
noun
A spatial location defined by a real or imaginary unidimensional extent
noun
A slight depression in the smoothness of a surface; "his face has many lines"; "ironing gets rid of most wrinkles" [syn: wrinkle, furrow, crease, crinkle, seam, line]
noun
A pipe used to transport liquids or gases; "a pipeline runs from the wells to the seaport" [syn: pipeline, line]
noun
The road consisting of railroad track and roadbed [syn: line, railway line, rail line]
noun
A telephone connection [syn: telephone line, phone line, telephone circuit, subscriber line, line]
noun
Acting in conformity; "in line with"; "he got out of line"; "toe the line"
noun
The descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has been warriors" [syn: lineage, line, line of descent, descent, bloodline, blood line, blood, pedigree, ancestry, origin, parentage, stemma, stock]
noun
Something (as a cord or rope) that is long and thin and flexible; "a washing line"
noun
The principal activity in your life that you do to earn money; "he's not in my line of business" [syn: occupation, business, job, line of work, line]
noun
In games or sports; a mark indicating positions or bounds of the playing area
noun
(often plural) a means of communication or access; "it must go through official channels"; "lines of communication were set up between the two firms" [syn: channel, communication channel, line]
noun
A particular kind of product or merchandise; "a nice line of shoes" [syn: line, product line, line of products, line of merchandise, business line, line of business]
noun
A commercial organization serving as a common carrier
noun
Space for one line of print (one column wide and 1/14 inch deep) used to measure advertising [syn: agate line, line]
noun
The maximum credit that a customer is allowed [syn: credit line, line of credit, bank line, line, personal credit line, personal line of credit]
noun
A succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence; "she was humming an air from Beethoven" [syn: tune, melody, air, strain, melodic line, line, melodic phrase]
noun
Persuasive but insincere talk that is usually intended to deceive or impress; "`let me show you my etchings' is a rather worn line"; "he has a smooth line but I didn't fall for it"; "that salesman must have practiced his fast line of talk"
noun
A short personal letter; "drop me a line when you get there" [syn: note, short letter, line, billet]
noun
A conceptual separation or distinction; "there is a narrow line between sanity and insanity" [syn: line, dividing line, demarcation, contrast]
noun
Mechanical system in a factory whereby an article is conveyed through sites at which successive operations are performed on it [syn: production line, assembly line, line]
verb
Be in line with; form a line along; "trees line the riverbank" [syn: line, run along]
verb
Cover the interior of; "line the gloves"; "line a chimney"
verb
Make a mark or lines on a surface; "draw a line"; "trace the outline of a figure in the sand" [syn: trace, draw, line, describe, delineate]
verb
Mark with lines; "sorrow had lined his face"
verb
Fill plentifully; "line one's pockets"
verb
Reinforce with fabric; "lined books are more enduring"

Definition of 'Line'

From: GCIDE
  • Line \Line\ (l[imac]n), n. [OE. lin. See Linen.]
  • 1. Flax; linen. [Obs.] "Garments made of line." --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. The longer and finer fiber of flax. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Line'

From: GCIDE
  • Line \Line\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lined (l[imac]nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Lining.] [See Line flax.]
  • 1. To cover the inner surface of; as, to line a cloak with silk or fur; to line a box with paper or tin. [1913 Webster]
  • The inside lined with rich carnation silk. --W. Browne. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To put something in the inside of; to fill; to supply, as a purse with money. [1913 Webster]
  • The charge amounteth very high for any one man's purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto. --Carew. [1913 Webster]
  • Till coffee has her stomach lined. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To place persons or things along the side of for security or defense; to strengthen by adding anything; to fortify; as, to line works with soldiers. [1913 Webster]
  • Line and new repair our towns of war With men of courage and with means defendant. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. To impregnate; -- applied to brute animals. --Creech. [1913 Webster]
  • Lined gold, gold foil having a lining of another metal. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Line'

From: GCIDE
  • Line \Line\, n. [OE. line, AS. l[imac]ne cable, hawser, prob. from L. linea a linen thread, string, line, fr. linum flax, thread, linen, cable; but the English word was influenced by F. ligne line, from the same L. word linea. See Linen.]
  • 1. A linen thread or string; a slender, strong cord; also, a cord of any thickness; a rope; a hawser; as, a fishing line; a line for snaring birds; a clothesline; a towline. [1913 Webster]
  • Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls. --Piers Plowman. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. A more or less threadlike mark of pen, pencil, or graver; any long mark; as, a chalk line. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. The course followed by anything in motion; hence, a road or route; as, the arrow descended in a curved line; the place is remote from lines of travel. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Direction; as, the line of sight or vision. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. A row of letters, words, etc., written or printed; esp., a row of words extending across a page or column. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. A short letter; a note; as, a line from a friend. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. (Poet.) A verse, or the words which form a certain number of feet, according to the measure. [1913 Webster]
  • In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa. --Broome. [1913 Webster]
  • 8. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or policy; method of argument; department of industry, trade, or intellectual activity. [1913 Webster]
  • He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is not the line of a first-rate man. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
  • 9. (Math.) That which has length, but not breadth or thickness. [1913 Webster]
  • 10. The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory; boundary; contour; outline. [1913 Webster]
  • Eden stretched her line From Auran eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • 11. A threadlike crease marking the face or the hand; hence, characteristic mark. [1913 Webster]
  • Though on his brow were graven lines austere. --Byron. [1913 Webster]
  • He tipples palmistry, and dines On all her fortune-telling lines. --Cleveland. [1913 Webster]
  • 12. Lineament; feature; figure. "The lines of my boy's face." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 13. A straight row; a continued series or rank; as, a line of houses, or of soldiers; a line of barriers. [1913 Webster]
  • Unite thy forces and attack their lines. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 14. A series or succession of ancestors or descendants of a given person; a family or race; as, the ascending or descending line; the line of descent; the male line; a line of kings. [1913 Webster]
  • Of his lineage am I, and his offspring By very line, as of the stock real. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • 15. A connected series of public conveyances, and hence, an established arrangement for forwarding merchandise, etc.; as, a line of stages; an express line. [1913 Webster]
  • 16. (Geog.) (a) A circle of latitude or of longitude, as represented on a map. (b) The equator; -- usually called the line, or equinoctial line; as, to cross the line. [1913 Webster]
  • 17. A long tape, or a narrow ribbon of steel, etc., marked with subdivisions, as feet and inches, for measuring; a tapeline. [1913 Webster]
  • 18. (Script.) (a) A measuring line or cord. [1913 Webster]
  • He marketh it out with a line. --Is. xliv. 13. (b) That which was measured by a line, as a field or any piece of land set apart; hence, allotted place of abode. [1913 Webster]
  • The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. --Ps. xvi. 6. (c) Instruction; doctrine. [1913 Webster]
  • Their line is gone out through all the earth. --Ps. xix. 4. [1913 Webster]
  • 19. (Mach.) The proper relative position or adjustment of parts, not as to design or proportion, but with reference to smooth working; as, the engine is in line or out of line. [1913 Webster]
  • 20. The track and roadbed of a railway; railroad. [1913 Webster]
  • 21. (Mil.) (a) A row of men who are abreast of one another, whether side by side or some distance apart; -- opposed to column. (b) The regular infantry of an army, as distinguished from militia, guards, volunteer corps, cavalry, artillery, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 22. (Fort.) (a) A trench or rampart. (b) pl. Dispositions made to cover extended positions, and presenting a front in but one direction to an enemy. [1913 Webster]
  • 23. pl. (Shipbuilding) Form of a vessel as shown by the outlines of vertical, horizontal, and oblique sections. [1913 Webster]
  • 24. (Mus.) One of the straight horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are placed. [1913 Webster]
  • 25. (Stock Exchange) A number of shares taken by a jobber. [1913 Webster]
  • 26. (Trade) A series of various qualities and values of the same general class of articles; as, a full line of hosiery; a line of merinos, etc. --McElrath. [1913 Webster]
  • 27. The wire connecting one telegraphic station with another, or the whole of a system of telegraph wires under one management and name. [1913 Webster]
  • 28. pl. The reins with which a horse is guided by his driver. [U. S.] [1913 Webster]
  • 29. A measure of length; one twelfth of an inch. [1913 Webster]
  • Hard lines, hard lot. --C. Kingsley. [See Def. 18.]
  • Line breeding (Stockbreeding), breeding by a certain family line of descent, especially in the selection of the dam or mother.
  • Line conch (Zool.), a spiral marine shell ({Fasciolaria distans}), of Florida and the West Indies. It is marked by narrow, dark, revolving lines.
  • Line engraving. (a) Engraving in which the effects are produced by lines of different width and closeness, cut with the burin upon copper or similar material; also, a plate so engraved. (b) A picture produced by printing from such an engraving.
  • Line of battle. (a) (Mil. Tactics) The position of troops drawn up in their usual order without any determined maneuver. (b) (Naval) The line or arrangement formed by vessels of war in an engagement.
  • Line of battle ship. See Ship of the line, below.
  • Line of beauty (Fine Arts),an abstract line supposed to be beautiful in itself and absolutely; -- differently represented by different authors, often as a kind of elongated S (like the one drawn by Hogarth).
  • Line of centers. (Mach.) (a) A line joining two centers, or fulcra, as of wheels or levers. (b) A line which determines a dead center. See {Dead center}, under Dead.
  • Line of dip (Geol.), a line in the plane of a stratum, or part of a stratum, perpendicular to its intersection with a horizontal plane; the line of greatest inclination of a stratum to the horizon.
  • Line of fire (Mil.), the direction of fire.
  • Line of force (Physics), any line in a space in which forces are acting, so drawn that at every point of the line its tangent is the direction of the resultant of all the forces. It cuts at right angles every equipotential surface which it meets. Specifically (Magnetism), a line in proximity to a magnet so drawn that any point in it is tangential with the direction of a short compass needle held at that point. --Faraday.
  • Line of life (Palmistry), a line on the inside of the hand, curving about the base of the thumb, supposed to indicate, by its form or position, the length of a person's life.
  • Line of lines. See Gunter's line.
  • Line of march. (Mil.) (a) Arrangement of troops for marching. (b) Course or direction taken by an army or body of troops in marching.
  • Line of operations, that portion of a theater of war which an army passes over in attaining its object. --H. W. Halleck.
  • Line of sight (Firearms), the line which passes through the front and rear sight, at any elevation, when they are sighted at an object.
  • Line tub (Naut.), a tub in which the line carried by a whaleboat is coiled.
  • Mason and Dixon's line, Mason-Dixon line, the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, as run before the Revolution (1764-1767) by two English astronomers named Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. In an extended sense, the line between the free and the slave States; as, below the Mason-Dixon line, i.e. in the South.
  • On the line, (a) on a level with the eye of the spectator; -- said of a picture, as hung in an exhibition of pictures. (b) at risk (dependent upon success) in a contest or enterprise; as, the survival of the company is on the line in this project.
  • Right line, a straight line; the shortest line that can be drawn between two points.
  • Ship of the line, formerly, a ship of war large enough to have a place in the line of battle; a vessel superior to a frigate; usually, a seventy-four, or three-decker; -- called also line of battle ship or battleship. --Totten.
  • To cross the line, to cross the equator, as a vessel at sea.
  • To give a person line, to allow him more or less liberty until it is convenient to stop or check him, like a hooked fish that swims away with the line.
  • Water line (Shipbuilding), the outline of a horizontal section of a vessel, as when floating in the water. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Line'

From: GCIDE
  • Line \Line\ (l[imac]n), v. t.
  • 1. To mark with a line or lines; to cover with lines; as, to line a copy book. [1913 Webster]
  • He had a healthy color in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety. --Dickens. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To represent by lines; to delineate; to portray. [R.] "Pictures fairest lined." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To read or repeat line by line; as, to line out a hymn. [1913 Webster]
  • This custom of reading or lining, or, as it was frequently called "deaconing" the hymn or psalm in the churches, was brought about partly from necessity. --N. D. Gould. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. To form into a line; to align; as, to line troops. [1913 Webster]
  • To line bees, to track wild bees to their nest by following their line of flight.
  • To line up (Mach.), to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running. See 3d Line, 19. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'line'

From: GCIDE
  • Shaft \Shaft\, n. [OE. shaft, schaft, AS. sceaft; akin to D. schacht, OHG. scaft, G. schaft, Dan. & Sw. skaft handle, haft, Icel. skapt, and probably to L. scapus, Gr. ????, ????, a staff. Probably originally, a shaven or smoothed rod. Cf. Scape, Scepter, Shave.]
  • 1. The slender, smooth stem of an arrow; hence, an arrow. [1913 Webster]
  • His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft, That lean he wax, and dry as is a shaft. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele [stale], the feathers, and the head. --Ascham. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. The long handle of a spear or similar weapon; hence, the weapon itself; (Fig.) anything regarded as a shaft to be thrown or darted; as, shafts of light. [1913 Webster]
  • And the thunder, Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • Some kinds of literary pursuits . . . have been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule. --V. Knox. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. That which resembles in some degree the stem or handle of an arrow or a spear; a long, slender part, especially when cylindrical. Specifically: (a) (Bot.) The trunk, stem, or stalk of a plant. (b) (Zool.) The stem or midrib of a feather. See Illust. of Feather. (c) The pole, or tongue, of a vehicle; also, a thill. (d) The part of a candlestick which supports its branches. [1913 Webster]
  • Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold . . . his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. --Ex. xxv. 31. [1913 Webster] (e) The handle or helve of certain tools, instruments, etc., as a hammer, a whip, etc. (f) A pole, especially a Maypole. [Obs.] --Stow. (g) (Arch.) The body of a column; the cylindrical pillar between the capital and base (see Illust. of Column). Also, the part of a chimney above the roof. Also, the spire of a steeple. [Obs. or R.] --Gwilt. (h) A column, an obelisk, or other spire-shaped or columnar monument. [1913 Webster]
  • Bid time and nature gently spare The shaft we raise to thee. --Emerson. [1913 Webster] (i) (Weaving) A rod at the end of a heddle. (j) (Mach.) A solid or hollow cylinder or bar, having one or more journals on which it rests and revolves, and intended to carry one or more wheels or other revolving parts and to transmit power or motion; as, the shaft of a steam engine. See Illust. of Countershaft. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. (Zool.) A humming bird (Thaumastura cora) having two of the tail feathers next to the middle ones very long in the male; -- called also cora humming bird. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. [Cf. G. schacht.] (Mining) A well-like excavation in the earth, perpendicular or nearly so, made for reaching and raising ore, for raising water, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. A long passage for the admission or outlet of air; an air shaft. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. The chamber of a blast furnace. [1913 Webster]
  • Line shaft (Mach.), a main shaft of considerable length, in a shop or factory, usually bearing a number of pulleys by which machines are driven, commonly by means of countershafts; -- called also line, or main line.
  • Shaft alley (Naut.), a passage extending from the engine room to the stern, and containing the propeller shaft.
  • Shaft furnace (Metal.), a furnace, in the form of a chimney, which is charged at the top and tapped at the bottom. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'line'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Line'