Line (līn),
v. t.
1. To mark
with a line
or lines; to cover with lines; as, to line a copy
book.
He
had a healthy color in his cheeks, and his face,
though lined, bore few traces of anxiety.
Dickens. 2. To represent by lines; to delineate; to portray. [R.]
"Pictures
fairest lined." Shak.
3. To read or repeat line by line; as, to line out a hymn.
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. 4. To form into
a line; to align; as, to
line troops.
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.
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.
Line , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lined (līnd); 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.
The inside lined with rich carnation silk.
W.
Browne. 2. To put something in the inside
of; to fill;
to supply, as a purse with money.
The charge
amounteth very high for any one man's purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto.
Carew. Till coffee has her stomach
lined.
Swift.
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.
Line and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant.
Shak.
4. To impregnate; -- applied to brute animals. Creech.
Lined gold, gold foil having a
lining of another metal.
Line (līn),
n. [OE. lin. See Linen.]
1. Flax; linen. [Obs.]
"Garments made of line." Spenser.
2.
The longer and finer fiber of flax.
Hear it pronounced