Line, n. [OE. line, AS.
līne 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.
Who so layeth lines for to latch
fowls.
Piers Plowman.
2. A more or less threadlike mark of pen,
pencil, or graver; any long mark; as, a chalk line.
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.
4. Direction; as, the line of sight or
vision.
5. A row of letters, words, etc., written or
printed; esp., a row of words extending across a page or
column.
6. A short letter; a note; as, a line
from a friend.
7. (Poet.) A verse, or the words which
form a certain number of feet, according to the measure.
In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of
Nausicaa.
Broome.
8. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or
policy; method of argument; department of industry, trade, or
intellectual activity.
He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but
it is not the line of a first-rate man.
Coleridge.
9. (Math.) That which has length, but
not breadth or thickness.
10. The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or
territory; boundary; contour; outline.
Eden stretched her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia.
Milton.
11. A threadlike crease marking the face or
the hand; hence, characteristic mark.
Though on his brow were graven lines
austere.
Byron.
He tipples palmistry, and dines
On all her fortune-telling lines.
Cleveland.
12. Lineament; feature; figure. "The
lines of my boy's face." Shak.
13. A straight row; a continued series or
rank; as, a line of houses, or of soldiers; a line of
barriers.
Unite thy forces and attack their
lines.
Dryden.
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.
Of his lineage am I, and his offspring
By very line, as of the stock real.
Chaucer.
15. A connected series of public conveyances,
and hence, an established arrangement for forwarding merchandise,
etc.; as, a line of stages; an express line.
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.
17. A long tape, or a narrow ribbon of steel,
etc., marked with subdivisions, as feet and inches, for measuring; a
tapeline.
18. (Script.) (a) A
measuring line or cord.
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.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant
places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Ps. xvi.
6.
(c) Instruction; doctrine.
Their line is gone out through all the
earth.
Ps. xix. 4.
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.
20. The track and roadbed of a railway;
railroad.
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.
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.
23. pl. (Shipbuilding) Form of
a vessel as shown by the outlines of vertical, horizontal, and
oblique sections.
24. (Mus.) One of the straight
horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the
notes are placed.
25. (Stock Exchange) A number of
shares taken by a jobber.
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.
27. The wire connecting one telegraphic
station with another, or the whole of a system of telegraph wires
under one management and name.
28. pl. The reins with which a horse
is guided by his driver. [U. S.]
29. A measure of length; one twelfth of an
inch.
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 (Zoöl.), 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, 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. -- On the line, on a
level with the eye of the spectator; -- said of a picture, as hung in
an exhibition of pictures. -- 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.
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.