Fathom

Quick meaning: Fathom is a noun meaning (nautical, US) A measure of distance to shore: the nearest point to shore at which the water depth is the value quoted.

Meaning

(nautical, US) A measure of distance to shore: the nearest point to shore at which the water depth is the value quoted.

More Meanings

1. An unspecified depth.
2. Depth of insight; mental reach or scope.
3. The act of stretching out one's arms away from the sides of the torso so that they make a straight line perpendicular to the body.
4. Someone or something that is embraced.
5. Control, grasp.
6. To measure the depth of (water); to take a sounding of; to sound.
7. (chiefly nautical, historical, US) A man's armspan, generally reckoned to be six feet (about 1.8 metres). Later used to measure the depth of water, but now generally replaced by the metre outside American usage.

Example Sentences

At fifty fathoms, the waters of the Southern Ocean are dark blue.

Another of his fathome they haue not / To leade their buſineſſe, […]

After we'd rowed for an hour, we found ourselves stranded ten fathoms from shore.

So; novv knovv I vvhere I am, me thinkes already / I graſpe beſt part of the Autumnian bleſſing / In my contentious fadome, […]

Word Forms

• fathoms
• fathoming
• fathomed

Synonyms for fathom

Depending on context, synonyms include stade, toise, brace, braza, estadio, bottom.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include penetrate, bottom, grasp, apprehend, unravel, untangle.

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