Fathom or Fadom (the latter the more usual orthography) subst. 1) a measure of length containing six feet, used to measure deeps: “f. and half,” Lr. III, 4, 37. Unchanged in the plur.: Tp. I, 2, 396. As IV, 1, 210. All's IV, 1, 63. Wint. IV, 4, 281. H8 II, 1, 51. Rom. I, 4, 85. Lr. IV, 6, 50. Plur. “--s:” Tp. V, 55. Troil. I, 1, 50. Hml. I, 4, 77.
2) depth: “for all . . . the profound sea hides in unknown --s,” Wint. IV, 4, 502.
3) reach, penetration (in the language of the seaman Iago): “another of his f. they have none,” Oth. I, 1, 153.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
hide
Dictionary Entry Lookup
Use this tool to search for dictionary entries in all lexica.
