Line
(Line), n. [OE. line, AS. line cable, hawser, prob. from L. linea a linen thread, string, line, fr.
linum flax, thread, linen, cable; but the English word was influenced by F. ligne line, from the same L.
word linea. See Linen.]
1. A linen thread or string; a slender, strong cord; also, a cord of any thickness; a rope; a hawser; as, a
fishing line; a line for snaring birds; a clothesline; a towline.
Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls.
Piers Plowman. 2. A more or less threadlike mark of pen, pencil, or graver; any long mark; as, a chalk line.
3. The course followed by anything in motion; hence, a road or route; as, the arrow descended in a curved
line; the place is remote from lines of travel.
4. Direction; as, the line of sight or vision.
5. A row of letters, words, etc., written or printed; esp., a row of words extending across a page or column.
6. A short letter; a note; as, a line from a friend.
7. (Poet.) A verse, or the words which form a certain number of feet, according to the measure.
In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa.
Broome. 8. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or policy; method of argument; department of industry, trade,
or intellectual activity.
He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is not the line of a first-rate man.
Coleridge. 9. (Math.) That which has length, but not breadth or thickness.
10. The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory; boundary; contour; outline.
Eden stretched her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia.
Milton. 11. A threadlike crease marking the face or the hand; hence, characteristic mark.
Though on his brow were graven lines austere.
Byron.
He tipples palmistry, and dines
On all her fortune-telling lines.
Cleveland.
