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Fathom   /fˈæðəm/   Listen
verb
Fathom  v. t.  (past & past part. fathomed; pres. part. fathoming)  
1.
To encompass with the arms extended or encircling; to measure by throwing the arms about; to span. (Obs.)
2.
To measure by a sounding line; especially, to sound the depth of; to penetrate, measure, and comprehend; to get to the bottom of. "The page of life that was spread out before me seemed dull and commonplace, only because I had not fathomed its deeper import."



noun
Fathom  n.  
1.
A measure of length, containing six feet; the space to which a man can extend his arms; used chiefly in measuring cables, cordage, and the depth of navigable water by soundings.
2.
The measure or extant of one's capacity; depth, as of intellect; profundity; reach; penetration. (R.) "Another of his fathom they have none To lead their business."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fathom" Quotes from Famous Books



... mamma, in the year 1692: it is a most dreadful account. In two minutes' time, the town of Port Royal was destroyed, and the houses sunk in a gulph forty fathoms deep. In every fathom, there are six feet, you know, mamma; so, if we multiply forty by six, we shall find that these poor creatures were instantly buried, with their houses, to the depth of two hundred and forty feet under ground. In other ...
— Domestic pleasures - or, the happy fire-side • F. B. Vaux

... Thou wouldst fathom Life and Being, Thou wouldst see through Birth and Death, Thou wouldst solve the eternal riddle— Thou a speck, a ray, a breath, Thou wouldst look at stars and systems, As if thou couldst understand All the harmonies of Nature, Struck ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deductions appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man's inmost thoughts. Deceit, according to him, was an impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to ...
— A Study In Scarlet • Arthur Conan Doyle

... a bull-dog. As the struggling fish splashed on the surface the groper, abandoning its illegitimate prey, swerved swiftly downwards. The retreat was a second too late, for Tom had seized the, harpoon lying athwart the boat, and though the fish appeared through a fathom and a half of water, a vague, fleeting, contorted shadow, he reached it. The barbed point passed through it, carrying a foot or two of the line, and a 30-pounder was added to our catch at one stroke and without a tremor of excitement on ...
— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield

... $15,000,000,000. But the economic value of the lives destroyed represents only a small fraction of their potentiality—socially, morally, and spiritually. No human brain can calculate, no heart can fathom the cost or loss of this ...
— With Our Soldiers in France • Sherwood Eddy


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