| 释义 |
▪ I. line, n.1 Now chiefly dial.|laɪn|
Forms: 1 lín, 4–5 lynne, 4–6 lyn, 4–7 lyne, 5–7, 8–9 dial. lin, 6–7 linne, 3– line.
[OE. lín neut. = OS. lîn (Du. lijn in comb.), OHG. lîn (MHG. lîn, mod.G. lein- in comb.), ON. lín (Sw. lin), Goth. lein:—Com. Teut. type *lînom, a. or cognate with L. līnum flax (whence F. lin), cognate with Gr. λίνον (ῐ), and perh. with λῑτί dat., λῖτα accus., linen cloth. The mod. dial. form lin (with the antecedent lynne, linne) is app. a back-formation from compounds like lincloth, linseed.]
1. = flax.
†a. The fibre of flax. Obs. exc. as in b.
In the 16–17th c. asbestos was often described as a kind of ‘line’ or flax (cf. linen B. 1 c, L. linum indicum, linum fossile).
c975Rushw. Gosp. Matt. xii. 20 Hread þæt waᵹende ne to breceþ & lin smikende ne adwæscet. c1300Havelok 539 The bondes..weren of ful strong line. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xi. 49 Þat ressayued þe messangers of Israel..and feled þam in hir hous amang towe of lyne. c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 795/18 Hoc asperum, a stryke of lyne. 1548Elyot Dict., Asbestinum, a kynde of lyne which can not be burned. Ibid., Linum, lyne or flaxe. 1611Cotgr., Lin, line, flax. Lin vif, a Kind of Indian line, or linnen, which the fire purifies, but consumes not. 1659C. Hoole tr. Comenius' Orbis Sensual. (1672) 121 Line and Hemp, being rated in water and dried again, are braked with a wooden Brake.
b. In mod. technical use, flax of a fine and long staple, which has been separated by the hackle from the tow. Occasionally applied to the similar fibre of other plants.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 215 The heckled flax, called line, when freed from the tow, is carried away to be sorted. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 198 China grass..half-bleached and full-bleached line from this grass. Ibid. 278 The long fibres called line, which remains in the hand of the heckler.
c. The plant itself.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. xii. 28 Now lyne and puls is sowe. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. viii. (Preach. Swallow) xxx, The lint rypit, the carle pullit the lyne. 1548Turner Names of Herbes 49 Linum is called in englishe Flax, lyne or lynte. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1289 The herbe Line..furnisheth us wherewith to make a simple, plaine, and slender vestment. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 37 In August he shall pull his Line and Hempe. 1839Stonehouse Axholme 28 Fields of hemp are now no longer to be seen; but line or flax is still grown.
2. Flax spun or woven; linen thread or cloth. † Also, a napkin of linen; and in pl. linen vestments.
a700Epinal Gl. 634 Manitergium, liin [a 800 Corpus Gl. 1270 lin]. c975Rushw. Gosp. John xx. 6 Simon petrus..ineode in ða byrᵹenne & ᵹesæh ða lin ᵹisetedo. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Þe haued line sward, and hire winpel wit. a1300Cursor M. 11112 He..wered noþer wol ne line. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 730 [He] solde alle his goud boþe wolen and lynne. c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 82 A fair towaille of lyn. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 30 Fars hit thurghe a clothe of lyne. 1558Act 1 Eliz. c. 17 §1 No person..withe any Devise or Engyne made of Heere, Wooll, Lyne or Canvas..shall take and kyll..Spawne or Frye of Eeles, Salmon, Pyke or Pyckerell. 1591Spenser Muiopot. 364 Nor anie weauer, which his worke doth boast In dieper, in damaske, or in lyne. c1611Chapman Iliad ii. 459 Little he was, and euer wore a breastplate made of linne. 1631Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 299 Ten yeardes of line for a sirptcloth. 1641Best Farm. Bk. (1857) 106 The kindes of linnes or huswife-cloath are brought aboute of peddlers. 1807Robinson Archæol. Græca iv. iii. 342 Some of the thoraces were made of line, or hemp twisted into small cords, and set close together. 1868Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Lin, linen; the fabric made with the fibre of flax; in contradistinction to the plant itself, which is sounded Line.
†b. Phr. under line (occas. in line), in one's clothes; used in ME. poetry as a mere expletive. Cf. under gore (see gore n.2 2). Obs.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. xiv. 46 Ah wolde lylie leor in lyn Y-here lovely lores myn. 13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1814 Þat lufsum vnder lyne. c1320Sir Tristr. 1202 Þe quene, Louesom vnder line. c1400Rowland & O. 846 He..drissede hym in his worthy wede, þat lofesome vnder lyne.
†3. The seed of flax; linseed. Obs.
1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 78 Take camomell and lyne of eche lyke much. 1558–68Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 90 b, Take thre pounde of the Oyle of lyne. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 38 b, They call the seede Lin, and the plant Flaxe.
4. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) † line beat (cf. beat n.2), † line-beater, † line-boll (cf. boll n.1 3), line-dresser, † line-house, line-sorter, line-spinner, line-spreader, line stump, line tow, line-weaver, † line-webber, line weft, line-wick, line work, line-yard, line yarn; (sense 2) line bed, line clout, † line-draper, † line sock, † line stock, line table-cloth; † line-finch, ? a linnet (cf. flax-finch); line-gout, some plant which hinders flax in its growth; † line-spurge, a proposed name for Euphorbia Esula; † line-strike, a hank of flax.
1483Cath. Ang. 217/2 A *Lyne bete, linitorium.
Ibid., A *Lyne beter, linifex, linificator.
1418E.E. Wills (1882) 37, ij. remenauntz of the *Lynne bed.
1483Cath. Angl. 217/2 A *Lyne bolle, linodium.
c1450Two Cookery-bks. 112 Tak a fare *lynne cloute, & do therynne a disshful of ote-mele. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., Lin-clout, linen rag.
1436Close Roll 15 Hen. VI, *Lynnedraper. c1515Cocke Lorell's B. 9 Lyne webbers, setters, with lyne drapers.
1720Lond. Gaz. No. 5909/4 John Northropp, late of Leeds, *Line dresser.
1483Cath. Angl. 217/2 A *Lyne fynche, linosa.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 568 The good hus-wife must be careful when the line is growne, to free it from being intangled with the weed using to wind about it which of some is called *line gout.
1483Cath. Angl. 217/2 A *Lyne howse, linatorium.
Ibid. 218/1 A *Lyne soke (A. *Lynstoke), linipedium.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 215 *Line-sorters.
1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6186/10 Corbort Roman,..*Line-Spinner.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 216 Girls, termed *line-spreaders, are employed to unite the locks of line into one sliver.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 93 Pitiusa..may be called *lynespourge of the lyknes yt it hath with linaria.
1483Cath. Angl. 217/2 A *Lyne stryke, linipulus.
1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 198 *Line stumps, or the raw flax plant with the seed..as pulled and dried.
1619Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 75 One *lin tablecloth..for the communion table.
1897Daily News 6 Mar. 8/6 *Line tow and jute yarns in buyers' favour.
1415in York Myst. Introd. 27 *Lynweuers. c1483Caxton Dialogues viii. 38 Gabriel the lynwevar.
1890Daily News 20 Aug. 2/7 Some stocks of *line wefts are almost nil.
1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. i. 10 With a *line-wick, another Esquimaux plan, we could bake bread.
1483Cath. Angl. 218/1 *Lyne warke, linificium.
1611Cotgr., Ligneraye, a *line⁓yard, or flax-yard.
1886Daily News 4 Sept. 6/7 *Line yarns quiet.
▪ II. line, n.2|laɪn|
Forms: 1 líne, 3–7 lyne, 4 lin, lingne, 4–6 ligne, lygne, 5 lyn, lynye, 3– line. β. Sc. 4 lynge, 4–6 ling.
[Two words, ultimately of the same etymology, have coalesced. (1) OE. líne wk. fem. = MDu. lîne (mod.Du. lijn), OHG. lîna (MHG. lîne cord, line, mod.G. leine cord), ON. lína (Sw. lina, Da. line); either a native Teut. formation on *lîno- flax, line n.1, or (more probably) an early Teut. adoption of L. līnea (see below); (2) ME. ligne, line, a. F. ligne = Pr. ligna, Pg. linha (Sp. and It. in learned form linea):—popular L. *linja repr. classical L. līnea (earlier līnia), orig. ‘linen thread’, a subst. use of līnea fem. of līneus (*līnius) adj., flaxen, f. līnum flax = line n.1; the subst. use of the adj. is due to ellipsis of some fem. n., possibly fībra fibre.
In continental Teut. the popular L. *linja was adopted as OHG. linia (MHG., mod.G., Du., Da. linie).]
I. Cord or string (and derived senses).
1. a. A rope, cord, string; † a leash for dogs or for hawks. Chiefly Naut. or as short for clothes-line, etc. Also applied with words prefixed to particular ‘makes’ of rope, e.g. cod-line, house-line, whale-line. spec. as used by climbers (usu. opp. rope).
a1000Sal. & Sat. 294 (Gr.) Yldo..ræceð wide langre linan, lisseð eall ðæt heo wile. c1050Suppl. ælfric's Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 182/24 Spirae, linan. [1390–1Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 40 Pro..v lynes parvis pro les ankeres et seyles.] a1400Cursor M. 29532 (Cott. Galba) Cursing es þe fendes lyne þat harles a man to hell pine. c1470Henry Wallace ix. 52 The seymen..Thair lynys kest, and waytyt weyll the tyd. c1520Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 206 Pro vjxx fawdom long lyne for the convaans of the schryne with ij lytyll lynys callyd syde ropes. 1535Coverdale Josh. ii. 21 She knyt the rose coloured lyne in the wyndowe. 1589Rider Bibl. Scholost. 1727 The gesses, lemniscus. The lines, tænia. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. i. 4 And by her in a line a milkewhite lambe she lad. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 186/2 The string wherewith we lead them;..for a Spaniel [it is called] a Line. 1700Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 247 A Line seldom holding to strein..above 50 or 60 feet. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Lines, among fowlers, is used to express the strings by which they catch birds. 1758Johnson Idler No. 8 ⁋7 Shirts waving upon lines. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., Deep-sea soundings for scientific purposes are recorded in thousands of fathoms, in which case the line is sometimes made of silk. 1889A. B. Goulden Mission of St. Alphege 51 Family washing is hung on lines stretched across the lane. 1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 700/2 Fine alpine line. 1923G. D. Abraham First Steps to Climbing ii. 35 A light Alpine line is also supplied but that is mostly used by experts on exceptionally difficult courses... For the beginner the ordinary rope is advisable. 1935D. Pilley Climbing Days xi. 224 We set aside the ordinary Alpine rope, and used 120 feet of Alpine line. 1950Mountaineering Handbk. (Assoc. Brit. Members Swiss Alpine Club) ii. 27 Line can be used on ice or rock..or for rappel slings... Doubled, it can be used as a light rope. 1957Clark & Pyatt Mountaineering in Brit. ix. 160 One development in technique was..the increasing use of line in preference to full size rope.
b. In generalized sense, as a material: Cord.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVI. 487/1 The making of two strand and three strand line.
†c. A ‘cord’ in the body. Obs. rare.
1611Florio, Linéa álba, the white line, the vmbellical veine, the line or hollow tying from the nauel. 1780Cowper Table T. 487 She pours a sensibility divine Along the nerve of every feeling line.
d. Applied to a spider's thread. poet.
1732Pope Ess. Man i. 218 The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line. 1780Cowper Progr. Err. 495 Spun as fine As bloated spiders draw the flimsy line. 1839Bailey Festus (1852) 72 A gossamer line sighing itself along The air.
e. (i) A telegraph or telephone wire or cable. Also (with mixture of sense 26), a telegraph route, a telegraphic system connecting two or more stations; a telephonic connection; an individual ‘number’ or extension. Cf. hold the line (hold v. 6 h), hot line (hot a. 12 c). Also fig., esp. in phr. to get the lines crossed, to become confused.
1847Handbk. to Electric Telegraph 11 So rapid is the transmission of the electric current along the lines of wire, that..to carry the wires eight times round the earth..would occupy but one second of time. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1191 Five great electric telegraphic lines... The extent of line thus served appears to be about fifteen hundred miles. 1854[see cable n. 3]. 1900C. H. Chambers Tyranny of Tears i. 2 Miss Woodward. (Speaking into telephone—very sweetly.)..Mr. Parbury's just coming in now—he'll speak to you—keep the line. 1901Scotsman 9 Mar. 9/3 The American trans-Pacific line. 1921Conquest Jan. 127/2 The ‘busy tone’ is sent back to the calling subscriber if the line he wants is busy. 1934Punch 21 Mar. 332/1 The notepaper should carry—(1) The name of the firm. (2) Its address. (3) Fictitious address for creditors. (4) Telephone number (at least ten lines). 1944H. McCloy Panic (1972) 15 Ronnie showed the doctor how to get an outside line and he dialled a number. 1951Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IV. 448/1 The Post Office took over all ‘trunk’ long-distance lines in 1896, and 6 years later opened the first of several large London exchanges, the ‘Central’, with 14,000 lines. 1970B. Knox Children of Mist iv. 77 Thane lifted the telephone. When the desk constable answered he asked for a line... Then he began dialling. 1972J. Wilson Hide & Seek iii. 61 What? I can't hear you. It's a terrible line. 1973Times 16 Apr. 14/6 It clearly has the advantage of keeping all the lines from getting crossed and establishing the priorities of policy. 1973K. Royce Spider Underground iii. 50 He told me he couldn't see me then and to get off the line. 1974Times 15 Mar. 8/2 Mr Nixon has admitted that he ordered a cover-up of the plumbers' activities, but suggested that his staff got their lines crossed and took this to be an order to cover up the Watergate affair as well.
(ii) Hence, any wire or cable that serves as a conductor of electric current, for whatever purpose.
1886G. Kapp Electr. Transmission of Energy viii. 205 Overhead lines, whether used for electric lighting or transmission of energy, are exposed to the effects of lightning. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXV. 35/2 Alternate current is used for lighting and continuous current for the tramway line. 1920Whittaker's Electr. Engineer's Pocket-Bk. (ed. 4) 407 Since the induced voltages due to lightning are the same whatever the working voltage of the line, the heavier insulation on extra high voltage lines renders them less subject to lightning trouble. 1930Engineering 25 Apr. 548/2 Minimum expenditure on the transmission and distribution systems from those points, connoting the use of overhead lines. 1957Encycl. Brit. XXI. 887/1 On the teleprinter at the other end of the line, the responses of the armature of a single electromagnet..cause the corresponding character to be printed. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio iv. 79 In a building the size of a broadcasting studio centre there is a danger not only of high frequency losses due to capacitance, but also induction of programme signals, hum, etc., from other lines.
f. pl. Reins. dial. and U.S.
1852Bristed Upper Ten Thousand 67 Handing the lines to Ashburner, as he stopped his team, Masters leaped out. 1895Rydings Manx Tales 77 He'd jus' puk up the lines on the hosses back. 1901G. W. Cable Cavalier x, He stepped into the carry-all and took the lines.
†g. fig. line of life: the thread fabled to be spun by the Fates, determining the duration of a person's life. Obs. Cf. sense 27.
c1580Sidney Ps. xxxix. iii, Lo, thou a spanns length mad'st my living line. 1600Cert. Prayers in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847) 694 That the line of thy mercies and the line of her life may be lengthened and run forth together. 1601R. Yarington Two Lament. Traj. iii. ii. E 3 b, This fatall instrument, Was mark'd by heauen to cut his line of life, And must supplie the knife of Atropos. 1623Hugh Holland Pref. Verses in Shaks. 1st Folio, Though his line of life went soone about, The life yet of his lines shall neuer out. 1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace ix. 188 Our troubles about sin are short, though they should run parallel with the line of life.
2. a. A cord bearing a hook or hooks, used in fishing. (Also fishing-line.)
a1300Cursor M. 13285 At see sant Iohn and Iam he fand, Quils þai þair lines war waitand. c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 777 To fysshen here, he leyde out hook and lyne. a1450Fysshynge w. angle (1883) 8 Arme ȝowr crop at þe ovir ende down to the frete with a lyn of vi herys & double the lyne. 1484Caxton Fables of Avian xvi, Of a fyssher whiche with his lyne toke a lytyll fysshe. 1590L. M[ascall] (title) A Booke of Fishing with Hooke & Line. a1613J. Dennys Secr. Angling i. xx. B 4 The Line to lead the Fish with wary skill. 1653Walton Angler ii. 55 Put it [a grasshopper] on your hook, with your line about two yards long. 1827Praed Red Fisherm. 97 The line the Abbot saw him throw Had been fashioned and formed long ages ago. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan 50, I thought you never left your books except To trim the boat and set the lines.
b. In allusive phrases referring to the ‘playing’ of a hooked fish at the end of the line; esp. to give line: to allow full play, scope, or latitude.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 39 Giue him Line, and scope, Till that his passions (like a Whale on ground) Confound themselues with working. 1611― Wint. T. i. ii. 181, I am angling now, (Though you perceiue me not how I giue Lyne). 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 124 We began to play, and I went wearying of them out by little and little, giving them line enough to runne themselues out of breath. 1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 34 So soon as he gets hold of a text, he..falls a flinging it out of one hand into the other, tossing it this way and that; lets it run a little upon the line, then ‘tanutus, high jingo, come again’. a1687Waller Pride 7 The meanest wretch, if Heaven should give him line, Would never stop till he were thought divine. a1715Bp. Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 435 The King was willing to give Oates line enough, as he expressed it to me. 1854Dickens Hard T. ii. viii, It's policy to give 'em line enough.
†3. pl. Strings or cords laid for snaring birds. Obs.
c1325Song of Yesterday 130 in E.E.P. (1862) 136 Þe schadewe cacchen þei ne myht For no lynes þat þei couþe lay. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 199 As hose leiþ lynes to lacche wiþ Foules. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Lines, among fowlers, is used to express the strings by which they catch birds... These lines are made of long and small cords, knotted in different places.
4. a. A cord used by builders and others for taking measurements, or for making things level or straight. (Cf. plumb-line.) line-and-plummet (attrib.): rigidly methodical.
1340,1362[see level n. 1]. c1440York Myst. viii. 98 To hewe þis burde I will be-gynne, But firste I wille lygge on my lyne. 1525Fitzherb. Bk. Husb. §124 To take a lyne, and set it there as thou wylt haue thy hedge, and to make a trenche after thy lyne. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 28 Ane biggare can nocht make ane evin up wal without direction of his lyne. 1611Bible Ezek. xl. 3 A man..with a line of flaxe in his hand, & a measuring reed. 1758J. Watson Milit. Dict. (ed. 5), Cordeau, a Line divided into Fathoms, Feet, &c. to mark Out-works on the Ground, used by Engineers. 1848Chambers's Inform. I. 515/2 The gardener measures and marks off all his figures in the ground with his line and spade. 1849Miss Mulock Ogilvies xii. (1875) 89 There was a line-and-plummet regularity, an angular preciseness, in Mrs. Breynton's mind and person. 1877Bryant Odyss. v. 297 Trees then he felled..and carefully He smoothed their sides, and wrought them by a line.
fig.c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 1068 Eueri wight þat hath an hous to founde..wole..send his hertes lyne out fro with Inne Alderfirst his purpos for to wynne. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxiii. (Arb.) 268 This decencie is..the line and leuell for al good makers to do their busines by. 1859FitzGerald tr. Omar xli. (1899) 82 For ‘Is’ and ‘Is-not’ though with Rule and Line And ‘Up-and-down’ without I could define.
b. Phr. by line: chiefly in figurative contexts, with methodical accuracy. Also by line and level, by rule and line, etc.
c1420Anturs of Arth. 477 (Douce MS.) Þei settene listes by lyne one þe loȝ lande. 1573Tusser Husb. xlvi. (1878) 101 Through cunning with dible, rake, mattock, and spade, by line and by leauell, trim garden is made. 1578,1610[see level n. 1 fig.]. 1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. i. F 3, To carry Quarrells As Gallants doe, to manage 'hem, by line. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. i. i. §10 It [i.e. the matter] is not pudled, but built up by Plummet and Line, with proportion to Time and Place. 1712Addison Spect. No. 414 ⁋5 Plantations of our Europeans, which are laid out by the Rule and Line. 1781Cowper Conversat. 789 A poet does not work by square or line, As smiths and joiners perfect a design.
c. pl. Appointed lot in life. In echoes of Ps. xvi. 6, where the reference seems to be to the marking out of land for a dwelling-place.
1611Bible Ps. xvi. 6 The lines are fallen vnto mee in pleasant places; yea, I haue a goodly heritage. 1865Daily Tel. 25 Oct. 7/3 The poor Pope's lines seem just now to have fallen in most unpleasant places, and are indeed hard lines. 1866Whittier Marg. Smith's Jrnl. Prose Wks. 1889 I. 175 My brother's lines have indeed fallen unto him in a pleasant place.
†5. Rule, canon, precept; standard of life or practice. [Cf. 4 b.] Obs. rare.
Line has been used in several places in the A.V. to translate Heb. qav (primarily ‘cord’) in this sense. Cf. line upon line (sense 23 h).
1340Ayenb. 124 Uor be þise uirtue al þet man deþ..al he diȝt and let and reuleþ to þe lyne of scele. Ibid. 160 Þo þet ne zeneȝeþ..ac doþ al be riȝtuolnesse and be lingne. 1538Starkey England ii. iii. 212 Thys thyng apperyth meruelouse straunge—pepul to haue the lyne of theyr lyfe to be wryte in a straunge tong. 1557N. T. (Genev.) 2 Cor. x. 13 We wil not reioyce aboue measure..but according to the measure of that line [κατὰ τὸ µέτρον τοῦ κανόνος], wherof God hath distributed vnto vs a measure. 1563Winȝet Wks. (1890) II. 7 An infallible, as it is a general, reul to al richt, an ewin lyne of lawtay. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. i. 3 Let none then blame me, if..I doe not forme them to the common line Of present dayes, which are corrupted sore. 1607Middleton Michaelmas Term ii. i. C b, A man must not so much as spit but within line and fashion. 1611Bible Ps. xix. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
6. hard lines: ill luck, bad fortune. (Prob. nautical in origin; now often associated with 4 c.) hard line money (Naut.): extra pay in consideration of special hardships.
1824Scott Redgauntlet ch. iii, The old seaman paused a moment. ‘It is hard lines for me,’ he said, ‘to leave your honour in tribulation.’ 1850Smedley F. Fairlegh iii, It will be ‘hard lines’ upon him. 1857Kingsley Two Y. Ago I. iv. 110 'Gad, Sir, that was hard lines! to have all the pretty women one had waltzed with..holding round one's knees, and screaming to the doctor to save them. 1884Pae Eustace 210 You seem to have had hard lines yourselves. 1886Pall Mall G. 19 Aug. 2/1 On a Torpedo-boat, Besides, there is hard-line money, which makes up for a good many discomforts.
II. A thread-like mark.
7. a. A stroke or mark, long in proportion to its breadth, traced with a pen, a tool, etc. upon a surface. line of burden, floatation, war (on the hull of a ship): see the ns.
1382Wyclif Isa. xxxviii. 8, I shal make to turne aȝeen the shadewe of lynes, bi the whiche it hadde go doun in the oriloge of Acath, in the sunne, bacward bi ten lynes. c1400Mandeville (1839) xvii. 184 Be the gret Compas devised be Lines in manye parties; and that alle the Lynes meeten at the Centre. c1440Promp. Parv. 305/2 Lyne, or lynye, linea. 1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Defin., Euery lyne is drawen betwene twoo prickes, wherof the one is at the beginning, and the other at the ende. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 122 Draw a right line from A unto D. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 210 As many Lynes close in the Dials center So [etc.]. 1610J. Guillim Displ. Her. (1679) 12 [Gules] is expressed in Graving by Lines drawn streight down the Escucheon... [Azure] is expressed by Lines drawn cross the Shield. 1610Willet Hexapla Dan. 195 Archimedes..was drawing of his lines. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 125 The line of Burthen, or fourth Line. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Lines, in heraldry, the figures used in armories to divide the shield into different parts, and to compose different figures. 1781Cowper Hope 607 He draws upon life's map a zigzag line. 1821Craig Lect. Drawing ii. 100 An expression of forms only by simple lines. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 139 The writing-master first draws lines with a style.
fig.1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 83 His life is paralel'd Euen with the stroke and line of his great Iustice. 1633Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. 5 If thou have drawn in me some lines & notes of able indowments. 1677Temple Let. to Chas. II, Wks. 1731 II. 438, I promised to represent the whole to Your Majesty in the truest Lines and Colours I could possibly. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. I. i. 80 The lines of his character are indeed too broad and clear to be overlooked.
b. Mus. One of the horizontal parallel equidistant strokes forming the stave, or placed above or below it (ledger lines).
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. v. H 4 Cantat. Iudgement gentlemen, iudgement. Wast not aboue line? I appeale to your mouthes that heard my song. 1674Playford Skill Mus. i. i. 4 Five lines is only usual for one of those Parts as being sufficient to contain the Compass of Notes thereto belonging. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 157/1. 1818 Busby Gram. Music 3 The Spaces, as well as the Lines of the Stave, furnish situations for the notes.
c. line of lines, Gunter's line. line of numbers, line of shadows : see number, shadow.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Gunter's Line.
d. Fine Art. Applied spec. to the lines employed in a picture; chiefly collect. or in generalized sense, character of draughtsmanship, method of rendering form. Also pl. (cf. sense 15) the distinctive features of composition in a picture. line of beauty: the curve (resembling a slender elongated letter S), which according to Hogarth is a necessary element in all beauty of form. Also, with reference to engraving (see line engraving in 32).
1616B. Jonson Forest xiii. 20, I, that..haue not..so my selfe abandon'd, as..I should..feare to draw true lines, 'cause others paint. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty vii. 38 The waving line, which is a line more productive of beauty..for which reason we shall call it the line of beauty... The ..line of beauty..being compos'd of two curves contrasted, becomes still more ornamental. Ibid. x. 52 For as..there is but one that truly deserves the name of the line of beauty, so there is only one precise serpentine-line that I call the line of grace. 1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 46 A bold stroke with the line of beauty, and well shaped stalks, leaves and flowers..are the only things a designer has to observe in compleating a well-designed damask pattern. 1824Dibdin Libr. Comp. p. iv, Miniature engravings in the line manner. 1849Chambers's Inform. II. 727/1 To this state of etching..professional engravers bring their plates to be finished in the line manner. 18..Bookseller's Catal., First impressions of..the 27 fine portraits..all beautifully engraved in line. 1895Zangwill Master ii. i. 126 To translate into colour and line all this huge pageant of life. Ibid. ii. iii. 154 We praise the mellow Virgilisms in Tennyson, but we are down upon the painter who repeats another's lines.
e. Geomancy.
c1590Marlowe Faust. i. i. 49 Lines, circles, scenes, letters, and characters.
f. In various games, as tennis, football, etc., the line denotes a particular line which marks the limit of legitimate or successful play; in Cricket, the line of flight of the ball from the bowler's hand. Also in phr. (taken from American football, but influenced by sense 20 b) to hold the line, to maintain, support, a position, viewpoint, etc.
1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 35 Thou hast striken the ball, vnder the lyne. c1645Howell Lett. (1753) 127 Poor mortalls are so many balls Toss'd som o'r line, som under fortun's walls. 1887[see dribble v. 4 a]. 1890Heathcote etc. Lawn Tennis (Badm. Libr.) 334 It will often be extremely difficult for him to judge on which side of the line the ball was dropped. 1899F. Mitchell in Football (Badm. Libr.) 210 When the throw⁓out belongs to his opponents, every forward on coming up to the line must mark his man. 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) xi. 102 But 52nd Street couldn't hold the line against Negroes forever. 1960I. Wallach Absence of Cello (1961) 48 Her voice had a factious quaver as she dug in and prepared to hold the line on Perry's team. 1961Times 18 Aug. 3/3 At 18 Pullar was bowled by Davidson, playing across the line. 1962Listener 19 Apr. 672/2 ‘Holding the line’..of costs, prices, and wages is vital to what he believes to be the continuance of American prosperity. 1963A. Ross Australia 63 iii. 87 He moved solidly behind the line, early in position for anything that kept low. 1968W. Safire New Lang. Politics 190/2 ‘Holding the line against inflation’ remains a cliché, taken from a football metaphor (‘Hold-that-line!’) which in turn comes from a military expression. 1969Times 25 Aug. 9/2 Harris, eventually, was leg-before, hitting enthusiastically across the line.
g. Ballet. The total effect of the disposition of the dancer's limbs, body, and head in movement or repose. (Cf. sense 7 d.)
1912J. E. C. Flitch Mod. Dancing & Dancers xi. 170 Her purity of line is never broken by..inartistic feats of athletic dexterity. 1922Beaumont & Idzikowski Man. Classical Theatr. Dancing 26 Beauty of line is one of the dancer's greatest assets. 1936A. Haskell Prelude to Ballet xvii. 85 Fluidity and large movements whose line can be extended indefinitely are the essential characteristics of the Russian School. 1948Ballet Ann. II. 91 He has a fine classical technique and excellent line. 1960Times 7 Mar. 3/7 She is already a dancer of great charm..with a particularly striking sense of line that showed to advantage in lifts.
h. Mus. Instrumental or vocal melody; a structured sequence of notes or tones.
1923R. H. Myers Mod. Mus. vi. 80 His music has line..and the enormous merit of condensation. 1955Times 26 Aug. 3/5 In spite of the cello's natural inclination to ruminative melancholy..it has plenty of cantilena... But it is line, always line, not harmony, that is the essence of the matter. 1961Listener 14 Dec. 1046/3 What do singers mean when they talk about ‘maintaining the line’?.. It means striking a level in the voice from which all expression is controlled. Ibid., This ‘line’ of the singer is a physical conception. Ibid. 21 Dec. 1089/3 The music takes shape by means of a simple recitative-like vocal line, modal, flexible, limpid, with an orchestral part of matching directness and simplicity. 1962Radio Times 22 Feb. 43/1, I was concerned at the time with the idea of inventing melodic line and harmonic texture directly from the fund of the twelve notes available within the octave. 1967Melody Maker 28 Jan. 7/5, I consider jazz to be a lot of horns and one of those top speed bass lines.
i. Each of the narrow strips into which an image is divided for transmission and reproduction by television, corresponding to a single (usually side-to-side) passage of the scanning spot across the camera tube or picture tube: often with prefixed number, as 625-line(s), indicating the number of lines making up a complete picture.
1929Proc. IRE XVII. 1586 He first arrived at a correlation between the number of ‘halftone lines per inch’ and the corresponding television ‘scanning lines’. Ibid., Halftones of letters and photographs were made up, and their appearance compared with the television image on a 48-line system of the same original. 1938Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 633/2 The service was continued, using exclusively a standard of 405 lines 50 frames interlaced scanning. 1961G. Millerson Technique Television Production ii. 20 To reduce flicker problems, the beam is made to read the odd lines (odd field) of the image first (i.e. lines 1, 3, 5,..) and then return to scan the even lines between them (i.e. lines 2, 4, 6,..). 1963Ann. Reg. 1962 27 They duly authorized the B.B.C. to start a second television channel by 1964 on U.H.F. and with an improved picture of 625 lines. 1974Sci. Amer. Jan. 115/2 Each 1·25-second signal comprises a ‘line’ of picture data that is analogous to the line of a television picture. About 850 lines..complete a weather-signal picture.
8. a. Something resembling a traced mark, chiefly in natural objects; e.g. a thin band of colour; a suture, seam, furrow, ridge, etc. line of growth (Conch.): see quot. 1839.
c1290S. Edmund 96 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 299 In al is bodi nas o weom..bote ase is heued was of I-smyte..A smal red line is al-a-boute. c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 91 Longe leuys..þat hauyn whit lynys yn hem. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. v. 266 The Lione he settis in the midis; than tua lynes, on the vttir syd, Wouen in threid of gold. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 203 Yon grey Lines, That fret the Clouds, are Messengers of Day. 1615Crooke Body of Man 476 The lynes it hath are long and almost superficiary, yet diuided manifold..by the thin membrane running betwixt them. 1672Grew Anat. Plants, Idea Philos. Hist. (1682) 6 Those several Lines, by which both the said Varieties [of plants] are determin'd. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 290 Line, a narrow longitudinal stripe. 1839Sowerby Conch. Man. 57 Lines of growth, the eccentric striæ or lines, formed by the edges of the successive layers of shelly matter deposited by the animal, by which it increases the shell. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. iii. 26 Along the faces of the sections the lines of stratification were clearly shown. 1880Rimmer Land & Freshw. Shells p. xxiii, The line of growth. 1883F. M. Peard Contrad. xiv, There were black lines under her eyes the next morning. 1895Zangwill Master i. x. 111 A thin line of light crept again under the door.
b. A furrow or seam in the face or hands. In Palmistry: A mark on the palm of the hand supposed to indicate one's fate, temperament, or abilities; e.g. line of life, line of fortune, line of the head, line of the heart, line of health or liver (hepatic line).
1538Elyot Dict., Incisuræ,..the lynes in the palme of the hande. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 56 The small lynes in our hande. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ii. 169, I shall haue good fortune; goe too, here's a simple line of life. 1601― Twel. N. iii. ii. 84 He does smile his face into more lynes, then is in the new Mappe. 1621B. Jonson Gipsies Metamorph. (1640) 55 You..meane not to marrie by the line of your life. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 42 The Line of Life or of the Heart... He that hath this entire, long, clear and ruddy, shall live a happy life. Ibid., Line of liver, liver line [see liver n.1 1 c and 6]. a1716South Serm. (1823) IV. 7 No more than he can read the future estate of his soul in the lines of his face. 1842Longfellow Sp. Stud. iii. v, The line of life is crossed by many marks. 1895Zangwill Master iii. ii. 290 There were lines of premature age on the handsome face.
c. A narrow region in a spectrum, appearing to the eye as a fine straight black or shining stroke transverse to the length of the spectrum (cf. Fraunhofer). Hence in extended use, a component of emitted radiation at what is nominally a single discrete wavelength (in practice, over a narrow range of wavelengths containing one at which the intensity is a maximum).
1831Brewster Newton (1855) I. v. 117 Dr. Woollaston..discovered six fixed dark lines in the spectrum. 1837Penny Cycl. IX. 21/1 The beautiful discovery made by Wollaston and Fraunhofer of the existence of dark spaces, bands transverse to the length of the spectrum, and now generally designated Fraunhofer's lines. 1932Sci. Abstr. A. XXXV. 1561 (heading) Line emission in infra-red. 1962Science Survey III. 67 For a normal lamp, emitting a line in the visible spectrum, the width..of the line would be of the order of 10,000 Mc/s. 1971D. W. Sciama Mod. Cosmol. ii. 21 He calculated that a sensitive radio receiver should be able to detect the 21 cm line as emitted by clouds of hydrogen gas in the Galaxy. 1971Nature 31 Dec. 505/2 The atoms made up of the smaller mass particles would then radiate their characteristic lines at longer wavelengths.
d. Jewellery. (See quot.)
1883Daily Tel. 12 Feb. 5/2 The..cat's-eye..is characterised by possessing a remarkable play of light resulting from a peculiarity in its crystallisation. This ray of light is called ‘line’ by jewellers.
9. Math.
a. An element of configuration such as must be represented in geometrical figures by a ‘line’ (sense 7); a continuous extent (whether straight or curved) of length without breadth or thickness; the limit of a surface; the trace of a moving point.
1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 17 A Circle is a plaine and flat figure comprehended within one line, which is called a circumference. 1570Billingsley Euclid i. def. ii. 2 A lyne is a magnitude hauing one onely space or dimension. 1660Barrow Euclid i. Def. ii. 2. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 434 If from any Point L of the Ellipse two right Lines LS, LE be drawn. 1827Hutton Course Math. I. 280 Lines are either Parallel, Oblique, Perpendicular, or Tangential. 1831Brewster Newton (1855) II. xiv. 6 He considers a line as composed of an infinite number of points. 1885Watson & Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. 155 The line x = κ log f.
b. With various defining words: A curve connecting all points having a common property.
1826[see isothermal]. 1850,1873[see aclinic]. 1877[see adiabatic].
10. a. A circle of the terrestrial or celestial sphere; e.g. † ecliptic line, equinoctial line, † tropic line. Now rare.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 9 In Armenia, Macedonia, Italia, and in oþer londes of þe same lyne. c1391Chaucer Astrol. Prol., The arising of any planete aftur his latitude fro the Ecliptik lyne. 1511,1551[see equinoctial A. 1]. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 8 The lyne, called Tropicus Cancri and the Equinoctial lyne. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 282 Under the Ethiop Line By Nilus head. 1667–8Newcastle & Dryden Sir Martin Mar-all v. i. D.'s Wks. 1883 III. 83, I have seen your..ecliptics, and your tropic lines, sir. 1837[see equinoctial A. 1].
b. the line: the equinoctial line; the equator. under the line: at the equator. (Sometimes written with a capital.)
1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 392 (marg.) The straight of Malaca is vnder the line. 1598W. Phillips Linschoten i. iii. 5/1 The shippes are at the least two monthes before they can passe the line. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia i. 1 Sebastian Cabot..sayled to about forty degrees South⁓ward of the lyne. 1676Glanvill Ess. iii. 27 Some of the Indians that live near the heats of the Line. 1728Pope Dunc. iii. 62 Where spices smoke beneath the burning Line. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 69 The naked negro, panting at the line. 1814Wellington in Gurw. Desp. XII. 92 To prohibit all trade in slaves north of the Line. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 606 In a darker isle beyond the line.
allusively.1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 235. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, v. iv. 44. a 1667 Cowley Misc., Account 42 Cold frozen Loves with which I pine, And parched Loves beneath the Line. 1667J. Flavel Saint Indeed (1754) 125 The Beams of his glory strike it but obliquely and feebly, but shortly it will be under the line, and there the sun shall stand still.
11. a. Often used for ‘straight line’ (sense 9); esp. in Physics and techn., as in line of the apsides, line of distance, line of force, line of sight (for which see those words). line of fire (see quot. 1859).
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xx. 90 Þe lyne þat es betwene þise twa sternez departez all þe firmament in twa partes. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 139 Marking diligentlye that the Center of the second Circle, be in the line of sighte. 1601Dolman La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618) III. xxiv. 116 By meanes of the shadowes, or visuall lines, representing the saide shadowes. 1816Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 266 The forces which act upon a body..may be resolved into the directions of three lines or axes. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic Gloss. 778 Line of centres, a line drawn from the centre of one wheel to the centre of another when their circumferences touch each other. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 319 Whenever the axis of a single lens comes in the line between the observers and the focus. 1859‘Stonehenge’ Shot-gun 314 The line of fire is the indefinite projection of the axis of the barrel. 1873Maxwell Electr. & Magn. §82 I. 84 If a line be drawn whose direction at every point of its course coincides with that of the resultant force at that point, the line is called a Line of Force. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 250/1 Any number of players can take part..so long as they are not so crowded as to get into each other's line of play.
b. Fencing. (See quot.)
1727–52Chambers Cycl., Line, in fencing, is that part of the body directly opposite to the enemy, wherein the shoulders, the right arm, and the sword, ought always to be found; and wherein are also to be placed the two feet, at the distance of 18 inches from each other. In this sense, a man is said to be in his line, to go out of his line, &c.
c. on the line: said of a picture in an exhibition which is hung so that its centre is about on a level with the eye.
1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 314 The centre of the picture should not be much above the level of the eye. In an exhibition the pictures in this most favourable situation are said to be on the ‘line’. 1873Punch 26 Apr. 169/1 Pictures hung ‘upon the line’ at the Academy, for reason of their merit. 1895Zangwill Master ii. ii. 134 And I was also on the line in the big room.
12. In advb. phr. (mostly obs.) having reference to the straight line, e.g. even as line, even by line, as straight as line (now, as a line), as line right, right (up) as a or any line, in (intil) ane ling (Sc.): in a direct course, straightforward; also, straightway, at once. (Cf. line right.)
c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 150 After in a while com R. euen as lyne. c1330Arth. & Merl. 6370 (Kölbing) Þurch þe wombe & þurch þe chine Þe spere ȝede euen bi line. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 1412 (1461) To his Neces hous as Streyt as lyne He com. Ibid. iii. 179 (228) Pandarus, as faste as he may dryue, To Troylus þo com as lyne right. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iv. (Jacobus) 298 He gert fele knychtis in a lynge pryk efter þame. 1375Barbour Bruce xii. 49 Than sprent thai sammyn in-till a lyng. c1422Hoccleve Learn to Die 692 To purgatorie y shal as streight as lyne. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. x. (Fox & Wolf) xvi, To the wolff he went in to ane ling. 1513Douglas æneis x. viii. 43 Lyke as ane lyoun..Cummys braidand on the best fast in a lyng. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) II. 687 Quhilk causit him go leip furth in ane ling. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 27 Thou folowest their steppes as right as a lyne. 1889‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xliii, He..went as straight as a line.
13. a. A direction as traced by marks on a surface or as indicated by a row of persons or objects. to bring into (a) line: to align; fig. to cause (persons) to agree, to make unanimous. † to draw in a or one line: to be unanimous.
a1500MS. Ashmole 344 lf. 22 b (Chess rules), Draw thy kyng..forth in to the lyne ther his kyng goth yn. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 65 He loued me: We drew both in one line. 1595Shakes. John iv. iii. 152 Now Powers from home, and discontents at hom[e] Meet in one line. 1600Holland Livy xlii. xxi. 1127 Seeing the LL. of the Senat thus drawing all in a line. 1676Moxon Print Lett. 6 The Bottom-line is the line that bounds the bottom of the Descending Letters. 1763Hoyle Chess 163 When your Adversary has a Bishop and one Pawn on the Rook's Line. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 355 As the breech sight, the muzzle sight, and the object aimed at, are..at different distances from the eye, it is difficult to bring them at once into line. 1857Lawrence Guy Liv. ix. 89 Livingstone..was going to get the horses in line, to start them for the farmer's Cup. 1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. ci. 2 Jonathan, too, is coming into line; his caustic wit is making its way into the press. 1897Daily News 23 Apr. 3/1 It was found a matter of no small difficulty to get all the owners into line.
b. Mil. (See quot. 1872–6.) Cf. sense 21.
1796Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 73 When the open Column, halted on the Ground on which it is to form, wheels up into Line. 1802C. James Milit. Dict. s.v., When the light infantry companies are in line with their battalions. 1872–6Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. (ed. 3) s.v., The term in line is applied to a battalion when its companies are deployed on the same alignment to their full extent, i.e. in two ranks. Columns are said to be in line when their fronts are on the same alignment. 1881Tennyson Charge Heavy Brigade i, And he call'd ‘Left wheel into line!’
c. In Politics (orig. U.S.), a particular policy or set of policies which a politician may maintain or expect others to follow; = party line. Also transf.
1892San Francisco Examiner 9 Nov. 1/7 (heading) In the line! California joins the Democratic procession by a decisive majority. 1934H. M. Chevalier tr. Malraux's Man's Fate 149 He knew, too, that Moscow would maintain its line. Ibid. 169 ‘There's a general line that directs us—must follow it.’ ‘And give up our arms! A line that leads us to fire on the proletariat is necessarily bad.’ 1938Ken (Chicago) 7 Apr. 46/2 The Intelligence Service of the Foreign Office is a state within a state, virtually Britain's second, secret Government as far as foreign policy is concerned. It often pursues a line different from the Government's policy. 1943San Francisco Chron. 25 May 14/2 The Nazis have done Senator Happy Chandler of Kentucky the honor of picking up his line... Chandler's line may not get far in this country, but the Nazis are not slow to appreciate it. 1944M. Laski Love on Supertax v. 60, I think the line was made perfectly clear. 1955Times 2 June 6/6 The issue before the court is not so much whether Mr. Lattimore is guilty under the indictment as whether such a nebulous charge as following the Communist ‘line’ is sufficiently defined to enable him to offer an adequate defence. 1958Economist 29 Nov. 767/2 They think that the liberal line—uncontrolled immigration—can be held for a few more years, but not indefinitely. 1960News Chron. 25 Feb. 2/5 Mr. Barber denied that a ‘line’ had been agreed on as to the shape of the reports to be sent by..British reporters. 1974Hawkey & Bingham Wild Card xxiii. 188 The official line on what had happened was, at best, grossly understated.
d. transf. A marked tendency, a policy or trend (in any activity). In weakened use (slang): a glib or superficially attractive mode of address or behaviour, plausible talk. So to do a line with (Austral. and N.Z.), to (try to) enter into an amorous relationship with.
Not clearly separable from senses 28 a, b. Cf. also to shoot a line (sense 13 g below).
1903‘H. McHugh’ Out for Coin vi. 83 Are you handing me a line of bogus conversation? 1920F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise i. ii. 76 Lordy, Isabelle—this sounds like a line, but it isn't. 1923Cosmopolitan Apr. 82/1 ‘Where have I been all your life, good lookin'?’ ‘If you think that line will get you anything here, you're crazy!’ 1933J. G. Cozzens Cure of Flesh i. 61 He falls in love with Coral and says that some day, when he makes good, he will come back and marry her. Coral thinks it's just a line with him. 1941Illustr. London News CXCVIII. 488/2 The jacket mentions Huckleberry Finn. Mr. Baum is not, of course, on that level; but that's his line. 1941[see knock n.1 5]. 1942T. Rattigan Flare Path i. 102 They'll think it's a line, sir. 1944J. H. Fullarton Troop Target viii. 63 He was doing a heavy line with the saddler's daughter. 1946F. Sargeson That Summer 91, I could do a line with Maggie. 1946K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) x. 156 Do you know young Len's doing a line with Gran'pa's little angel? 1953Encounter Oct. 1/2 Appearing at this time, and amidst these problems, Encounter seeks to promote no ‘line’, though its editors have opinions they will not hesitate to express. 1956A. L. Rowse Early Churchills ii. 33 He has a fine line in Churchillian invective. 1958D. Reeman Prayer for Ship viii. 202 He gave me a terrific line about the hold-up. Said it was his partner's fault. But he promises definitely it'll be here tomorrow evening. 1967Observer 6 Aug. 4/6 The sect's most telling line—plugged in all its broadcasts and pamphlets—is that the end of the world is due shortly, probably about 1975. The Arab-Israeli war in June was seen as the first step to Armageddon.
e. to get a line on, to acquire information about (a thing), to come to know. So to give (someone) a line on. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1903Sun (N.Y.) 18 Nov. 4 ‘These dressmakers’..cannot get a line on the styles except at the Horse Show. 1920B. Cronin Timber Wolves 138 It ain't over wise to give anyone a line on to what's doing. 1923R. D. Paine Comrades of Rolling Ocean iii. 41 How about these other birds. Give me a line on them. 1928D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club xiv. 165, I did tumble to it that you'd got a line on me when you sent me down with that detective fellow to Charing Cross. 1935Wodehouse Luck of Bodkins v. 50 If you want to get a line on how she feels, she gave me a letter to give you... Here it is. 1942Penguin New Writing XII. 85 ‘They got a line on him,’ said the R.P. 1947Chicago Tribune 22 July 1/5 If we can find any one who saw her at a dance after 10:30 p.m. we may be able to get a line on whom she was dancing with and whose company she was in when she left.
f. to lay (or put) it on the line: (a) to hand over money; (b) to state (something) clearly, plainly, or categorically; (c) (with direct object) to put (one's career, etc.) at risk. Also with place, and the verb to be. Chiefly U.S.
1929D. Runyon in Hearst's International Aug. 73/1 My rent is away overdue for the shovel and broom..and I have a hard-hearted landlady... She says she will give me the wind if I do not lay something on the line at once. 1940J. O'Hara Pal Joey 100 You fellows always put it on the line for me every pay day. 1950J. D. MacDonald Brass Cupcake i. 13 Lay it on the line. You can't take it with you... Put it on the entertainment account. 1954J. Symons Narrowing Circle xxxvii. 188 ‘I'll see you're not the loser. You put it on the line with Jake Beverley and he'll put it on the line with you...’ ‘Let me lay it on the line then, Jake.’ 1956E. Pound tr. Sophocles' Women of Trachis 17 Put it on the line, what do you know? Get it out clearly. 1967‘E. E. Sumner’ Chance Encounter v. 94 I'll lay it on the line for you, if you like. Are you thinking of asking my girl to marry you? 1968M. L. King Trumpet of Conscience ii. 40 Our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. 1968Listener 22 Feb. 244/3 America must fight in Vietnam..because it has laid its prestige on the line. 1968Guardian 26 July 9/7 Mayor Stokes is putting his career on the line. And the people know it—they won't let him down. 1970Ibid. 9 May 2/4 It was clear to the [American] President that his credibility was on the line with the leaders in Hanoi. 1972New Yorker 26 Aug. 17/2 He had decided to put his artistic reputation as a talented and original director of opera on the line at the outset of his American career with an unorthodox..production of Bizet's ‘Carmen’. 1972J. Quartermain Rock of Diamond xxiv. 153 I'll lay it on the line, Raven. You can say yes or no. 1973Black Panther 7 July 8/3 The situation is as bad as before the takeover and it only serves to give the Indian people more reason to put their life on the line. Ibid. 6 Oct. 3/2 Egil Krogh..put it squarely on the line: ‘Anyone who opposed us we'll destroy.’
g. to shoot a line (cf. shoot v. 23 g), to ‘put on an act’, to talk pretentiously, to boast. So line-shoot vb. (line-shooting ppl. a. and vbl. n.) and n., line-shooter; also shooter of lines. colloq.
Cf. sense 13 d above.
1941N. Coward Blithe Spirit i. ii. 50 The whole thing's a put up job—I must say, though, she shoots a more original line than they generally do. 1942Penguin New Writing XIII. 24 Occasionally..it publishes a serious article... But this is regarded as a ‘bind’,..while its author is invariably dismissed as a ‘line shooter’, i.e. a conceited person. Ibid., The other day..our C.O. introduced a discussion on tactical evasion by saying: ‘I do not want this to develop into a ‘line-shooting’ competition.’ 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 30 May 17 For keeping up the spirits, line-shooting is at least as good as beer-drinking. Ibid., The man who shoots a heavy line about the work he is doing is probably very keen on his job. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 44 Lineshoot, a tall story. 1944G. Netherwood Desert Squadron i. 2 Some of the chaps also came from other well known fighter units. From the ‘line-shooting’ that ensued, one would think that the squadron which was then in the process of formation could never hope to be as well known as the one they had left—and so on and so forth. 1944T. H. Wisdom Triumph over Tunisia 121 One of the most thorough and decisive of the air operations in the whole campaign was carried out by the Hurri-bombers. And this is no squadron line-shoot. 1946G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead 144 These things were happening every night, so there was nothing to shoot a line about. 1951M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael vii. iv. 377 When Melissa shoots a line..don't protest or argue. Take it up and embroider it. 1952T. Rattigan Deep Blue Sea i. 38 Funny thing about gongs... They don't mean a damn thing in war—except as a line-shoot, but in peace time they're quite useful. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Oct. 564/2 A champion shooter of lines. In a party of outstanding climbers and travellers he could be relied on to cap any story. 1960Times 19 July 18/4 One must bear in mind that what his Lordship had called..‘shooting a line’ was not necessarily inconsistent with a genuine belief. 1960V. Gielgud To Bed at Noon i. xi. 73 He believed Tom to have been line-shooting as far as his swimming prowess was concerned. 1973Listener 15 Mar. 342/1 [He] was an awful line-shooter. He claimed to have been at Oxford, but..he hadn't been at Oxford. 1973Times 20 Sept. 20/8 He was awarded (his friends thought inadequately) the MBE by the British and by the French the Croix de Guerre. He never shot a line about his escapades but made them into entertaining stories.
14. a. Contour, outline; lineament.
1590Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) C 3 b, Seeming him was his wife, Both in line, and in life. 1601Shakes. All's Well i. i. 107 Euerie line and tricke of his sweet fauour. 1611― Cymb. iv. i. 10 The Lines of my body are as well drawne as his. 1818Shelley Lines on Euganean Hills 19 The dim long line before Of a grey and distant shore. 1844Kinglake Eöthen viii. (1878) 122 The line of my features. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 450 The savage lines of his mouth. 1891Truth 10 Dec. 1240/2 The skirt falling in straight, plain lines to the ground. 1894Hall Caine Manxman v. iii. 286 The round line of the sea was bleared and broken.
b. Fashion. The outline or dominant features of composition of a dress or suit. Freq. with qualifying term or preceded by a letter of the alphabet (to indicate the outline shape of the garment). Cf. sense 23 a below.
1918in C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothes (1952) iv. 141 What was called the ‘barrel line’ brought out by Callot two seasons ago..certainly is a lovely line. 1930Times 13 Mar. 11/6 The curved line was seen in all the long coats. Ibid. 27 Mar. 11/6 There is a distinguished coat in black matasol, which has a slimming line. 1932Punch's Almanack 7 Nov. 8 (caption) The line of to day. 1955Britannica Bk. of Year 489/2 Fashion produced a new ‘line’ in women's clothes, the H-line. 1958Woman's Own 24 Dec. 14/3 Which year brought out the following trends: (a) the New Look; (b) the Trapeze Line; (c) the A-line. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 92 Line, the silhouette of a garment that makes it look fashionable or unfashionable. 1968,1970[see empire n. 8 b]. 1975Vogue 1 Mar. 84/1 Overall, a clear narrowing of the silhouette, most marked at Saint Laurent, presaging an even sparer line for autumn.
15. pl.
a. The outlines, plan, or draught of a building or other structure; spec. in Ship-building, the outlines of a vessel as shown in its horizontal, vertical, and oblique sections. (Also fig.)
1673Temple Ess. Irel. Wks. 1731 I. 121 The raising such Buildings as I have drawn you here the Lines of. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. xiii, Nor have I heard of any other Ship built by the Kings-fisher's Lines. 1776G. Semple Building in Water 66 The principal Lines of my Design of a Bridge suitable to that Place. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. v. 188 Carnac..remained..to lend his countenance and aid to measures, the line of which he had contributed to draw. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 336 Model of a ship's hull... The novelty claimed in the uniformity of its lines. 1860Reade Cloister & H. lvii. (1896) 174 Her extravagant poop that caught the wind, and her lines like a cocked hat reversed.
b. fig. Plan of construction, of action, or procedure: now chiefly in phr. on (such and such) lines.
1757Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. i. ii. 13 In all very uncultivated countries..there are but obscure lines of any form of government. 1807S. Cooper (title) The First Lines of the Practice of Surgery; being an elementary work for Students [etc.]. 1862Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VII. lv. 18 The lines of their policy are often to be traced for the most part by conjecture and inference. 1875― Gen. Hist. Rome li. (1877) 404 He did not live to lay even the first lines of his great work. 1879Froude Cæsar viii. 80 He had reorganised the constitution on the most strictly conservative lines. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. lxi. 432 Nearly all these offices are contested on political lines. 1889Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 286 No later work of Victor Hugo's, written on the same lines or in the same temper, can reasonably be set beside the Châtiments.
16. a. [After F. ligne.] A measure of length, the twelfth part of an inch.
1665Phil. Trans. I. 61 It did bear but 2 inches and 9 lines French for its greatest Aperture. 1759Adanson Voy. Senegal 101, I was informed, that there fell two inches three lines of water. 1849Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia IV. 62 The Long-tailed Field-Mouse... Length of head and body three inches eight lines. 1863Berkeley Brit. Mosses i. 3 Varying from less than a line to many inches in length.
b. In recent technical use (see quot.).
1880Plain Hints Needlework 133 Button Gauge... The numbers indicate the quantity of ‘lines’ in diameter. This ‘line’ is equal to the French millimetre.
17. a. A limit, boundary; more fully, line of demarcation. Phr. to draw the line (see draw v. 59 b); also, with similar meaning, to † lay, form a line. to run the lines (U.S.): see run v.
1595Markham Sir R. Grinvile (Arb.) cxii, And now the night grew neere her middle line. a1613J. Dennys Secr. Angling i. iv. B 1 b, Of Heauen the middle Line That makes of equall length both day and night. 1727–52[see demarcation]. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 228 And Middle natures, how they long to join, Yet never pass the insuperable line! 1769Burke Late St. Nation Wks. 1842 I. 108 Their different principles compose some of the strongest political lines which discriminate the parties even now subsisting amongst us. 1770Sir J. Reynolds Disc. iii. (1876) 33 It is this intellectual dignity..that ennobles the Painter's art; that lays the line between him and the mere mechanic. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India i. iii. (1840) I. 69 To form a line between them and the Company, it was ordained, that [etc.]. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 30 The line which bounded the royal prerogative. 1857Hughes Tom Brown ii. vii, Hold on and hit away, only don't hit under the line. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xviii. 303 The lines of separation of the great watersheds.
b. Mason's and Dixon's line: the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, so named from the two astronomers who surveyed it (1763–1767), and forming the line of demarcation between the free and the slave States. Also ellipt. the line.
1779in W. B. Reed Life & Corr. J. Reed (1847) II. 134 Perhaps we would be as well off with Mason and Dixon's line continued. 1845F. Douglass Narr. Life F. Douglass xi. 101 We owe something to the slaves south of the line as well as to those north of it. 1850Whittier Old Portr. & Mod. Sk. Pr. Wks. 1889 II. 195 Every petty postmaster south of Mason and Dixon's line became ex officio a censor of the press. 1861Lowell E Pluribus Unum Pr. Wks. 1890 V. 51. 1909 ‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny xxi. 358 If you had come from below the line, I reckon I would have liked you right smart. 1949Sat. Even. Post 26 Mar. 38/2 The critic thunders, and below ‘the line’ the shades of Marse Robert and Jeff Davis inevitably are summoned forth to meet the charge.
c. Bridge. A line across a score-card. So above the line, denoting points scored for game, honours, overtricks, or rubber, or for the failure of opponents to fulfil their contract; below the line, denoting points scored for tricks bid and won, and counting towards game.
1905H. A. Vachell Hill vii. 144 My partner..made the Little Slam, and scored nearly six hundred below the line. 1908,1927[see contract n.1 1 g]. 1933A. G. Macdonell England, their England vi. 78 Gone down 650 points above the line whereas he ought to have made two no-trumps. 1967P. Anderton Play Bridge i. 15 They win ten tricks so they score three times the value of Spades below the line, i.e. 90 points plus another 30 points above the line as a bonus for making one more than their contract. 1970S. Hughes Art of Coarse Bridge i. 12 This kind of spectacular finale happens far more often than one might expect, but it takes an awful lot of scoring above the line before anyone actually has..the right cards to do it with.
d. In phrases indicating the boundary between a debit and a credit in one's account, or between ordinary and extraordinary expenditure. (See also quot. 1973.) Also to pay on the line, to pay promptly.
1934J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra i. 20 There were only a few of the Lantenengo crowd who could get a favour out of Ed without paying cash on the line for it. 1938S. V. Benét Thirteen o'Clock 249, I kept on schedule with the work, but I couldn't with the money. Each week, I'd be just a little over the line. 1940Economist 13 Apr. 683/1 The figures ‘below the line’ in the Exchequer Return show the result of the issue of the 4 per cent. 1948Ibid. 31 Jan. 195/1 Aggregate Government expenditure, including..the ‘below line’ expenditure. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 66, I paid on the line every time. 1966A. Gilpin Dict. Econ. Terms 1 Since 1947 it has been customary for the British Budget to contain a full statement of the estimated expenditure and revenue for the following year, some items being shown as ‘above-the-line’..and others as ‘below-the-line’. Most current items appear above the line and most capital items below. 1973New Society 28 June 736/2 The growth of petrol promotions has coincided with a growth of giveaways, gimmicks and competitions in the marketing of a wide range of products... Termed ‘below-the-line’ marketing, it is encroaching on the ‘above-the-line’ (advertising) share of manufacturers' marketing budgets.
e. bottom line: see bottom n. 20.
†18. Degree, rank, station. Obs.
1528Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 121 Skiparis and seruandis of euery lyne. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV , i. iii. 168 To shew the Line, and the Predicament Wherein you range vnder this subtill King. Ibid. iii. ii. 85 And in that very Line, Harry, standest thou. 1782Paine Let. Abbé Raynal (1791) 37 One whom years, experience, and long established reputation have placed in a superior line. 1785G. A. Bellamy Apol., etc. (ed. 3) IV. 46 She..had received a more liberal education than is usually bestowed upon English women in the middle line of life.
III. Applied to things arranged along a (straight) line.
19. a. A row or series of persons or objects. spec. = queue n. 3 (U.S.).
1557Recorde Whetst. H ij, Men call a line of Brickes, and a line of Asshelers stones, when many bee laied in a rowe, in lengthe. 1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 117 What will the Line stretch out to'th' cracke of Doome? 1711Addison Spect. No. 63 ⁋4 The Officers planting themselves in a Line on the left Hand of each Column. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 28 Aug., The Street..is perhaps the most beautiful line of building in the world. 1776Trial of Nundocomar 57/2 The bond was wrote obliquely, from right hand to left, the seals in a line, on the margin. 1836W. Irving Astoria III. 260 A line of trading posts from the Mississippi and the Missouri across the Rocky mountains. 1840Hood Up Rhine 31 Trees in formal line. 1853M. Arnold Scholar-Gipsy xiii, The line of festal light in Christ-Church hall. 1863Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 158 In the whole line of the procession. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xiv. 301 The valley..enclosed by lower lines of hills than [etc.]. 1930M. Sullivan Our Times III. xii. 502 People..were herded by policemen into lines stretching away from the marble entrance. 1969D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. xi. 222 The second kind of stock problem is the queueing problem... A queue (what Americans call a ‘line’)..will form. 1974State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 15 Feb. 1–B/2 At least one employe went as far away as Forest Drive for gasoline and nearby stations, selling gasoline, quickly acquired lines. 1975N.Y. Times 1 Apr. 35/5 It's to stand silently on unemployment lines with other surplus members of America's work force, waiting to sign for your unemployment check.
b. A fancy name for: A flock of geese.
[1802Daniel Rur. Sports II. 465 [Geese in flight] form two oblique lines like the letter V, or if their number be small, only one line. ]1882Standard 10 Feb. 5/3 To speak by the book, of a ‘line’ instead of a ‘flock’ of geese.
c. A row of machines or work stations where a product is progressively assembled, or a succession of operations performed on it, as it passes from one end to the other during manufacture or processing. Cf. assembly line, production line.
1926Encycl. Brit. II. 822/1 All of these lines, with their various machines and operations, are converging on the point where the leaves are assembled into springs. 1937Times 13 Apr. p. xii/2 The raw material is delivered at one end of the machining line with the component passing from machine to machine until it reaches the view table. 1940War Illustr. 16 Feb. 113 In one of Britain's ‘shadow’ factories bombers on the line will soon be ready to take the air. 1971Cabinet Maker & Retail Furnisher 24 Sept. 531/1 Features of the production facilities at the new factory..include a fully automated machining line and the longest finishing line in the U.K.
d. In business or management organization, the chain of command or responsibility; the persons responsible for the administration and organization of a business (as opposed to the staff). Hence line manager, line management.
1960Nanassy & Selden Business Dict. 27 Following are the basic types of internal organization of a business: (1) line: The owner gives orders directly to the workers. As the business grows, the owner appoints a few executives, who are responsible to him... (3) line-and-staff: Authority flows from top to bottom, with responsibility falling on staff supervisors and special experts. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. viii. 111 In several British factories it was found that the division between ‘line’ supervisors and ‘staff’ technicians tended to disappear—technologists must have supervisory responsibility. 1967C. Margerison in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 25 The accountants considered that they had responsibility for the end-product and sought to control certain actions of line managers. Line managers resented this interference with their authority and started to obstruct the accountants in their ordinary accounting function. 1967Coulthard & Smith in Ibid. 206 A good deal of the failure of these techniques stems from the inability of personnel men to convince line management of their own vital role combined with the assumption by line management that the creation of a specialist department covering personnel policies, training, management development, etc., automatically relieves them of responsibility. 1972Accountant 28 Sept. 391/1 If the internal auditor sees himself as a someone who can review and report upon the functions of line management on matters other than security, then there is one fundamental issue that has to be faced. 1974Times 25 Mar. 17/4 It was a pity that so few line managers were present as it was their present and future competence that was being discussed.
20. Mil.
a. A trench or rampart; pl. (also collect. sing.), a connected series of field-works. Also, one of the rows of huts or tents in a camp or cantonment (see quots. 1872–6 and 1876). line of circumvallation, defence, etc.: see the second ns.
1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 613 The Line that incompassed his Camp was 8 Foot high. 1695Prior Ballad Taking Namur 113 Regain the lines the shortest way, Villeroy. 1711Steele Spect. No. 139 ⁋7 He took the French Lines without Bloodshed. 1793Burns Sodger's Return i, I left the lines and tented field. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 352 Lines were now run from bastille to bastille, and the town was completely shut in. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 21 To attack the Gorkha positions at the western extremity of their line. 1859F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 263 Lines are formed for the entrenchment of armies, and are composed of a succession of redans, &c. (joined by curtains). 1872–6Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. s.v. Cantonments, In India..a cantonment contains barracks for European troops, and native huts termed lines for the Sepoys. 1876Murray's Handbk. Surrey, etc. 173 In the North Camp [Aldershot] the buildings are principally of wood, arranged in ‘lines’..which are lettered from A to Q. Each line is an oblong block of about 40 huts.
fig.1835I. Taylor Spir. Despot. v. 220 They hastened to entrench themselves within the lines of absolute despotism.
b. In the war of 1914–18, the trenches collectively; the front line. So up the line (see quots.).
1916H. W. Fowler Let. 5 Mar. in S.P.E. Tract xliii. (1935) 136 What may be going on up the line who knows? 1917W. Owen Let. 4 Feb. (1967) 430, I am now indeed and in truth very far behind the Line; sent down to this old Town [sc. Abbeville] for a Course in Transport Duties. 1917A. G. Empey Over Top 313 ‘Up the line.’ Term generally used in rest billets when Tommy talks about the fire trench or fighting line. 1919W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 52 Up the line, in action. ‘Up the line, with the best of luck’—a satirical phrase applied to men who, after being for some time in a safe occupation, were returned to fighting units. 1964B. Gardner (title) Up the line to death.
21. Mil. and Naut. A row or rank of soldiers (distinguished from a column); a row of ships in a certain order. Also occas. collect. sing. = ships of the line. line of battle: see battle n. 12. ship of the line: a line-of-battle ship.
1704Lond. Gaz. No. 4054/1 Their Line consisted of 52 Ships and 24 Gallies. 1706Ibid. No. 4222/3 He had then 30 Ships of the Line,..besides two or three Frigats. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) A a 3 b, The line is said to be formed abreast, when the ships sides are all parallel to each other, on a line which crosses the keels at right angles. 1800Asiatic Ann. Reg., Characters 56/2 Lord Cornwallis put him in command of the second line of the army. 1801Campbell Battle of the Baltic ii, While the sign of battle flew On the lofty British line. 1805in Duncan Life of Nelson (1806) 231 We have only 11 line, 3 frigates, and a sloop. 1813Southey Life of Nelson vi, The fleet from Cadiz.. consisting of from seventeen to twenty sail of the line. 1815Byron Ode, ‘We do not curse thee, Waterloo’ iii, While the broken line enlarging, Fell or fled along the plain. 1838Lytton Leila iv. i, Suddenly the lines of the Moors gave way.
b. the line: in the British army, the regular and numbered troops as distinguished from the guards and the auxiliary forces; in the U.S. army, the regular fighting force of all arms.
1802C. James Milit. Dict. 1813Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) XI. 141 To prevent the men from volunteering to serve in the line. 1849Chambers's Inform. II. 184/2 The pay of a private..in the cavalry of the line [is] 1s. 4d..in the infantry of the line, 1s. 1d. 1858Lytton What will he do? ii. v, Then Charlie Haughton sold out of the Guards..[and] went into the line. 1865–6H. Phillips Amer. Paper Curr. II. 148 The Connecticut line..assembled to return to their homes and leave the army to its fate. 1881J. Grant Cameronians I. iii. 37 The new head-dress for the Line.
c. all along the line, all (the way) down the line: at every point. Also, somewhere along the line, at some point (in time).
1877Spurgeon Serm. XXIII. 246 God will be victorious all along the line in the present battle. 1880T. Hodgkin Italy & Invaders I. i. i. 117 The campaign of 378 opened auspiciously for the interests of Rome along the whole line. 1924R. Fry Let. 27 June (1972) II. 553 Both he and Courbet did elaborate portraits of the same patron... Courbet wins all along the line. 1936A. Huxley Eyeless in Gaza xxi. 297 A refugee from Germany... Aryan, but communist—ardently and all along the line. 1962J. Wain Sprightly Running v. 189 There is always the wistful hope..that these young will not merely benefit from meeting each other, but will, somewhere along the line, actually be taught something. 1965Listener 16 Sept. 402/2 It is difficult to estimate its direct effect, because all along the line there are people working hard to try to make sure that those defects do not come back on the patient. 1965New Yorker 20 Nov. 162/3 Somewhere along the line, the surf and wind went out of his playing. 1969B. Turner Circle of Squares xviii. 143 I've helped him all along the line, not always knowing why. 1972Guardian 6 July 2/2 It has been clear that they had had to refer to Moscow for instructions all along the line. 1975N. Luard Robespierre Serial xi. 87 You've lied to me, all the way down the line. Ibid. xvi. 146 I'm not going to let that little bastard get away with it. He's screwed us all down the line from Riyadh to Geneva.
22. A regular succession of public conveyances plying between certain places; e.g. the Cunard line (of steamers), the White Star line. orig. U.S.
1786Mass. Centinel (Boston) 11 Jan. 3/1 The new arrangement ordered by Congress, for the more safe and regular conveyance of the Mails, by the line of stages. 1818Niles' Reg. XIV. 14/2 A regular line of waggons and packets are established between the city of New-York and Detroit. 1837W. Jenkins Ohio Gazetteer 56 The post office is supplied by daily lines of Coaches from Cincinnati to Dayton. 1848Chambers's Inform. I. 424/2 Lines of large steamers are got up by companies as a speculation. 1900F. T. Bullen Idylls of Sea 198 The better class of seamen will be found making voyage after voyage in the same vessel or at least in the same line. 1901Scotsman 2 Mar. 10/1 The first vessel of the new direct line to Jamaica from England.
23. A row of written or printed letters.
a. gen. One of the rows of letters in any piece of writing or letterpress: often, esp. in pl., put for the contents or sense of what is written or printed.
line by line, line for line: from beginning to end, seriatim; also, with hyphens, attrib. (For line-for-line in Fashion cf. sense 14 b). to read between the lines: to discover a meaning or purpose not obvious or explicitly expressed in a piece of writing.
a1000Riddles xliii. 10 (Gr.) Se torhta æsc an an linan. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 94 Þe Bulle In two lynes hit lay and not a lettre more. 1375Barbour Bruce xvii. 84 Quhen the marschall the cowyne Till bath the lordis lyne be lyne Had tald. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 428 In canoun ne in þe decretales I can nouȝte rede a lyne. a1400–50Alexander 1821 Loo ‘litill thefe’ in ilka lyne his lettir me callis. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. i. 1 Com'st thou with deepe pre⁓meditated Lines? With written Pamphlets? 1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III.) 100 The good opinion you have of me, which is to be seen in every lyne of your letter. 1709H. Felton Classics (1718) 80 Two Lines would express all they say in two Pages. 1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4807/4 Let him send a Line or two directed to the Blue Anchor and Crown. 1713Steele Englishman No. 53. 344 Clerks amongst us make distant Lines, few words in those Lines. 1755Johnson s.v., (In the plural) A letter; as, I read your lines. 1796Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xxvi. (1813) 130 Not a note, not a line, did I receive in the mean time. 1816C. Wolfe Burial Sir J. Moore 31 We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone. 1856Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 299 The distance between your lines in the letter just come. 1866J. Martineau Ess. I. 118 No writer..was ever more read between the lines. 1876J. Weiss Wit, Humor, & Shakespeare iii. 78 There was a worthy old deacon, who, repeating Watts's hymn line for line after his clergyman, said, ‘Return, ye rancid sinners!’ 1879Froude Cæsar xiv. 194 In every line that he wrote Cicero was attitudinising for posterity. 1880Spurgeon Serm. XXVI. 327 They do not say as much to their secret selves; but you can read between the lines these words—‘What a weariness it is!’ 1896Moxon's Mech. Exerc., Printing p. xviii, A line-for-line and page-for-page reprint of the original text. 1934T. S. Eliot Eliz. Ess. 17 A line-by-line examination of almost any Elizabethan play..would be a fruitful exercise. 1951L. MacNeice tr. Goethe's Faust 9, I aimed at a line-for-line translation. 1958[see fashion n. 9 c]. 1964E. A. Nida Toward Sci. Transl. ii. 17 Dryden felt that there were three basic types of translation: (1) metaphrase, a word-for-word and line-for-line type of rendering; (2) paraphrase..; and (3) imitation. 1969Guardian 29 July 7/3 Line-for-line copies of his [couture] collection. 1971Computers & Humanities VI. 7 Comparisons are made on a line-for-line basis. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. iv. 13 Line by line scanning, scanning in which the sweep is effected in straight, substantially horizontal strips extending over the entire width of the picture. 1973Country Life 6 Dec. 1970/1 A perfect line-for-line copy of a couture Dior trouser suit.
fig.1573L. Lloyd Pilgr. Princes (1586) 210 The last line of all thinges is death.
b. spec. in Printing. A row of types or quads.
1659C. Hoole tr. Comenius' Orbis Sensualium (1672) 191 The Compositor..composeth words in a composing stick, till a Line be made. 1676Moxon Print Lett. 11 You must indent your Line four Spaces. Ibid., It is not graceful to end a Break with a short word onely in a line. 1683― Mech. Exerc. II. 394 White-line, a Line of Quadrats. 1841W. Savage Dict. Printing 310 Head line, the top line of a page in which is the running title and folio, but sometimes only a folio.
†c. collect. A written record, message, etc. Obs.
a1400–50Alexander 1932 [He] Vn-lappis liȝtly þe lefe & þe line [v.r. lines] redes. Ibid. 2060 And vneth limpid him þe lee þe lyne me recordis. c1400Destr. Troy 9628 The Secund day suyng, sais me the lyne, Þe Troiens full tymli tokyn þe feld.
d. A few words in writing; often applied to a short letter.
1647H. Markham Let. in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 3, I..desire a line under your own hand to whom I shall deliver the castle. 1751Berkeley Let. to Johnson 25 July, Wks. 1871 IV. 326 A line from me in acknowledgment of your letter. 1775J. Adams Wks. (1854) IX. 352, I have this morning received a line from Mrs. Warren. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 415 History was too much occupied with courts and camps to spare a line for the hut of the peasant or for the garret of the mechanic. 1865Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 279 Dearest,—Just a line to say that all goes well. 1894Mrs. H. Ward Marcella II. 307 Marcella scribbled a line on a half sheet of paper, and..despatched Benny with it.
e. The portion of a metrical composition which is usually written in one line: a verse; pl. verses, poetry. Also pl., (so many) lines of verse (sometimes, of prose) set to be written out as an imposition in school.
to read the line (Sc.): to give out the words of a metrical psalm or hymn a line at a time (cf. line v.2 6).
1563–7Buchanan Reform. St. Andros Wks. (1892) 8 The regent sal cause thayme to writ twa or thre lynis of Terence. 1599Drayton Idea xlii, And in my lines, if shee my loue may see! 1623B. Jonson To memory of Shakespeare, Marlowes mighty line. 1630Milton On Shakespear, Each heart Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu'd Book, Those Delphick lines with deep impression took. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 347 And ten low words oft creep in one dull line. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 211 Each line, each word, in Catullus, has its merit. 1792Cowper (title) Lines addressed to Dr. Darwin. 1809Byron Bards & Rev. 390 Lines forty thousand, cantos twenty⁓five! 1867A. Dawson Rambling Recoil. (1868) 33 To dispense with reading the line in psalmody was by many held to be profane. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 252 The lines of Homer which you were reciting. 1894Wilkins & Vivian Green Bay Tree I. 72 To commute the punishment to 500 Latin lines. 1907Massacre of Innocents ii. 13 Vardon, do me five hundred lines. 1914‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life vii. 182 Mr. Duckworth..had occasion to set Master Smith fifty lines for inattention. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xv. 325 At my junior school the boys had different doors from the girls and if a boy went through the girls' door he had a 100 lines to write out. 1961D. Woodward tr. Simenon's Premier ii. 36 He took lessons without appearing to see his pupils..and his only reaction was, if one of them grew restless, to give him two hundred lines. 1974Age (Melbourne) 12 Oct. 12/2 Doing lines, being kept in to write out good resolutions, such as ‘I must not put squashed frogs in girls' sandwiches’.
f. pl. Short for marriage lines, the certificate of marriage. Applied also dial. to other kinds of certificates (e.g. of church membership).
1829J. Hunter Hallamsh. Gloss., Lines. Marriage-lines is a certificate of marriage often asked for and kept by the bride. 1840Marryat Poor Jack xi, She could not produce her marriage lines. 1861–2Thackeray Philip xii. (1869) I. 254 ‘How should a child like you know that the marriage was irregular?’ ‘Because I had no lines’, cries Caroline quickly. 1890W. J. Gordon Foundry 81 ‘Lines of admission’, or as we should call them letters of recommendation. 1901Union Mag. Mar. 106/1 The old minister fell into a reverie in the very midst of filling in Sandy M'Turk's lines.
g. pl. The words of an actor's part.
1882Daily Tel. 7 Dec., He [an actor] said, ‘Do let me get in some of my ‘lines’’.
h. line upon line: now taken as referring to the reiteration of statements in successive lines of writing or print (for the orig. meaning see 5).
1611Bible Isa. xxviii. 10. 1837 Mrs. T. Mortimer (title) Line upon line; or, a second series of the earliest religious instruction the infant mind is capable of receiving. 1896Home Mission. (N.Y.) Aug. 218 A line-upon-line presentation of these facts.
IV. Serial succession.
24. a. A continuous series of persons (rarely of things) in chronological succession. Chiefly with reference to family descent, a series in which each member is the parent of the one next following. So male line, female line, direct line. For heir of line, see heir 1 b.
c1386Chaucer Wife's T. 279 If gentillesse were planted natureelly vn-to a certeyn linage, doun the lyne. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 14696 ‘Flatrye’..by dyssent off lyne doun Eldest douhter off Falsnesse. c1440Jacob's Well 48 In þe lyne vpward, þi fadyr is to þe in þe first degre of kynrede. c1470Henry Wallace i. 34 The fyrst rycht lyne of the fyrst Stewart. 1513Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 285 A marshall muste take hede of the byrthe, and nexte of the lyne, of the blode royall. 1640Ld. Digby in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 146 By the concentring of all the Royal Lines in his Person. 1705Addison Italy 13 There is no House in Europe that can show a longer Line of Heroes. a1715Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 457 Isaac, Jacob, Judah..and..Solomon, were preferred with⁓out any regard to the next in line. 1784Cowper Task v. 211 In the line Of his descending progeny. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 136 The property..derived from a long line of ancestors. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 358 Purchases in the line of the mother or grandmother. 1862Stanley Jew. Ch. I. xiii. 254 He and his sons founded a long line of Priests. 1895Law Times Rep. LXXII. 817/1 The case is governed by a line of authorities extending over a century.
†b. by line: by lineal descent. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 1481 Of þis lord descendede Tydeus By ligne. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xi. (Symon & Judas) 3 Of Symone..& of Iudas..Þat brethire ware be lyne of fles to Sancte Iames callit þe les. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 693 Of his lynage am I, and his of spryng By verray ligne. c1400Destr. Troy 1841 Lord of þe londe as be lyne olde. 1470–85Malory Arthur v. x, My fader is lyneally descended of Alysaunder..by ryght lygne. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. 134 The lawful ȝouth quha rycht be lyne was sproung of the kingis blude.
c. Phr. line of command.
1930Nautical Mag. Jan. 41 (title) The line of command. Ibid. 43 When the machinery fails, then the old line of command is called upon to take its full responsibility. 1962Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 161 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 The planning and operation of a national programme of television can never be simple, even when there is a single objective to be pursued, when effective control resides in a single authority, and when there is a direct line of command.
25. Lineage, stock, race. ? Somewhat arch.
c1330Arth. & Merl. 5462 (Kölbing) Aigilin, A wiȝt kniȝt of gentil lin. c1400Sowdone Bab. 357, I trowe, he were a develes sone, Of Belsabubbis lyne. c1440Partonope 7253* He is of the lyne of king Priam. 1474Caxton Chesse 21 They had put out of rome tarquyn and al his lygne. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 6 Sole heyre male lefte of the ligne of Richarde duke of Yorke. 1634Milton Comus 923 Virgin, daughter of Locrine Sprung of old Anchises line. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 303 Th'immortal Line in sure Succession reigns. 1725Pope Odyss. xxiv. 588 Shame not the line whence glorious you descend. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 456 The party hostile to his line, his office, and his person. 1865R. W. Dale Jew. Temp. xiii. (1877) 139 He belongs to no consecrated line. 1874Bancroft Footpr. Time i. 78 The line of Cyrus being extinct.
V. A direction or course of movement.
26. a. Track, course, direction; route: e.g. line of march, line of operations.
For telegraph line see 1 e. line of communication: see communication 6 c.
1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 21779 That lyne ryht shal lede the To the place..Wych thow hast..souht. 1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. ii. (1635) 15 All earthly bodies are by a right line directed to the Center of the Terrestriall Globe. 1626Bacon Sylva §224 Sounds that move in oblique and arcuate lines. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. vii. 213 This would have carried us in a direct line to the Island of Quibo. 1780Cowper Progr. Err. 574 Though..the shaft..err but little from the intended line. 1819Blackw. Mag. V. 737 Lying in a diagonal direction across the line of march. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer., Line, the route of a stage-coach, railroad, packet, or steamer. 1863Kinglake Crimea II. 193 The neck of country by which he keeps up his communications with the base is called the ‘line of operations’. 1872B. Stewart Physics ii. (1876) 3 You must know..the direction or line in which I am moving. 1895Zangwill Master i. vii. 82 They ran on parallel lines that never met.
b. Short for line of rails, railway line, tram line. Cf. branch III.
In railway lang. variously applied (a) to a single track of rails, as in the up line, the down line; (b) to a railway forming one of the parts of a system, as in main line, branch line, loop line; (c) sometimes to an entire system of railways under one management, as in the Midland line. line clear, a signal indicating that a line is unoccupied and that a train may therefore proceed; line of rail (see quot. 1965; cf. end of steel, s.v. end n. 6 e).
1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 643 The numerous projected lines of rail-road for diminishing the friction of carriages. 1841Penny Cycl. XIX. 251/1 Curves on a main line of railway being..objectionable... When the Liverpool and Manchester line was projected. 1848Chambers's Inform. I. 411/2 The plan of laying down continuous lines or tram⁓ways of smooth pavement for the wheels to roll over. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1148 Model of a patent railway, with a third line of rails, to prevent running off the line. 1861Musgrave By-roads 195 The farmers..use the line to advantage by sending flour to inland and coast consumers by every train. 1869Cornh. Mag. Mar. 282 Signalman at 3 tells signalman at 2, ‘line clear, send train.’ c1886R. Kipling Railway Folk 56 Naturally a father who has worked for the line expects the line to do something for the son. 1898F. Montgomery Tony 11 A few stations down the line. 1907Daily Chron. 16 Oct. 7/4 Martin should have pulled up until he got the line-clear signal. 1936Gloss. Terms Railway Signalling (B.S.I.) 9 The block indicator shows ‘Line Blocked’ or ‘Normal’, ‘Line Clear’ and ‘Train on Line’. 1963Kichenside & Williams Brit. Railway Signalling v. 46 The signal controlling entry to the block section can only be cleared..when the block indicator for the section ahead is at ‘line clear’. 1965Economist 8 May 655/2 The figure [of unemployed] exceeds 75,000 and..they are concentrated in the few towns along the so-called line-of-rail, the thin strip of urbanisation in which is concentrated..the country's [sc. Zambia's] economic activity. 1971E. Afr. Jrnl. Mar. 17/2 A few co-operatives, along the line-of-rail especially, produce poultry products for sale.
c. U.S. to ride the line: to make the circuit of the boundary of a cattle-drift in order to drive in stray cattle.
1888T. Roosevelt in Century Mag. Mar. 669/1 Those who do not have to look up stray horses, and who are not forced to ride the line day in and day out.
d. Hunting. The straight course in the hunting field, esp. in phrases to ride the line, to take, keep one's own line.
1836New Sporting Mag. X. 62 Nothing is so unsportsmanlike or so dangerous as to cross a man at a leap; every one should keep his own line, and if a man when he gets close to it fears the fence before him, he should pull up. 1895Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 196/2 A parson he was, after a sportsman's heart... Though an old man when I knew him, he always rode the line religiously. 1898St. James's Gaz. 15 Nov. 6/1 Hounds drove along after their fox in rare style,..the line was worked out to Houghton.
e. Chiefly Canada and N.Z. A settlement road, a bush road.
Such roads often later developed into roads of standard size and quality, and the word line appears in many road-names in both countries. The term may be of English dialectal origin.
1828Brockville (Ontario) Gaz. 26 Dec. 3/4 A teamster by the name of M'Pherson from the Scotch Line. 1830W. S. Moorsom Lett. from Nova Scotia ix. 344 The greater part of this line is either a rough horse-path, or in the same state as that described under the name of a ‘new cut’. 1841N.Z. Jrnl. No. 43. 224/2 Colonel Wakefield is also about to direct a line or bridle road (the basis of the future road) to be cut. 1853J. M. Richmond in Richmond-Atkinson Papers (1960) I. iii. 133 There is what we call a good bush road to Rata Nui but beyond it there are two miles of bush walking along what is called a ‘line’; a line is made by cutting the supple jacks and small shrubs with a bill-hook. 1863E. H. Walshe Cedar Creek 103 They wished even for the corduroy expedient a little farther on, when the line became encumbered with stumps left from the under-brushing. 1880W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down 63 Line,..(2) a road. The new roads are so called. 1890E. H. Searle Angela i. 2 This track was known to the neighbourhood as ‘Mount's Line’. 1933‘P. Slater’ Yellow Briar 172 This grain was hauled down the 6th line and stored till the spring in Isaac Chafee's warehouse. 1943Amer. Speech XVIII. 87 In some country districts [in New Zealand] (the Manawatu, for example) the roads are named lines—McDonell's Line, Richardson's Line, Union Line—presumably from early boundary or surveyors' lines. 1961Price & Kennedy Notes Hist. Renfrew County [Ontario] 110 McNaughton's Plan of 1836 shows Queen's Line as an opened road. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 99 Line, a road, route or highway.
f. A row of traps or of poison bait.
Widely used in English-speaking areas outside the U.K.
1854Mayne Reid Young Voyageurs 190 Moreover, he [sc. the wolverine] will follow the tracks of the trapper from one to another, until he has destroyed the whole line. 1871R. L. Dashwood Chiploquorgan viii. 109 We followed an old ‘sable line’,..a line of traps set for that animal. 1949Sat. Even. Post 22 Jan. 98/2 It is usually a glum day for the trapper when he pays his periodic visit to his line and sees in the snow the tracks of a wolverine joining the tracks that he made himself on his previous swing around. 1960B. Crump Good Keen Man 31 Working from the same hut at first, we laid cyanide lines up every ridge within reach of the camp. The dodge was to work in pairs, one laying blobs of flour flavoured with oil-of-aniseed for bait, the other adding crushed cyanide to each heap of flour. We'd do this for three days, then go back over the lines cutting the ears off the dead possums for tokens. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 39 Whenever a fox got on the line they lost about a quarter of their morning's catch. It would go round all the traps killing and tearing the rabbits until it was disturbed or caught in an unsprung trap.
g. A pipe or tube (of great or indefinite length in relation to its thickness).
1862W. J. M. Rankine Man. Civil Engin. iii. ii. 739 From..reservoir to..town the main pipes may form a double line, so that in the event of a failure of one line, a supply..may be conveyed through the other line. 1895W. T. Brannt Petroleum vii. 237 Beside the lines leading from the oil region to Baku..there are a number of branches which lead from the 21 principal lines to the refineries. 1921W. F. Durand Hydraulics of Pipe Lines v. 231 The buried line cannot be inspected or repaired or repainted on the outside, and these conditions will..reduce the serviceable life of the line. 1962F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics x. 411 As the propellants flow through the feed lines to the pump a certain amount of pressure will be lost due to friction. 1966A. E. C. Vizard in P. Hepple Natural Gas 55 By using large diameter lines at relatively high pressures the potential carrying capacity of a single line can be greater. 1974Sunday Express 14 Apr. 1/3 Detectives investigating the death of a diver..have found that his support line was cut. The line carried oxygen and communication cables to two divers 350 feet down.
h. Golf. (See quot. 1910.)
1887W. G. Simpson Art of Golf ii. ix. 166 If their advice as to the line and strength be followed, and the putt comes off, it is supposed..that there was no other way of doing it. 1910Encycl. Brit. XII. 223/2 Line, the direction in which the hole towards which the player is progressing lies with reference to the present position of his ball. 1971Trevino & Fraley I can help your Game (1972) v. 72 (caption) The putt has been stroked but I maintain my immovable body position, concentrating on keeping the blade square to the line.
i. up the line: on leave. Naut. slang.
1942Gen 1 Sept. 13/2 When a sailor goes on leave he goes ‘up the line’.
j. Phr. the end of the line (transf. and fig.). Cf. the end of the road (end n. 3 h).
1948Amer. Speech XXIII. 29 Calcutta commandos..reached the End of the Line [sc. China] by flying..over the Hump. 1955J. Potts Death of Stray Cat (1956) vii. 75 Lillian..turned to face Floyd, as a signal that this was the end of the line for him. 1959E. Burgess Divided we Fall xx. 228 It looks like the end of the line for Roylake. Unless he can think up something—fast! 1967Wodehouse Company for Henry v. 79 ‘Don't tell me we're there already.’.. ‘Yes, this is the end of the line.’ 1974‘J. Graham’ Bloody Passage x. 133 They have nowhere to go. This is—how do the Americans say it?—the end of the line.
27. Course of action, procedure, life, thought, or conduct.
13..K. Alis. 7266 For his barouns and for myne This weore the ryghtest lyne. c1330Arth. & Merl. 6492 (Kölbing) Þe king aros by wrongful lines &..He forlay þe stewardes wiif. 1629N. Carpenter Achitophel 39 The same hand of Kingly munificence which..pointed him out the lines of his obliged loyaltie. 1787Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 112 The line I have observed with him has been [etc.]. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. III. 57 Promising to consult with him, in regard to what line of life he should pursue. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. xiv, I should then have inherited some family line of conduct, both moral, and political. 1850Lewis Lett. (1870) 233 The Protectionists, as a party, have taken no line in the matter. 1878R. W. Dale Lect. Preach. v. 131 You should consider by what lines of thought..you would be able to make the truth clear to them. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xvi. (1882) 121 The line that shall be taken upon all the questions of the day. 1893Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 42 Few men..whose line of life lay so far apart from a naturalist's or a poet's can ever have loved nature or poetry better.
28. a. A department of activity; a kind or branch of business or occupation.
The sense seems to be largely due to the influence of quot. 1611, where, however, line (= Gr. κανών, lit. ‘measuring rod’, R.V. ‘province’) was prob. meant by the translators in a sense belonging to branch II. The phrase line of things, sometimes used instead of line in the sense above explained, certainly arose from misapprehension of this text, where the words ‘in another mans line’ are parenthetical.
[1611Bible 2 Cor. x. 16 And not to boast in another mans line of things made ready to our hand.] 1638Rouse Heav. Univ. x. (1702) 148 Keep thou especially in thine own line neither trouble thy self for the line of another. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. iv. §23 It is not out of Curiosity or Busybodinesse, to be meddling in other mens Lines. 1677Hubbard Narrative ii. 86 To intrude our selves into that which is out of our Line, or beyond our Sphere. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 266 He entred on the Physick line, but took no degree in that Faculty. 1773Johnson Let. Mrs. Thrale 20 Sept., Seeing things in this light I consider every letter as something in the line of duty. 1787Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 95 If I can be made useful to you in any line whatever here. 1791Boswell Johnson 23 Sept. an. 1777, Johnson was..prompt to repress colloquial barbarisms..such as line, for department, or branch, as the civil line, the banking line. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iv. Introd., Any thing much worse than usual in that line? 1809Malkin Gil Blas v. i. ⁋65, I had got into the matrimonial line. 1820Byron Blues ii. 94 Stick to those of your play, which is quite your own line. 1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz, Char. ix. (1892) 238 Mr. Augustus Cooper was in the oil and colour line. 1887Spectator 16 Apr. 535/2 The line of this story is correctness rather than interest.
b. in (or out of) one's line: suited (or unsuited) to one's capacity, taste, etc.; not one's line, not one's vocation or calling, not among one's pursuits or interests; to step (or get, etc.) out of line, to behave in an unconventional or unexpected manner.
1791J. Lackington Mem. xxv. 191, I cannot help noticing that in one of his [sc. Wesley's] publications (stepping out of his line) he betray'd extreme weakness and credulity. 1838Dickens O. Twist xxvi, Have you got anything in my line to-night? 1857C. Kingsley Two Yrs. Ago I. p. xviii, ‘He..wanted to call me out.’ ‘Did you go?’.. ‘I told him that wasn't my line.’ 1886R. Kipling Departm. Ditties, etc. (1899) 35 Her jokes aren't in my line. 1888Harper's Mag. July 183 Store-keeping was not in my line. 1932D. Runyon Guys & Dolls ii. 37 Reasonably safe for anyone who does not get too far out of line. 1937M. Sharp Nutmeg Tree xix. 249 ‘Wouldn't you like to be Lady Waring?’.. ‘No, I wouldn't..it's not my line.’ 1938D. Runyon Furthermore iii. 45 He is out of line in giving Frankie the hot foot. 1943J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday xiii. 87 The welfare worker act..wasn't her line at all. 1962P. Gregory Like Tigress at Bay iii. 28 As long as he doesn't get out of line too often, I'll keep him on. 1962J. Ludwig in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 244 Women weren't Sidney's line. 1973N. Graham Murder in Dark Room viii. 58 You do it his way or else. I stepped out of line when I checked on Redman.
c. line of business : in the 18th- and 19th-century theatre, the kind of parts for which an actor or actress was specifically engaged. Cf. business 20.
1775F. Abington Let. in D. Garrick Private Corr. (1832) II. 106 Knowing the impossibility of my attempting that line of business while I am necessarily engaged in so many plays. 1807A. Holbrook Mem. Actress 33 Another shocking custom is, that of giving no distinct line of business; for people, let them possess what talent they may, excel more in certain parts than in others. 1831P. Egan Show Folks 27 Waiting in turn to engage young men for different ‘lines of business’ to complete their companies. 1845Ainsworth's Mag. VIII. 150, I have alluded to country actors..acting characters not in their ‘line of business’. 1849Theatrical Mirror 17 Sept. 20 We were surprised to see Mrs. W. Daly playing the part of Lady Macbeth, being quite out of her lines of business. 1901C. Morris Life on Stage vii. 40 These were the principal ‘lines of business’, and in an artistic sense they bound actors both hand and foot.
d. Phr. one's line of country, one's pursuit, field of interest, area of study, etc. (Freq. in neg. contexts.) Also, line of work.
1861T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. III. viii. 138 This sort of thing isn't my line of country at all. 1926R. Macaulay Crewe Train ii. v. 115, I don't advise you to join it [sc. the R.C. church]. I don't think it's your line of country, exactly. 1943N. Balchin Small Back Room viii. 94 What? Pinching strange females?.. That's more his line of country than yours. 1951W. Empson Struct. Complex Words 15 A mistake made by Richards..is a great deal more illuminating than the successes of other writers in this line of country. 1957G. Faber Jowett v. 94 Josephine's absorption in her new ‘line of work’. 1966M. Brewer Man against Fear i. 15 I'd like to help... But it's not my line of country. Only the police can catch them. 1972News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 30 Dec 4/3 No one lives in the sticks or is asked his line of work very often.
†29. Used by Shakes. in pl. for: ‘Goings on’, caprices or fits of temper. [Cf. the Warwickshire dial. phrase on a line = in a rage.]
1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. ii. 22 Your husband is in his olde lines againe. 1606― Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 139 Yea watch His pettish lines. [Mod. edd. lunes in both places.]
30. a. Comm. An order received by a traveller or agent for goods; the goods so ordered; also, the stock on hand of a particular class of goods, goods of a particular design.
1834Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. III. 9/3 Even those [travelling salesmen] whose line seems the most hopeless and frivolous. 1882Daily News 4 Mar., Spinners content themselves with supplying special lines and immediate requirement. 1892Money Market Rev. 6 Feb., Another error committed by some of the Trusts has consisted in taking inordinately large ‘lines’ of particular Stocks. 1892Daily News 11 Apr. 6/6 In spite of the new French tariff we still continue to receive fair ‘lines’ for silver goods from Paris. 1930H. Cousins in V.A. Demant Just Price v. 102 No business can expect that all its ‘lines’ will be successful. 1959Punch 16 Sept. 177/1, I can do a nice line in powder compacts. 1971Cabinet Maker & Retail Furnisher 1 Oct. 15/3 Rather than let a slow selling line stand on the shop floor it is reduced immediately.
b. The amount which one underwriter (or one company) accepts as his share of the total value of the subject matter covered by insurance.
1899Hooper & Graham Mod. Business Methods 144 The names and the amounts on the back of a policy..would appear thus... Each of the above persons is said to ‘take a line’ in the policy. 1905[see front-ranker]. 1931Times 14 Mar. 12/6 Many of those [sc. insurance companies] who have written large lines..are known to have been influenced by a desire [etc.]. 1974W. L. Catchpole Business Guide to Insurance xxiv. 202 If the chosen underwriter.. agrees to accept a substantial line at an equitable risk, he becomes the leading underwriter on the slip.
c. line of credit: a loan by one country to another, to be utilized by the second for buying goods from the first; credit extended by a bank to a commercial concern to a certain amount; the amount so extended.
1958Listener 18 Sept. 407/1 A line of credit for {pstlg}8,000,000 from Australia will have helped matters. 1971Daily Tel. 1 Jan. 1/1 A total of 41 million Canadian dollars..was repaid on the Canadian line of credit.
VI. Combinations.
31. a. Simple attrib. and objective, as line battalion, line end, line-guard, line-length, line-maker, line-making, line-numbering, line-pair, line-regiment, line-rime, line-room; line-numbered, line-throwing adjs.
1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 50/1, 2 companies from each of the *line battalions assigned to the sub-district.
1748W. Hardy Miner's Guide 184 Your Assistant having made a mark upon the Ground, where the *Line End touched last. 1908Daily Chron. 23 Oct. 9/4 Now he types instead of stamping the last words so as to obtain an even line end. 1930T. Sasaki On Lang. R. Bridges' Poetry i. v. 21 The strongest stress..is the one at the line-end. 1961T. Landau Encycl. Librarianship (ed. 2) 226/1 Line division mark, a vertical line or double vertical lines used in bibliographical transcription to indicate the place of the ends of lines... Also called line end stroke, dividing stroke.
1888‘J. Bickerdyke’ Bk. All-round Angler ii. 28 A Nottingham reel fitted with a little invention..intended to prevent the line uncoiling..off the reel. This *line-guard has answered beyond my expectations.
1905PMLA XX. 814 The uniform background of the recurrent *line-lengths. 1929H. Crane Let. 30 Aug. (1965) 344 The line-lengths are longer than in any other section.
1897Daily News 13 Sept. 7/3 Some six miles further on, the point where [railway] *line-making was actually in process.
1905Academy 14 Oct. 1072/2 We can see him turning over the page, *line-numbered. 1959N. & Q. Sept. 313/2 The recent line-numbered edition by W. J. B. Owen.
1953Amos & Birkinshaw Television Engin. I. ii. 33 The system of *line numbering must be explained... The lines are numbered according to the positions they occupy in the raster, number 1 being the top line and, in the British system, 405 the bottom line. 1966English Studies XLVII. 296 His marginal references to Folio lines and passages (using the line-numbering of the Globe edition).
1867Cayley in Coll. Math. Papers (1893) VI. 201 A conic is a curve of the second order and second class; quà curve of the second order it may degenerate into a pair of lines, or *line-pair.
1864Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 255 Eighteen months in such a school would have turned the French *line-regiments into Zouaves.
1860Marsh Eng. Lang. xxv. 554 *Line-rhyme is a constituent of all but the most ancient forms of Icelandic verse.
a1643W. Cartwright Ordinary iii. ii, To hang up cloaths, or any thing you please, Your Worship cannot want *line-room.
1887Daily News 9 Mar. 6/7 A *Line-throwing Gun.
†b. Bot. Used = linear-. Obs.
1787Fam. Plants I. 37 The leaflets line-lanc'd, keel'd, erect. Ibid. 41 Seeds one, cover'd, line-oblong. Ibid. 105 Filaments five, line-compress'd.
32. Special combs.: line angle Dentistry, the angle at the junction of two surfaces of a tooth or cavity; † line-angular a. (see quot.); line-at-a-time printer = line printer; line-backer, in Amer. and Canad. football (see quot. 1961); line-bait, bait used in line-fishing; line-ball: Baseball (see quot.); also in Lawn Tennis; line blanking Television, the suppression of signals that would contribute to the picture during fly-back of the scanning spot between the transmission of successive lines; freq. attrib.; line block, a block bearing a design in relief from which an illustration made up of lines without variations in tone may be printed; an illustration printed in this way; also attrib.; line-book, (a) Printing (Obs. exc. Hist.), a book in which compositors working in companionships (chiefly 19th c.) kept account of the lines of set type credited and debited to them; (b) (also lines-book) R.A.F. slang, a record of boasts (see 13 g, above); line-bred a., produced by line-breeding; line-breeding U.S., ‘the breeding of animals with reference to securing descent from a particular family, especially in the female line’ (Webster Suppl. 1879); line-camp N. Amer., a camp, esp. a cabin, for ranch hands in an outlying part of a large ranch; line-casting a., of a composing machine, casting type a line at a time; so line-cast a., line-caster; line-cod, cod-fish caught with a line; line-conch, a large gasteropod of Florida, Fasciolaria distans, marked by black lines (Cent. Dict.); line-coordinate Math., one of a set of quantities defining the position of a line; line density (see quot.); also gen., density or concentration of lines; line drawing, a drawing done with a pen or pencil; also fig.; line-drawn a., made by line-drawing; line-drive Baseball, a ball driven straight and low above the ground; line drop Electr. Engin., the voltage drop between two points on a transmission line (as a result of resistance, leakage, or other causes); line-ending, (a) = line-filling; (b) the end of a line of poetry; line-engraved ppl. a., inscribed with a line engraving; line-engraver, one who does line engraving; line engraving, the art of engraving ‘in line’, i.e. by lines incised on the plate, as distinguished from etching and mezzotint; an engraving executed in this manner; line-fence N. Amer., a boundary fence between two farms or ranches; line-filling, a flourish or ornament serving to fill up a line of writing; line finder Telephony, a selector which searches for the calling subscriber's line when he lifts his receiver so that the line can be connected to a group of selectors available to any caller; line-finishing = line-filling; line-firing Mil., firing by a body of men in line; line-fisherman, a man who fishes with a line; so line-fishing n. and a.; line frequency Television, the number of scanning lines produced per second; line gale U.S. = line-storm; line gauge Printing, a ruler showing the size of a type or types; line graph = graph n.1 2 (as distinguished from a bar graph, in which vertical rectangles represent the values of the dependent variable); line haul U.S. slang (see quots.); line-hunter, a hound which follows its quarry by the line of the scent alone; so line-hunting a.; line-integral Math., the integral, taken along a line, of any differential that has a continuously varying value along that line; line-integration, the operation of finding a line-integral; line-knife, a knife used on a whaler for cutting the harpoon rope; line loss Electr. Engin., loss of electrical energy along a transmission line (as a result of resistance, leakage, or other causes); line-maker, ‘a manufacturer of rope, sash-lines, clothes-lines, etc.’ (Simmonds Dict. Trade 1858); line management, manager: see sense 19 d above; line officer, a military or naval officer of the line; line pin, one of the iron pins used to fasten a bricklayer's line (see quot. 1859); line pipe, pipe specially manufactured for use in pipelines; line printer, a printer that is capable of printing a whole line of characters in each cycle of operation and is usu. operated under the control of a computer; † line-reel, a reel upon which a gardener's line is wound; line-ride v. intr. U.S., to perform the action of line-riding; line-rider N. Amer., one engaged in line-riding; line-riding U.S., riding the line (see sense 26 c); line-rocket, a small rocket attached to a line or wire along which it is made to run; line scan, (a) the motion of a scanning beam or spot along a line; (b) the electrical signal which causes this; (c) an apparatus or technique which scans an object or scene line by line; so line scanning vbl. n.; line-sequential a. Television, applied to a system of colour television in which each line of the picture is in one of the three primary colours, the colour changing for each successive line; line shaft, shafting, a shaft, or shafting, of relatively great length from which a number of separate machines are driven by countershafts or endless belts; line-side attrib., adjacent to a railway line; line-soldier, a soldier of the line, a linesman; line space, the space provided for a line of typescript; so line-space lever, line space mechanism, etc., the device that turns the platen of a typewriter to a new line of writing; line-spacing, the space between successive lines of typescript; attrib., of the device that moves the platen to a new line; line spectrum, a spectrum containing lines distributed apparently at random (rather than in groups as in a band spectrum); hence, an emission (of light, sound, or other radiation) composed of a number of discrete frequencies or energies; line-squall, a squall, consisting of a violent straight blast of cold air with snow or rain, and occurring along the axis of a V-shaped depression; so line-thunderstorm; line-storm U.S., an equinoctial storm; line-synchronizing a. Television, applied to a pulse transmitted in a television signal at the end of each line which initiates fly-back of the scanning spot in the receiver, so keeping the scanning process in synchronism with that in the transmitter; also abbreviated to line-sync; line-tub, a tub in which a whaling line is kept; line-way, † (a) a tow-path; (b) ‘a straight direct path’ (Halliwell 1847); line-width Physics, the width of a spectral line as measured by the difference in wavelength, wave number, or frequency between its two sides; line-wire Telegraphy, the wire which connects the stations of a telegraph-line; line-work, (a) drawing or designing executed with the pen or pencil (as opposed to wash, etc.); (b) (see quot. 1968); (c) work as a lineman. Also lineman, linesman, line standard.
1908G. V. Black Work on Operative Dentistry I. 295 *Line angles. 1930W. H. O. McGehee Text-bk. Operative Dentistry xi. 338 Flatten the gingival and axial walls, making a definite line angle at their junction. 1963C. R. Cowell et al. Inlays, Crowns, & Bridges iii. 15 Complete the proximal box, using a chisel to plane its vertical walls and to sharpen the line angles.
1774M. Mackenzie Maritime Surv. p. xviii, A *Line⁓angular Survey is, when the Coast is measured all along with a Chain, or Wheel, and the Angles taken at each Point and Turn of the Land with a Theodolite, or magnetic Needle.
1955Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery II. 294 *Line-at-a-time printer (92 characters per line), operating at a speed of 150 lines per minute. 1963Gould & Ellis Digital Computer Technol. xi. 141 The line-at-a-time printers have, in the main, been adapted from the tabulating machines of punched card practice.
1961Webster, *Linebacker, a football player stationed within one to four yards of the line of scrimmage and expected to make quick tackles close to the line of scrimmage on running plays and to protect against short passes. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Feb. 29/1 Darryl Burgess, a 225-pound linebacker from St. Mary's. 1969Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard 3 Dec. 10/2 Oregon linebacker Tom Graham..played well enough to make both UPI and AP All-Coast teams as a rookie. 1970Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 18/5 We can always move Corrigall to linebacker. 1973Washington Post 13 Jan. C5/4 The most misguided portion of the show comes during Jones' interviews of Jim Brown, the former football player-turned-actor, and Ray May, a linebacker for the Baltimore Colts.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXX. 432/1 Minnows, frogs, crayfish or any favorite *line bait.
1874H. Chadwick Base Ball Man. 55 A ‘*line ball’ or ‘liner’ is a ball sent swiftly from the bat to the field almost on a horizontal line. 1891F. C. Burnand Miss Decima 22 Chorus (outside—watching a game of Lawn Tennis)..Ah! ‘Line’ ball.
1952Howe & Ducloux tr. Kerkhof & Werner's Television iv. 76 The total *line blanking of the picture signal is 0·15 L. 1957Amos & Birkinshaw Television Engin. (rev. ed.) I. ii. 31 The synchronising signals are not the only form of intelligence which must be transmitted between lines; an additional signal, known as the line-blanking signal, must also be inserted. 1966G. H. Hutson Television Receiver Theory I. iii. 31 The line blanking period is divided into..the front porch, the line sync. pulse and the back porch.
1896A. Beardsley Let. 29 Sept. (1971) 173 The rest of the drawing has come out so hardly and coldly in the *line block. 1924E. Pound Let. 3 Dec. (1971) 191, I think the idea of ten or twelve Blacks of size that cd. go by post, and that cd. be done in line block, might be useful. 1936Burlington Mag. Mar. p. xiv/1 Line-block illustrations from the author's own drawings. 1956Nature 18 Feb. 301/1 The illustrations are well chosen, both the line-blocks and the half-tones. 1972P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 272 The detail of all but the very best photographic line blocks tends to be slightly rougher at the edges than that of wood engravings.
1876J. Gould Letter-Press Printer 33 The system adopted in some of the smaller houses is for each compositor to make up and impose his own pages, the making-up being passed from one compositor to the companion who follows him, accompanied by the *line book. 1942Observer 4 Oct. 7/2 ‘There I was, upside down, in cloud, ten-tenths, at 1,500 ft...’ But you never get to the end of your story if you were so foolish as to begin like that. ‘Lineshoot!’ they would cry. ‘Line!’ And most squadrons have a Line Book in which such statements are written down, to their authors' perpetual shame. 1943C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 40 Lines book, in which are recorded exaggerated statements made at one time or another by Mess members. 1945E. Taylor At Mrs. Lippincote's xxiii. 194 Quick, the line-book! 1972P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 193 He [sc. the clicker] kept an account of the number of lines that each man set, both in a line-book and by marking the copy.
1891R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. xxxi. 400 The impression that tuberculosis is more prevalent among high *line-bred shorthorns than among the ordinary country-bred cattle. 1960Times 19 Sept. 3/4, 20 dams were chosen..these being line-bred. 1971Amer. N. & Q. Apr. 126/2 The quarter horse, developed from cross-breeding Spanish stock imported to America via Florida (Chickasaw horses) and what Nelson Nye calls ‘line-bred orientals’ from England, was originally a sport animal.
1888Century Mag. Mar. 667/2 But some of the men are out in the *line camps, and the ranchman has occasionally to make the round of these. 194910 Story Western May 12/2 He had been telling them all how he was going to winter here at the Buffalo Crossing line camp. 1963R. D. Symons Many Trails v. 52 Most outfits had what they call ‘line camps’ strung along the limits of their range, from which ‘line riders’ operated.
1973S. Jennett Making of Bks. (ed. 5) xv. 286 The italic [of Linotype Baskerville] is a little loose fitting, its width, as in other *line-cast type-faces, being governed by the roman.
1972Phys. Bull. Sept. 533/1 These ‘second generation’ photosetters..are reasonably cheap and are considerably faster than the latest *line-casters which are also tape driven.
1913Inland Printer July 486 (Advt.), There are thousands of publishers all over the United States who have been waiting for a *line-casting and composing machine so simple and easy to operate that it would prove practical in the small shop. 1916Legros & Grant Typogr. Printing-Surfaces iv. 15 Line-casting machine type-metal undergoes a wastage or depreciation. 1973S. Jennett Making of Bks. (ed. 5) v. 83 The Intertype Fotosetter was also an adaptation, of the Intertype line-casting machine.
1877Holdsworth Sea Fisheries 80 Very few *line-cod are caught in the North Sea for the next three months.
1866Cayley in Coll. Math. Papers (1892) V. 521 Considered as (what in the theory of *line-coordinates it in fact is) a particular case of the double tangent.
1873Maxwell Electr. & Magn. §64 I. 68 In this case we may define the *line⁓density at any point to be the limiting ratio of the electricity on an element of the line to the length of that element when the element is diminished without limit. 1963Reshaping of Brit. Railways (Brit. Railways Board) 65 Line densities are not the only measure of the use made of the railway. 1971Fremdsprachen XV. 276 It can be used to restore old drawings and to improve line density for microfilming.
1891A. Beardsley Let. 25 Dec. (1971) 32, I am anxious to say something somewhere, on the subject of lines and *line drawing. 1895Zangwill Master ii. vii. 205 To undertake wash-drawings, line⁓drawings, colour-work or lithography. 1959Listener 9 July 76/3 It [sc. an overture] is finer line-drawing than the Gordon Jacob work. 1966Ibid. 6 Jan. 36/3 Over 300 [flowers] are illustrated in close-up colour photographs and 100-odd more in line drawings. 1967E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage ii. 51 There is a tendency to produce line drawings which might just as well have been done with a pencil.
1903Westm. Gaz. 17 Oct. 4/2 An order of the King in Council was published with two *line-drawn illustrations.
1931Randolph Enterprise (Elkins, W. Virginia) 9 July 5/3 Boyles turned in the star catch of the day by racing..to pull down a *line drive with one hand. 1968Washington Post 4 July C1/3 Mantle was safe as Ron Hansen's throw, after snagging a line drive by Andy Kosco, was a trifle tardy.
1894*Line drop [see line loss below]. 1962Newnes Conc. Encycl. Electr. Engin. 86/1 D.C. boosters are normally low-voltage d.c. generators employed for adjusting a supply voltage, in line-drop compensation and as an aid in controlling the charging of large accumulator batteries.
1928E. G. Millar Eng. Illuminated Manuscripts XIVth & XVth Cent. i. 9 Many of the *line-endings..were added in the fifteenth century. 1962W. Nowottny Lang. Poets Use v. 120 The method he adopts is the eccentric placing of line-endings.
1802Monthly Mag. XIV. 253/1 The best *line-engraved prints preserved their superiority. 1881Stamp-Collector's Ann. 5 The fall of the penny stamp and all its line-engraved family. 1936Discovery Dec. 386/1 Practically all [18th-century tradesman's cards] are line- or stipple-engraved. 1965Stamp Collecting (‘Know the Game’ Series) 44/1 Stamps printed from recess-plates are said to be line-engraved.
1873Illustr. London News 15 Mar. 247/3 This eminent *line-engraver. 1965Doughty & Wahl in D. G. Rossetti Lett. I. 9 Charles Warren (1767–1823), line-engraver and a noted illustrator.
1802Monthly Mag. XIV. 253/1 The *line engraving is now attaining its deserved preeminence. 1810Trans. Soc. Arts XXVIII. 14 Line Engravings of Historical Subjects. 1849Chambers's Inform. II. 729/2 Effect is obtained in etching in the same manner as in line-engraving—namely, by depth.
1845J. Comly Reader & Bk. Knowl. 96 Always keep good *line-fences. 1854S. H. Hammond Hills, Lakes & Forest Streams xxv. 250 Later still, the old line fence was pulled away. 1893E. R. Young Stories from Indian Wigwams 34 One morning I..went off to help a couple of Indians about their line fences. 1946Chicago Daily News 23 Mar. 1/8 He got into an argument with the boy's parents over the building of a line fence between their properties. 1954C. Bruce Channel Shore 12 From there a person could look east and west along..the northern fields..separated by line fences.
1895M. R. James Abbey St. Edmund at Bury 93 The small initials..as well as the *line-fillings, are of the most absolutely perfect kind.
1922Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 834/2 The *line finder corresponds to the answering plug in a manual exchange. 1950J. Atkinson Herbert & Procter's Telephony (new ed.) II. i. 19/2 If..the volume of traffic and the number of 1st selectors are considerable, then line⁓finders may become more expensive than subscribers' uniselectors. 1968E. H. Jolley Introd. Telephony & Telegr. viii. 232/2 The subscribers' lines are multiplied over the bank of contacts of the line-finders so that each subscriber's line appears on each line-finder.
1906E. Johnston Writing & Illuminating xii. 205 *Line-finishings are used to preserve the evenness of the text when lines of writing fall short.
1802C. James Milit. Dict., *Line-firings are executed separately and independently by each battalion. 1858Greener Gunnery 405 For close quarters, line-firing, or quickness of loading, the musket will hold its place for centuries to come.
1899Daily News 12 Apr. 6/2 The *line-fishermen off our coasts.
1848C. A. Johns Week at Lizard 242 They depend for this supply on *line-fishing. 1897Daily News 10 Feb. 6/2 The screw line-fishing boat George Baird.
1936O. S. Puckle tr. M. von Ardenne's Television Reception i. 11 The total number of lines in the complete picture is 240, scanned sequentially and horizontally at 25 picture traversals per second... The *line frequency is thus 6,000 impulses per second. 1973Newnes Colour Television Servicing Manual I. i. 26/1 Sawtooth voltage at line frequency is developed across the inductive network.
1836Knickerbocker VII. 17, I must take the oars myself, for that blamed *line gale has kept me in bilboes..a dog's age.
1948Words into Type 544 *Line gauge, a printer's measuring rule, marked off in nonpareils and picas, sometimes showing other type measurements also. 1967Karch & Buber Offset Processes 544 Line gauge, a printer's ruler usually having 6 and 12 point graduations. Sometimes with other point scales, as: agate, 9-point, 10-point, etc.
1956*Line graph [see decode v.]. 1972Scholarly Publishing III. 274 Bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, and other illustrative devices.
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §770 *Line haul, a scheduled truck route. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 99 Line haul, a scheduled truck run or movement of freight between cities.
1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 355 Many of them [sc. hounds] had their heads up... Some few of the *line hunters were persevering with the scent over the greasy ground. 1856G. J. Whyte-Melville Kate Cov. xii, They are capital ‘line⁓hunters’, so says John. 1890Sat. Rev. 1 Feb. 135/1 In the vast forests of Europe a line-hunter on the scent of an ungalled hart would be lost to all eternity.
Ibid., The old slow *line-hunting staghound.
1873Maxwell Electr. & Magn. § 69 I. 71 *Line-Integral of Electric Force, or Electromotive Force along an Arc of a Curve.
Ibid. (1881) II. 232 The magnetic potential, as found by a *line-integration of the magnetic force.
1851H. Melville Whale xli. 202 The captain seizing the *line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale.
1894A. T. Snell Electr. Motive Power iv. 126 The *line loss remains constant when the percentage of the line drop is kept the same for variations of supply pressure. 1953C. F. Hockett in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 64/1 To supply one hundred-watt light bulb, a generator must transmit one hundred watts of power, plus a bit more to make up for line-loss. 1970D. Waterfield Continental Waterboy iii. 29 And you have line loss, particularly with very long transmission lines.
1667Pepys Diary 19 July, The pretty woman, the *line-maker's wife that lived in Fenchurch Streete.
1850R. Glisan Jrnl. Army Life (1874) i. 2 This rank..avails its possessor..in everything except commanding troops when a *line officer is present. 1909Westm. Gaz. 1 Feb. 2/1 Wives of line-officers, engineers, servants. 1925R. Graves Welchman's Hose 29 They hadn't one Line-officer left, after Arras.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 395/2 Two *Line Pins, with a Line lapped or raped about part of both. 1700Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 247 A Pair of Line Pins of Iron, with a length of Line on them. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 387 The Line Pins, consist of two iron pins, with a line of about sixty feet, fastened by one of its extremities to each. 1859Gwilt's Encycl. Archit. (ed. 4) ii. iii. 514 The line pins..for fastening and stretching the line at proper intervals of the wall, that each course may be kept straight in the face and level on the bed.
1923Amer. Petroleum Inst. Bull. 31 Dec. 117/2 The work of this committee has been..to the end that a specification might be had that would: (1) Minimize losses arising out of the use of casing *line pipe, tubing and drill pipe, in oil field operations. 1930L. D. Burritt in Walker & Crocker Piping Handbk. xiv. 719 Line-pipe threads are of the same form and taper as American Standard threads, but the pipe is threaded with a longer length of thread than is standard pipe. 1967Times Rev. Industry Feb. 45/3 The rising demand for line pipe made sense of a connexion between South Durham and Stewarts and Lloyds, which has been marketing X60 seamless line pipe up to 18 inches in diameter for many years.
1955Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery II. 294 Output: *Line printer of a BULL tabulating machine. 1962Mod. Lang. Rev. LVII. 171 The Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory possesses a line-printer which is directly operated by EDSAC 2. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing iv. 73 A normal speed for a computer line printer is 1,000 lines per minute. Ibid. xi. 164 A mechanical line printer has one printing device for each printing position in the line (for each ‘column’). The number of printing positions is often between 100 and 160.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 256 When you haue cast your ground, you shall begin to stretch your line with good and firme *line-reeles, to take the bredth and length of your borders round about.
1883Rep. Productions Agric. 10th Census 1880 (U.S. Census Office) 971 The cattle-raisers were obliged to fence or to ‘*line-ride’ to keep their cattle from trespassing. Ibid., The cattle of northwest Texas are in a large measure controlled or held on their ranges by a system of ‘line-riding’. 1920Line-rider [see fence-rider (fence n. 11)]. 1942E. E. Dale Cow Country 119 This by no means did away with the work of the line rider, though it was made somewhat easier. 1963Line rider [see line-camp above].
1883Rep. Productions Agric. 10th Census 1880 (U.S. Census Office) 973 The cowboys engaged in this work are called ‘*line-riders’. 1888T. Roosevelt in Century Mag. Mar. 668/2 Line-riding is very cold work, and dangerous, too, when the men have to be out in a blinding snowstorm.
1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 19 Charges for the *line rockets.
1938J. H. Reyner Testing Television Sets iv. 46 If the time base is operating the appropriate noise will be heard—a rapid ticking on the frame scan and a high squeal on the *line scan. 1957D. G. Fink Television Engin. Handbk. x. 12 The harmonic components of the line-scan spectrum may thus be thought of as carrier waves, each with a 60-cps modulation envelope. 1962Daily Tel. 28 Aug. 13/5 Line scan is a system for reconnaissance and mapping at low levels. 1966D. G. Brandon Mod. Techniques Metallogr. 257 The line scans being automatically repeated 50 µm apart. 1971Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 22 Jan. 22/1 False colour photography..does not record gradations of temperatures exactly, and these can be very important. The instrument which does this is the infra-red linescan, which scans the scene line by line like a television scanner, building up a composite picture from the heat records.
1935Television Today I. 300/2 The *line scanning is usually spoken of as the scanning motion. 1971H. E. Ennes Television Broadcasting iii. 125 Picture information is contained in the fundamental and harmonics of the 60-Hz field frequency and the 15,750-Hz line-scanning frequency.
1949Electronics Dec. 68/3 The change of color is introduced between successive lines in the scanning field, that is, the system is in the *line-sequential class. 1965G. du Cloux tr. Holm's Colour Television Explained (ed. 2) iii. 55 The R.C.A. appeared to have arrived at the ultimate solution with a line-sequential, or possibly even a dot-sequential system.
1881Spon's Dict. Engin. Suppl. iii. 1093 For the bearings of *line shafts cast iron is..the best. 1936Line shaft [see jack shaft s.v. Jack n.1 34 a]. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XI. 253/2 In the days when all machines in a shop were driven by one large..prime mover, it was necessary to have long lineshafts running the length of the shop and supplying power..to shorter countershafts, jackshafts, or headshafts.
1872J. Richards Treat. Wood-Working Machines 95 Pulleys for *line-shafting running at high speed should be light and true. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XII. 240/2 The delivery of power to the machines in a shop has generally been converted from line shafting to individual electric motors for each machine.
1961Webster, *Lineside, adjacent to a railway line. 1967Listener 26 Jan. 123/1 This can be prodigiously expensive if it involves disturbance of lineside property. 1975Daily Tel. 18 July 2/8 By next year it is expected that there will be fewer faults in the 547 lineside signals and 465 points controlled by the new box.
1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 551 Two-thirds of each *line-soldier's service is passed abroad.
1951Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IV. 472/2 When it reaches the end, a *line space lever is pushed to move the paper up to a new line and return the carriage to the right. 1962Which? Dec. 357/1 Some of the models..had only two positions for their line space selector, the others all had three.
1957Encycl. Brit. XXII. 645/1 The machine was soon renamed the Remington. Among its original features which were still standard..in the 1950s are the paper cylinder with its *line-spacing and carriage-return mechanism. c1961Imperial Type Faces (Imperial Typewriter Co.), The number of words which can be typed on a quarto page..var[ies] according to the pitch of the letter and line-spacings.
1873Phil. Mag. XLVI. 406 When the gas is near atmospheric pressure, the *line-spectrum of nitrogen is brilliant. 1885[see band n.2 13]. 1923Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics IV. 780/1 Luminous spectra can be divided into two classes, namely continuous spectra..and discontinuous spectra... Discontinuous spectra may be subdivided into line and band spectra. 1955Miller & Nicely in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 165/2 Acoustically, this means that the voiceless consonants are aperiodic or noisy in character, whereas a periodic or line-spectrum component is superimposed on the noise for voiced consonants. 1957[see band n.2 13]. 1962H. D. Bush Atomic & Nucl. Physics iv. 96 There are two main features of a β-particle spectrum, a continuous spectrum with energies ranging from zero to a maximum value..and a line spectrum consisting of a number of discrete energies superimposed on the continuous spectrum. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 254 A sound which is composed of individual frequencies (fundamental and harmonics or partials, or a combination of pure tones) has a line spectrum. Bands of noise have a band spectrum.
1887R. Abercromby Weather 241 This class of atmospheric disturbance, which, for the sake of classification, we will call ‘*Line-squalls’.
1850N. Kingsley Diary (1914) 115 A fine day with a strong West wind; rather think the *line storm is over. 1867Whittier The Palatine 63 Along their foam-white curves of shore They heard the line-storm rave and roar. 1939R. Frost Coll. Poems 38 The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift.
1940W. T. Cocking Television Receiving Equipment xix. 281 When a very large amplitude of *line sync pulse is applied to the line generator it is tripped at half-line intervals during the frame sync pulses. 1969C. R. G. Reed Princ. Colour Television Syst. vi. 71 The line sync pulse duration is 4·7 µs.
1935Television Today I. 300 The time duration of the *line synchronising pulse is usually about 10 per cent. of that of each line. 1953Amos & Birkinshaw Television Engin. I. i. 16 A synchronizing signal is sent out every time the scanning beam at the transmitter reaches the end of a line; this signal is termed the line-sychronizing signal (abbreviated to line-sync signal) and has the function of initiating line flyback at the receiver.
1887R. Abercromby Weather 248 We will now give an example of *line⁓thunderstorms which are not associated with the trough either of a V or a cyclone.
1839Knickerbocker XIII. 382 *Line-tubs, water-kegs, and wafe-poles, were thrown hurriedly into the boats. 1851H. Melville Moby Dick III. xlviii. 287 Reaching out after the revolving line-tubs, oars and other floating furniture.
1464Rolls of Parlt. V. 569/2 A waye on either syde of the seid water called a *lyne weye, to convey the said Trowes, Botes, Cobles and Shutes, on the seid water.
1946Nature 28 Sept. 450/1 Measures of effective *line-width, made..upon the brilliant reversal of the Ηα (λ 6563) contour. 1962Science Survey III. 67 The current reports of the line-width of the radiation produced by the helium-neon optical maser show the line-width is approximately one cycle per second. 1971New Scientist 3 June 565/2 Molecular linewidths are of the order of 10–3 cm–1 at room temperature. 1972Physics Bull. Feb. 83/2 A dye laser tuned to give a sodium linewidth of a hundredth of an ångstrom.
1870F. L. Pope Electr. Tel. iii. (1872) 24 A Telegraphic Circuit consists of one or more batteries, the *line wire, the instruments and the earth.
1895Zangwill Master ii. vii. 205 Cross-hatching, solid black, *line-work.
1904Brit. Printer Apr. 86/2 Line work negatives are printed on to zinc. 1911H. Quick Yellowstone Nights ii. 32 I'm just through with a summer's line⁓work in the West. 1962Times 10 Jan. 13/4 The pen drawing..is admirable..projecting in its free and open linework all the completeness of an oil composition. 1968Gloss. Terms Offset Lithogr. Printing (B.S.I.) 10 Line work, copy or reproduction consisting of solid elements only, as distinct from half-tone.
Add:[I.] [1.] [e.] (iii) As the final element in words denoting telephone services which provide entertainment, counselling, information, etc. of the kind indicated by the first element, as *chat line, *help-line, talkline, etc.
1983Chicago Sun–Times 5 July 15 The Kids' Line will be added by Talkline, an Elk Grove Village-based service that has offered telephone counseling to adults for the past 10 years. 1986Advertising Age 9 Jan. 7 Incredible Dial-A-Message Directory..lists more than 2,500 telephone numbers... There are a few lines that would curl Ma Bell's blue hair. An example is the High Society Sexline. 1990Independent 29 Jan. 8/8 The Wellington Parentline, a telephone advice service, has received 32 calls reporting violence from children towards parents.
Senses 19 b, c, and d in Dict. become c, d, and e. [II.] [7.] [c indigo][f.][/c] For def. read: (Usu. as the line). In various sports and games, a mark limiting an area of play on a court or pitch; spec. a mark that must be crossed in order to score; in a race, a mark on the track (actual or notional) that must be crossed in order to win; in Rugby Football, etc. = line of scrimmage s.v. scrimmage n. 4 c; contextually = bye-line s.v. bye n. 1 c, goal-line s.v. goal n. 6, touch-line n. 3. Also fig. in phr. (taken from American football, but influenced by sense 20 b) to hold the line, to maintain or support a position, viewpoint, etc. (Further examples.)
1892Football Calendar 1892–93 63 Not more than 25 yards behind the goal line, and parallel thereto, shall be lines, which shall be called the Dead-Ball Lines. 1902W. Camp How to play Football Introd. 10 If he elects to continue his running attempts, and eventually carries the ball across the line, he secures a touchdown at the spot where the ball is finally held, after being carried over. 1935Encycl. Sports Pl. 30 (caption) A throw-in from the line. 1965Austral. Encycl. VII. 535/2 Prizes are awarded both for the handicap and for the first yacht across the line. 1976J. Archer Not Penny More xiv. 162 They're neck and neck—one hundred yards to go—it's anybody's race and on the line it's a photo finish. 1978Rugby World Apr. 40/3 They played commendably open and entertaining Rugby, scoring a total of 30 tries and failing on only one occasion to cross their opponents' line. 1987Greyhound Star Sept. 7/5 The other semi went to Rogley Avalong who led from trap to line in 34.49.
[13.] h. U.S. Betting. The odds quoted by a bookmaker, esp. on a non-racing event (cf. morning line s.v. morning n. 9); also, the point-spread predicted in a football game, from which such odds are calculated.
1964Maclean's Mag. 7 Mar. 14/2 A line of ‘Ottawa eight’ for an Ottawa–Edmonton football game means that Ottawa must win by eight points or more or its backers lose. 1976N.Y. Times 15 Dec. a18 He is an amateur oddsmaker and has access to ‘the Las Vegas line’, the gambling underworld's football point spread. 1979Maclean's Mag. 22 Jan. 35 The line, published in many daily newspapers, establishes for bookmakers and bettors across the continent the team favored to win each game and by how many points. 1992Esquire Feb. 63/1 It was his line out of Las Vegas upon which all the bets across the country on college and pro games were based.
[III.] [19.] b. In certain team games, a strategic formation of players in a row, as for a throw-in; spec. in Rugby Football = three-quarter line s.v. three-quarter n. D; in Rugby Union = line-out n.
1891Football News 12 Sept. 1/4 The Newark Committee were very desirous to see the line of forwards opposed to some really good backs. 1896B. F. Robinson Rugby Football xii. 209 Away it flies, fair and true, about half-way down the long line. 1929Daily Express 15 Apr. 16/2 The line never moved with a swing that looked like bringing a goal. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 39/5 Doug Acomb and Frank Hamill scored two goals each as their line turned in one of its best performances of the season. 1976Leicester Mercury 14 Oct. 46/1 When the ball did come down the line it inevitably went to John Reeve. 1991Don Heinrich's Pro Preview 91 28/2 Right tackle Howard..Ballard has come a long way since quarterback Jim Kelly fingered him two years ago as the line's weak link.
f. A dose of a powdered narcotic, esp. cocaine, laid out in a thin line for inhalation. slang.
1971Black Scholar Sept. 36/1 He..rolled a ten dollar bill up into a quill and gave the coke and quill to Christine, who snorted half of the line on the card. 1980Observer 30 Mar. 1/6 Everybody I know takes heroin... Every party I go to has smack available, lines and lines of it. 1988J. McInerney Story of My Life iv. 59 Didi's just bought her stash for the night and she wants to come over. God, I don't know. A couple of lines would be nice, but I've got class in the morning. Ibid. 61 She rolls her own bill, [and] does a couple of monster lines—what Didi calls lines other people call grams. 1990K. Wozencraft Rush iv. 49, I snuffed up the lines and passed the tooter back to him. 1992Guardian 28 Mar. (Weekend Suppl.) 9 Some Krug, a couple of Es, a few lines and, nowadays, it shows. I suppose it's called getting old. I'm 26.
[22.] b. spec. = air-line n. 2.
1920Aerial Year Bk. 261/2 Many commercial lines have been established for carrying passangers. 1935C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 217/1 Where there is competition with other lines on the London–Paris route, this comfort is found to attract custom. 1960C. H. Gibbs-Smith Aeroplane xiii. 99 The world's first daily commercial scheduled air service opened on August 25th [1919]... The line was operated..by..Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd. 1965M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate v. 134 ‘There's a Dutch line from Amman...’ ‘Well, Joanna, there's no record of the name Vaughan on any of the airlines.’ 1977Rolling Stone 30 June 81/1 After a mere forty-minute lay-over we were to connect with that line's nine-hour-plus direct flight to Honolulu.
[IV.] [24.] e. Biol. = *lineage n. 3.
1951G. S. Carter Animal Evolution i. 30 This conception is very different from that generally held a few years ago. A population was then thought of as consisting of many lines or lineages, each evolving more or less independently and replacing each other as the result of natural selection. 1973J. Bronowski Ascent of Man i. 38 Australopithecus robustus is manlike and his line does not lead elsewhere; it has simply become extinct. 1979D. Attenborough Life on Earth (1981) ii. 35 To trace the invertebrate lines back to their origins, we must find another site where rocks were not only deposited continuously throughout this critical period, but have survived in a relatively undistorted condition. 1992Natural Hist. Feb. 70/3 Falk also notes common features in the brain venous sinuses of gracile australopithecines and hominids,..and she constructs the lineage accordingly. A. gracilis led to the hominid line in which brain size increased so dramatically.
[25.] b. spec. A breed or variety of plant or animal universally characterized by a feature or trait whose strength is the criterion for continued selection by breeders. Cf. line-bred adj., line-breeding, sense 32 below.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. xiii. 1103 It would appear that..the most certain method..is to breed in the same line, perhaps in the same family; as, by a careful procedure in this way, the expert breeder may not only have the greatest security for attaining that improvement which he is anxious to produce, but run the least risk of deterioration. 1909R. H. Lock Recent Progress Study Variation, Heredity & Evolution (ed. 2) xi. 318 In a single pure line genetic variability is sensibly absent. The members of such a pure line exhibit, however, very considerable acquired variability, so that in this way each line shows a normal variability of its own. 1974A. Huxley Plant & Planet xiii. 123 Continuously self-pollinated plants of one species in limited habitats may produce such pure-breeding ‘lines’ as to create virtually new species. 1985E. H. Hart German Shepherd Dog iv. 66 It is..not that these lines have disappeared; it is just that they have not been so seriously bred upon as they once had been.
[26.] [d.] (b) The scent that the hounds have of the quarry; esp. in phr. to hit off the line, to pick up the scent after a check.
1898St. James's Gaz. 15 Nov. 6/1 Hounds drove along after their fox in rare style,..the line was worked out to Houghton. 1900Ld. Coventry in A. E. T. Watson Young Sportsman 352 An old hound drops his nose; he shows a line; his companions follow his lead. 1930I. Bell in C. Frederick et al. Fox-Hunting v. 59 They will try hard all day on a poor scent, yet at the first improvement..will quicken on the line. 1930C. Aldin in Ibid. xxvi. 257 The huntsman hits off the line again with hardly a check. 1977Abingdon Herald 17 Mar. 6/6 They were lifted back towards Besselsleigh, hit off the line again, and killed on the plough near the woods. 1991Sports Illustr. 14 Jan. 5/3 The lead hound gives tongue, and the pack takes off, following the line of scent.
h. For def. read: In Golf, the direction of the hole from the position of a player's ball. In Cricket, the direction of flight of the ball from the bowler's hand; freq. in phr. to play (hit, etc.) across the line. (Further examples.)
1961Times 18 Aug. 3/3 At 18 Pullar was bowled by Davidson, playing across the line. 1969Times 25 Aug. 9/2 Harris, eventually, was leg-before, hitting enthusiastically across the line.
[VI.] [32.] line switch Teleph., orig., any switch for connecting a subscriber's line; now, a preselector.
1898Bell & Wilson Pract. Telephony xii. 157 Suppose No. 5 wishes to speak to No. 3, he turns the handle of the *line-switch until the pointer is opposite 3, presses the ringing button, takes the receiver off the hook, and, after finishing conversation, replaces the receiver, which causes the pointer to return automatically to zero. 1909Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin. 1908 XXVII. 509 For the benefit of those not familiar with automatic switchboards, the writer will state that each line terminates in what is generally called a line switch. 1924H. H. Harrison Introd. Strowger Syst. Autom. Telephony i. 26 The preselector or line switch..hunts to find one of ten or more idle group selectors. 1938C. W. Wilman Automatic Telephony (ed. 2) iii. 20 Each subscriber's line is now connected to the wipers of a single-motion, non-numerical selector, known as a lineswitch. 1982G. Langley Telephony's Dict. 115/1 Lineswitch, a switch in a dial office which connects a subscriber's line with the first available idle trunk in the next switching stage.
▸ fig.(to draw) a line in the sand: (to establish) a limit or boundary; (to specify) a level of tolerance or a point beyond which one will not go.
[1950Washington Post 19 Dec. 3/6 He drew a line in the sand with the toe of his boot, and said, ‘It's as though I told you ‘I can punch you in the nose, but you can't reach across that line to hit me back’’.] 1978Washington Post 29 Aug. a7/5 Notwithstanding the supposed public revulsion toward more federal spending, waste and bureaucracy-building, Congress seems to have gone out of its way to draw a wide line in the sand in front of Carter. 1995Village Voice (N.Y.) 7 Mar. 20/2 From an organized-labor point of view, this is the line in the sand, the bottom of the ninth, the sudden death overtime. 1996Scotsman 23 July 15/1 Whenever John Major draws a line in the sand, you can be sure some Eurosceptic bully will come along and kick it in his face. 2001ON 5 Feb. 67/2 Like many other administrators, Hagen has become more willing to draw a line in the sand sooner and threaten troublemakers with expulsion sooner.
▪ III. † line, n.3 Obs.
In quots. lyne; see also lique.
[a. OF. lin, ligne, ling(e.]
Some kind of ship.
[c1394J. Malverne Contn. Higden (Rolls) IX. 91 Franci et Hispani in uno balynger et una lyna sulcantes maria circa ora maritima Angliæ.] c1400T. Walsingham Hist. Angl. (Rolls) II. 135 Duæ grandes galeyæ, et aliud genus ratis quod vocatur ‘lyne’, et una bargia, et septem balingariæ. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxxviii. 514 He made redy for him a shyp, called the Lyne, the whiche wolde go on the see with all maner of wyndes without perell.
▪ IV. [line, n.4
‘a hat-maker's pad’, given in some Dicts. (as an application of line n.1) seems to be a spurious word, due to a misreading of lure n.2
]
▪ V. line, v.1|laɪn|
Forms: 4–7 lyne, 5 lynyn, 7 loyn, 5– line.
[f. line n.1; with primary reference to the frequent use of linen as a lining material for articles of clothing.]
1. trans. To apply a second layer of material (usually different from that of the article ‘lined’) to the inner side of (a garment; in later use, any covering or containing object); to cover on the inside.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 440 In sangwyn and in pers he clad was al Lyned with Taffata and with Sendal. 1432E.E. Wills (1882) 91 A russet gounne lynyt with whythe blanket. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 239 The sleves and brest were cutte, lyned with cloth of golde. 1591Lodge Catharos (1875) 30 Thou buiest a warme gowne against Winter and linest it well. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 575 Then must the inside be lined with boards, to the intent that the beast..make no evasion. 1664Wood Life 5 Dec. (O.H.S.) II. 24 For loyning and lengthning my new yarn stockings, 3d. 1676Wiseman Surg. vi. v. 423 You may use..Tin⁓plates lined with soft Linings to receive the fractured Member. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 28 Aug., The church of the Annunciation is finely lined with marble. 1795Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. IX. 123 An ambassador, whose robes are lined with a scarlet dyed in the blood of Judges. 1820Syd. Smith Mem. (1855) II. 197 Lady Granville is nervous on account of her room being lined with Spitalfields silk. 1829Southey Young Dragon i. v. 8 With amianth he lined the nest, And incombustible asbest. 1845Budd Dis. Liver 147 Abscesses,..lined by a distinct, but very thin membrane. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 339 A mode of lining culinary..articles with enamel.
b. transf. and fig.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lv. iii, Mischief cloth'd in deceit with treason lin'd. 1608Topsell Serpents (1658) 602 Nature hath..lined them [serpents] with a more thick and substantial flesh. 1649Bp. Hall Cases Consc. (1650) 132 How can you escape to be involved in a treason, lined with perjury? 1693Dryden Juvenal vi. (1697) 161 Unless some Antidote..lines with Balsam all the Noble Parts. 1742Young Nt. Th. viii. 503 With modest laughter lining loud applause. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 149 In a few minutes..it is lined with bright, small air bubbles. 1780Cowper Table T. 59 The diadem with mighty projects lined. 1784― Task i. 310 The willow such, And poplar that with silver lines his leaf.
†2. To strengthen by placing something along the side of; to reinforce, fortify. Also fig. Obs.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 7 To lyne and new repayre our Townes of Warre. 1605― Macb. i. iii. 112 He..did lyne the Rebell with hidden helpe And vantage. a1626Bacon Consid. War w. Spain Misc. Wks. (1629) 43 Two Generals,..lined and assisted with Subordinate Commanders of great Experience. a1659Osborn Characters &c. Wks. (1673) 630 Your Resolution is too well lined by Philosophy against the storms of Danger, to admit a Parley with any force but that of Reason. 1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 275 The upper part of the Town, where the Walls were not lined with banks, he thought fit to batter. 1704Harris Lex. Techn., To Line a Work, is to strengthen a Rampart with a firm Wall, or to encompass a Parapet or Moat with good Turf, &c. 1761Churchill Rosciad Poems (1763) I. 45 Receiv'd, with joyful murmurs of applause, Their darling chief, and lin'd his fav'rite cause.
3. To fill (one's purse, pockets, stomach, etc.) with something that may be spoken of as a lining; to cram, stuff.
1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) p. lxi, He had a pautner with purses many folde And surely lined with silver and with golde. 1550Crowley Last Trump. 820 Thou wylt viset no sicke man that cannot lyne thy pursse with golde. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 27 Who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the ayre, on promise of Supply. 1600― A.Y.L. ii. vii. 154 The Iustice, In faire round belly, with good Capon lin'd. 1611― Cymb. ii. iii. 72 What If I do line one of their hands, 'tis Gold Which buyes admittance. 1625Massinger New Way iv. i, I will not fail my lord... Nor I, to line My Christmas coffer. 1663Dryden Wild Gallant i. i. (1725) 97 When I have lined my sides with a good dinner. 1672― Assignation Prol., You come to plays with your own follies lined. 1731W. Bowman Serm. xxix, Tho' such change would line our breeches. 1795J. O'Keeffe Song, ‘Friar of Orders Gray’ ii, With old sack wine I'm lin'd within. 1820Combe Dr. Syntax, Consol. i. (1869) 144 For now I have my purse well lin'd Nor doth a fear assail my mind. 1824Carr Craven Dial. Gloss. 90 Lined, drunk. ‘He's weel lined’. 1866Whittier Maids of Attitash 30 No bridegroom's hand be mine to hold That is not lined with yellow gold.
4. To cover the outside of; to overlay, drape, pad, lit. and fig.; to face (a turf-slope). Obs. exc. Naut., to add a layer of wood to.
1572Gascoigne Hearbes, Councell to Barthol. Withipoll (1575) 152 Theyr smoothed tongues are lyned all with guyle. 1626[see clarichord ⁋]. 1663Wood Life 9 July (O.H.S.) I. 481 The rayles..were loyned in mourning. 1664Power Exp. 481 Philos. i. 5 A fuzzy kinde of substance like little sponges, with which she [Nature] hath lined the soles of her [the fly's] feet. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 67 Slopes..require more Circumspection in the Method of lining them with Turf. 1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 31 Bowsprits made of two trees, are coaked together in the middle, and bolted as masts, and lined to the size. 1796C. Marshall Garden. xviii. (1813) 293 If the bed gets over cool, line it, or cover round with straw.
5. In certain technical senses (chiefly to line up).
a. Bookbinding. To glue on the back of (a book) a paper covering continuous with the lining of the back of the cover.
b. Cabinet-making. To put a moulding round (the top of a piece of furniture).
1880J. W. Zaehnsdorf Bookbinding xix. 85 This class of work is not lined up. The leather is stuck directly upon the book. 1885Crane Bookbinding xv. 118 Before lining the back, the headband should be set. 1889Work 22 June I. 234/1 A small toilet table was being lined up.
6. To serve or be used as a lining for. (Cf. senses 1, 3, and 4.)
1726Swift Bec's Birth-day 8 Nov. 34 Domestic business never mind Till coffee has her stomach lin'd. 1733― On Poetry Wks. 1755 IV. i. 188 Your poem sunk, And sent in quires to line a trunk. 1794Cowper Needless Alarm 15 Wide yawns a gulf beside a ragged thorn; Bricks line the sides, but shivered long ago. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lxxvii. 6 These mortal lullabies of pain May bind a book, may line a box. 1885Law Times Rep. LII. 738/1 Small quantities of gold and silver..became embedded in the bricks lining the furnaces. 1892Speaker 3 Sept. 289/2 Wild rose..falling..down to the daisied grass that lines the ditches. 1895Zangwill Master ii. iv. 167 Caricatures of..sensuous faces lined the walls.
[1.] [a.] Add to def.: spec. in Cookery, to cover the inside of (a dish, tin, or other vessel) with pastry, paper, etc., esp. before baking. (Earlier and later examples.)
1846A. Soyer Gastronomic Regenerator 696 A round-bottomed basin..which line with two thirds of the paste. 1861Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. 854 Having lined a hoop with buttered paper, fill it with the [cake] mixture. 1908F. A. George Vegetarian Cookery v. 56 Butter a pie-dish and line it with half the lentil paste. 1948Good Housek. Cookery Bk. 552 For sponge sandwiches line the bottom of the tins with a round of greaseproof paper. 1978C. Conran Brit. Cooking 195/2 Summer pudding... Take a 1-litre..pudding basin and line it with slices of bread. 1992Food Entertaining Summer 88/3 Line a baking tray with baking parchment (not greaseproof paper) and smooth on the meringue mixture.
▪ VI. line, v.2|laɪn|
Also 4–6 lyne.
[f. line n.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.).
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints v. (Johannes) 478 Þe ȝunge man þan his bov bent syne, and vith his hand þare-vith can lyne. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xcvii. (1495) 663 The flex is..gadred all hole and is thenne lyned. 1872Schele 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.
a1400Burgh Laws cv. (Sc. Stat. I.), Þat þai sall leilly lyne in lenth as braidnes baith foir part and back part of þe land. 1466in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 93 The bordes shalbe lynyd and leyd on hye on the gistes. 1541Aberd. Reg. XVII. (Jam.), The Baillies ordanit the lynaris to pass to the ground of the said tenement, and lyne and marche the same, &c. c1575Balfour's Practicks (1754) 44, I sall lyne landis lellelie betwix parteis. 1655H. Vaughan Silex Scint. 57 A sweet self-privacy in a right soul Out⁓runs the Earth, and lines the utmost pole. 1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 32 As they line or sound for the depth of a River. 1890W. 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. a. (U.S.) To angle with a hook and line. rare.
1833[implied at lining vbl. n.2 5].
b. trans. and intr. To guide or control a boat or canoe from the bank or shore of a stretch of inland water by means of a rope or ropes. N. Amer.
1907J. G. Millais Newfoundland 305 Several times they packed everything for a mile or two, but negotiated most of the worst rapids by ‘lining’ down them. 1912H. Footner New Rivers of North 125 No one has ever descended it alive, but there is a tradition that a party of Iroquois Indians in the ‘company's’ employ once lined a boat up. 1923L. R. Freeman Colorado River 356 The low stage.. gave them room to work below instead of lining from a ledge, eighty feet above the water. 1944T. Onraet Down North ii. 29 The skiff was too heavy for carrying, and to line it down as we had done in the rapids above was impossible. 1969E. W. Morse Fur Trade Canoe Routes i. i. 5 Provided that the shoreline was reasonably free of snags, the canoe was lined (tracked).
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.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 97 All the pictures fairest Linde, are but blacke to Rosalinde. 1618G. Mynshul Ess. Prison 1 My purpose is, with dim water-colours to line me out a heart. 1650Baxter Saints' R. iv. xiii. §1, I have..lined you out the best way that I know for your successful performance. 1677A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 138 Here is a way plainly lined out to cheat the Rats and Mice. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 264 Mr. D...has boldly lined off streets and a market place through the very heart of the moor. 1819Scott 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. 1880G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 197 She had seen them [mountain heights] day after day thinly lined on the dead sky. 1886Milligan Revelation vi. (1887) 231 The picture may not yet be realised in fulness, but every blessing lined in upon its canvas is in principle the believer's now. 1889Anthony'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 out: spec. to delete, obliterate. to line through: to draw a line through (an entry), to cross out.
1530Palsgr. 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. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 100 The Stuff being thus lined is fastned with wedges over the Pit. 1756P. Browne Jamaica 130 It [the land] must be lined out into oblong squares. 1819Shelley Rosalind & Helen 429 Selfish cares with barren plough, Not age, had lined his narrow brow. 1826E. Irving Babylon II. v. 64 The chart was lined off..for tracing upon it the rise, and progress. 1837Dickens Pickw. xiii, This entry was afterwards lined through. 18..― (Ogilvie), He had a healthy colour in his cheeks, and his face, though lined, bore few traces of anxiety. 1867Smyth 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. 1874Thearle Naval Archit. 99 The edges and butts of the plates are lined off. 1892Daily News 26 Jan. 3/1 Every piece of wood [should] be correctly lined before being cut or planed. 1900A. Black in Expositor Sept. 223 The pale wronged face, lined with melancholy resignation. 1963S. Weintraub Private Shaw & Public Shaw iii. 94 G.B.S...both edited and altered the language of the..contract,..boldly lining out large passages and inserting new ones.
6. To read out (a metrical psalm, a hymn) line by line for the congregation to sing. Also to line out.
1853N. D. Gould Ch. Mus. Amer. 47 This custom..of reading, or lining, or, as it was frequently called, ‘deaconing’ the hymn or psalm in the churches. 1885Century 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).
1827J. F. Cooper Prairie I. v. 78, I had lined a beautiful swarm that very day into the hollow of a dead beech. 1833H. Martineau Briery Creek ii. 32 Girls..lining the wild bees to their haunt in the hollow tree. 1879J. Burroughs Locusts & W. 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). Hence U.S. to assign (a person) to (certain work). Also, to aim in a direct line upon an object. to line up (orig. U.S.): to align, arrange, deploy, produce, or make ready (someone or something); also in various slang uses (see quots.).
1796Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 193 The pivots being lined, and the wheeling distances being true. a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 665/1 Peep sight, a form of hind sight for rifles. It has an opening through which the muzzle sight is lined upon the object. 1884Mil. Engineering (ed. 3) I. ii. 75 Too much time must not..be lost in lining the gabion accurately. 1886Philadelphia Times 21 Mar. (Cent.), No actor of American birth and training can be lined to this class of work. 1891Daily News 28 Dec. 3/1 The cast iron frames are lined up in place before the concrete is poured in. 1899Ibid. 29 July 8/7 Blackstaffe..crossed over in front of Howell and lined him. 1902Westm. Gaz. 20 Aug. 8/2 (citing a New York newspaper), I..shall not really feel like myself till I get my coat off and line-up a few trust presidents in front of me for general inspection and drill. 1904‘G. B. Lancaster’ Sons o' Men 41 They were fence-making down at the homestead, and there was no man in the district could line up standards in the same day with Muggins. 1906Forum (N.Y.) Oct. 253 The university president must refuse to be lined up by any clique or party. 1910Chambers's Jrnl. May 282/2 After the conflagration, the smaller débris is collected into heaps and reburned, until the ground is sufficiently cleared to admit of being lined up for planting. 1913G. J. Kneeland Commercialized Prostitution N.Y. 65 She was ‘lined up’ about a year ago by a gang that ‘hangs out’ in a cigar store on East 14th Street. Since then she has been a regular prostitute. 1926J. Black You can't Win xiii. 181 We located a big poker game in a soft spot and decided to line up the players. 1931W. G. McAdoo Crowded Yrs. x. 142, I did not see how Clark could possibly line up two thirds of the..votes. 1932E. Wallace When Gangs came to London viii. 58 You can tell the police all about this... But don't tell more'n the truth, or ever try to line me up by my voice. 1934Wodehouse Right ho, Jeeves ix. 94, I tell you I have everything nicely lined up. 1939Coffee & Cowen Family Portrait ii. i. 74 But I'd lined up a big job here—(adds importantly) with the Romans. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 43 Line up to, to approach, accost a person. 1953E. Taylor Sleeping Beauty x. 175 Don't line up another one [sc. drink] for me. 1958New Statesman 6 Sept. 263/1 Mr. Lim soon called for ‘a united Socialist front’, which would line up his Labour Front party with the right wing against the extreme left. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 270 Sine tones are useful for studying frequency response and for lining up equipment. 1970Language XLVI. 318 All of the sentences have been ‘lined up’ with respect to the end of phonation. 1973G. Greene Honorary Consul i. i. 26 It pays to be a consul... Permission to import a new car... I suppose he's got a general lined up in the capital to buy it.
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. (c) To run in line with; to border upon.
(a)1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 16 Masts that have cheeks differ in this; they line tapering athwartships... The aftsides of top-masts line straight.
(b)1790Bystander 159 This the printers describe by saying a letter does not line well. 1796Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 34 The men as they come up endeavour to line well on the part already formed. 1864Trollope Small House at Allington xv, She struggled to line up to the spirit of her promises and she succeeded. 1887Shearman Football (Badm. Libr.) 316 The forward must always be ready to line up and face one man, and one only. 1888Pall Mall G. 12 June 5/2 Nearly two hundred ‘old students’ lined up to receive the Royalties. 1894Daily News 8 Oct. 2/7 The two old birds and the four cygnets then lined out in battle array. 1897Outing (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)1881Harper's Mag. No. 369. 433/2 Three hundred acres of good fresh land, lining..with the Booker estate.
c. Baseball. To hit a line-drive; to hit (a ball) hard and low. Freq. const. out.
1887Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 26 May 2/6 He smashed the first ball that came over the plate, and lined out a beautiful hit past second base. 1948Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Okla.) 28 Apr., He..lined out to centerfield and walked twice in five trips to the plate. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 25 Sept. 31/3 Bob Robertson lined a double down the rightfield Line. 1972N.Y. Times 4 June v. 2/5 Willie struck out, lined to Carty in left field, popped to second base and walked.
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.1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §248 They having lined the hedges behind them with their reserve. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. v. 115 And Lined the Wood on each side of the Narrow Way with several Companies of Musqueteers. 1740S. Speed in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 393 Their coasts were lined with soldiers on that account. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xliii. (1869) II. 611 The ramparts were lined with trembling spectators. 1809Malkin Gil Blas x. iii. (Rtldg.) 344 The walks well gravelled and lined with orange trees. 1812Ann. Reg., Gen. Hist. 139 The numerous batteries with which it [the shore] is there lined. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. II. 155 At such times the street is lined with listeners. 1835Lytton Rienzi vi. ii, He came into a broad and spacious square lined with palaces. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 580 The thick hedges which on each side overhung the narrow lanes, were lined with musketeers. 1859Jephson Brittany vii. 88 A fine quay lined with shipping. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 8 The Greeks..lined the southern shores of Italy with that fringe of colonies, which [etc.]. 1895Zangwill Master i. x. 112 A cutting in the hill lined with overhanging snow-drifts.
b.1598Barret Theor. Warres 48 At that instant have the shot that line the battell, their time to serve. a1671Ld. Fairfax Mem. (1699) 30 They..had set about five hundred Musketeers to line the hedges about the Town. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4345/3 The Streets were lin'd by the Militia. 1746Hervey Medit. (1818) 126 The violet..condescends to line our edges. 1773–83Hoole Orl. Fur. xxxv. 496 Not feeble years, nor childhood stay'd, but all Alike impatient throng'd to line the wall. 1800Asiatic Ann. Reg., Chron. 55/2 Council-house-street..was lined by the body guard. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 45 Broad landing quays covered with cranes lined the river bank. 1869Boutell Arms & Arm. viii. (1874) 132 The English archers..lined the pass. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 126/2 For some twenty years he annually dispatched ten or twelve vessels to the ports lining the Mediterranean.
c. line out (intr. and trans.), to transplant (seedling trees) from beds into nursery lines, where they are grown on before being moved to their permanent situation.
1931Forestry V. 17 Care in handling between lifting from seed-beds and lining out is of the utmost importance. 1938C. P. Ackers Pract. Brit. Forestry v. 180 Seedlings may be left for 1, 2, or 3 years in the seed-beds: they are then lined out and become transplants. 1957N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Oct. 73/1 Line out, to transplant seedlings from seedbeds to rows in a nursery. This normally takes place after the first or second year in the seedbed; further lining out may take place again in the same or another nursery. 1970H. L. Edlin Collins Guide Tree Planting & Cultivation vi. 90 Trees are always transplanted in the nursery along straight lines, and the work is therefore often called lining-out.
▪ VII. line, v.3|laɪn|
Also 4, 6 lyne.
[ad. F. ligner.]
trans. Of a dog, wolf, etc.: To copulate with, to cover.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxv. (1495) 784 The Yndens teche bytches and leue them in wodes by nyghte for Tygres shold lyne them and gendre wt them. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) I. 57 And scho was lynit with ony of that birth, Sic hundis thai said for hunting ar na worth. 1576Turberv. Venerie ii. 5 From that time they beganne to haue bitches lined by that dogge and so to haue a race of them. 1687Dryden Hind & P. i. 179 These last deduce him from the Helvetian kind, Who near the Leman lake his consort lined. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. I. H iv/1 Mongrels, that come from a Hound-bitch, that has been lin'd by a Dog of another Kind. 1889Mivart On Truth 379 Analogous effects are often produced when a thorough-bred bitch has been once lined by a mongrel. |